17 Mar 2018

Adding VSTS-Users to VSTS-Tools Samples

API, Azure DevOps
It’s been about two years since I originally created the VSTS-Tools project on GitHub. The original release had two command-line tools included with it:VSTS-Get – CLI to download a single file or entire folder tree from VSTS (only Git is supported at this time). VSTS-Keep – CLI to set (or remove) the “Retain Indefinitely” retention flag for a given build. Not only were the tools meant to be somewhat useful (I used them then and still use them today) but they were also meant to act as yet another set of examples on how you might make use of the…
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12 Mar 2018

PSA: New MSAs Can’t Use Org. E-mail Addresses

Tips, VSTS
I just finished the post, Get a List of VSTS Users with APIs, which was inspired by some work I’ve been doing to prepare for migrating my organization’s VSTS accounts to be backed by Azure Active Directory (AAD). The reason we are doing this now is a) because we’ve waited way too long to do it and, b) because Microsoft has now imposed a deadline of March 30th when it will no longer allow Microsoft Accounts (MSAs) to be created with an e-mail address that is also an organizational ID (e.g. a Azure/Office 365 account).Straight from Justin Marks’ announcement:On September…
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12 Mar 2018

Get a List of VSTS Users with APIs

API, VSTS
So, I’ve recently been preparing to switch our organization’s VSTS accounts over to be backed by Azure Active Directory and I have a need to export a list of all VSTS users within our accounts. After getting some assistance from the Visual Studio product group (thanks!) I was able to make use of the Member Entitlement Management API for VSTS. Since it’s been a while since I’ve done a VSTS API post I thought I’d share how to get a list of VSTS users (and other related information) using this API.PostmanPreviously, I’ve used Fiddler to quickly test API calls. In…
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06 Mar 2018

Change Image Size in VSTS Wiki

Azure DevOps
I came across this on a mail list a short while ago and thought I would share it out…If you’ve been making use of the Wiki feature within VSTS then you already know how useful it is for providing documentation, notes, etc. in a centralized location for your VSTS projects. If you haven’t tried the Wiki feature out yet, you really should!The Wiki utilizes markdown syntax to provide you with some basic text formatting features such as bold, italics, underline, bullets, numbered lists, etc. It also provides some basic syntax for visualizing images. For example, the following is markdown syntax…
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27 Jan 2018

Roadmap to Enterprise Quality

Conferences, Quality
For the past few years I have attended the Farm Credit IT Symposium. This years’ symposium was held last week in Austin, TX where I had a chance to present on a couple of topics. One of my talks was titled Roadmap to Enterprise Quality. The description for the presentation is as follows:In this presentation you will learn how Farm Credit Services of America/Frontier Farm Credit transformed their quality practices and tooling to bring visibility and consistency to Enterprise Quality, including: testing as a team approach, creating an automated test architecture, measuring progress with dashboards and standardizing on a set…
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15 Nov 2017

Connect(); 2017 – Day 1 Recap

Azure DevOps, Conferences, TFS, Visual Studio 2017, Visual Studio Code
Day 1Day 1 of Connect(); 2017 is in the books! If you didn’t get a chance to watch the live streaming event earlier today you can catch up on the various presentations and announcements here.There was a lot of exciting announcements made at Connect(); today. While I have no doubt missed several of them I have made an attempt to include most of the highlights below. If your favorite announcement isn’t in the list, please include it in the comments section below so we can all learn about it!Come back to the same location tomorrow at 11:00 AM EST to…
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09 Oct 2017

Microsoft Connect(); Year Four!

Conferences
In case you missed the announcement a few days ago, Microsoft has announced it will be holding it’s fourth Connect(); conference on November 15th – 17th, next month.If you build applications using Microsoft tools and/or any of the open source projects that Microsoft is involved with then you will definitely want to check out this free, on-line event!From the event’s web site:Whether you are creating cloud native-applications, targeting the edge of devices and IoT, infusing your apps with AI, or just getting started, Connect(); 2017 will inspire and equip you with the tools and skills you need to build the…
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09 Sep 2017

Docker on Windows Server 2016 – Azure Container Registry

Docker, Prose
This is the 4th post in the Docker on Windows Server 2016 series. Refer back to the initial post for links to all posts in the series.We Gotta Store the Images Somewhere!In the second post of this series I mentioned that I was still working to get my Azure credentials cleaned up so I could create an Azure Container Registry (ACR) to act as an image repository until I can make use of a local image repository (on Windows Server 2016). We almost have our enterprise agreement straightened out, which will let me get my Azure benefits in order, but…
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07 Sep 2017

Installing the Cloud Load Test Agent On-Premises

Azure DevOps, Performance Testing
In the first post of this series on Cloud Load Testing with Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) I showed you how to quickly get a cloud load test up and running. In the post we created a test than ran within the cloud and not on-premises. If you have a desire or need to run your cloud load tests using an on-premises test agent, the agents are very easy to setup and configure.If you don’t want to read each of the required steps for installing the agent, there are only a few, I have created a video that will walk…
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26 Aug 2017

Docker on Windows Server 2016 – Who Supports It?

Docker, Prose
This is the 3rd post in the Docker on Windows Server 2016 series. Refer back to the initial post for links to all posts in the series.Microsoft or Docker… Which Is It?So, not a lot has changed since my last post in this series. I’m still having issues getting my MSDN benefits straightened out because of how I’m currently configured for the Enterprise Agreement (EA) we have with Microsoft. Turns out that there might be some configuration issues with our EA so, once that’s straightened out, I should be really close to being able to make use of my company-sponsored…
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