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Deployment Options
Companies can take advantage of the inherent flexibility and scalability of Team Foundation Server to support
development teams of all sizes. For example, Team Foundation Server can be deployed on a desktop system, on a single
server, or in a two-tier configuration. Regardless of which approach is used, Team Foundation Server requires an operating
system and a database, each of which have their own licensing implications.
Multi-Server (Two-Tier) Deployment
You can deploy Team Foundation Server 2017 in a two-tier configuration, where one tier hosts Team Foundation Server
and the other tier hosts the SQL Server back-end. As outlined above, the operating system for each tier must be licensed
separately, and one instance of SQL Server 2016 Standard can be deployed for each license of Team Foundation Server
that you acquire.
Example: An organization deploys Team Foundation Server 2017 to one server running Windows Server 2016 Enterprise,
and the corresponding SQL Server 2016 Standard database on a separate instance of Windows Server 2016 Enterprise.
In this case, only one Team Foundation Server 2017 server license is in use (comprising the Team Foundation Server
and the SQL Server data tier collectively), but licenses for both Windows Server 2016 Enterprise servers are required.
Team Foundation Server Client Access Licenses may be needed.
When deployed in a two-tier environment, you can increase reliability by maintaining a second application-tier server in a
warm or cold standby mode. In warm standby mode, the failover machine is running but a system administrator manually
activates the failover functionality. In a cold standby setup, the failover system is usually off until an administrator turns it
on and activates its failover functionality. Organizations considering warm or cold standby scenarios may want to consider
a load-balanced application tier instead, with both servers in an active role by default.
You can increase the availability of Team Foundation Server in a two-tier configuration by using SQL Server clustering on
the data tier—in this case comprised of two servers. Supported in SQL Server 2016 Standard and higher, clustering
provides high availability by combining several physical SQL Server instances into one virtual instance. In a clustered, two-
server data tier configuration, Windows Server and SQL Server 2016 licenses are required for each server but no additional
Team Foundation Server CALs are required. Each server in the cluster running SQL Server 2016 Standard counts as a
separate instance of SQL Server, so you need to have enough Team Foundation Server 2017 licenses to cover the number
of instances, or acquire licenses for SQL Server separately.
Team Foundation Build Services
Build automation functionality in Team Foundation Server enables the software to run automated builds on the same
server or a separate system, along with the ability to run quality or performance tests as part of the build process.
Implementing a “build server” is accomplished using the build agent which is included with Team Foundation Server 2017.
The build server can be separate from the server running Team Foundation Server, and no Team Foundation Server CAL or
server license is required for the build server.
Lab Management Licensing
Microsoft’s Visual Studio Lab Management solution extends the existing Visual Studio Application Lifecycle Management
platform with integrated Hyper-V based virtual machine management. Lab Management automates complex build-
deploy-test workflows to optimize the build process, decrease risk and accelerate time to market. It helps reduce