Visual Studio ALM VM 2015 Update 2

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I am happy to announce the availability of ALM VM 2015 Update 2!

The VM and the accompanying hands-on-labs are now updated to Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server 2015 Update 2. Please see below for the instructions on how to download the virtual machine and the hands-on-labs/demo scripts.

If you are downloading the VM, please see the note at the end of this post

For those who prefer not to download the virtual machine, the hands-on-labs are available on TechNet Virtual Labs  - Select the lab ID from the table below to launch the VM simply from your preferred browser!

Updated Hands-on-Labs for Visual Studio ALMVM 2015:

Download Links Virtual Labs
Working with the Visual Studio 2015 ALM Virtual Machine System Requirements
Agile Planning and Portfolio Management with Team Foundation Server 2015 21200
Authoring and Running Manual Tests using Microsoft Test Manager 2015 21204
Branching and Merging Visualization with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2015 21205
Building the Right Software - Generating Storyboards and Collecting Stakeholder Feedback 21206
Code Discovery using the Architecture Tools in Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 21207
Collaboration Experiences for Development Teams using Team Foundation Server 2015 21203
Debugging with IntelliTrace using Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 21208
Diagnosing Issues in Production with IntelliTrace and Visual Studio 2015 21209
Embracing Continuous Delivery with Release Management for Visual Studio 2015 21202
Exploratory Testing using Microsoft Test Manager 2015 21210
Getting Started with Git using Team Foundation Server 2015 21201
Introduction to Coded UI Tests with Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 21211
Introduction to IntelliTest with Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 21199
Introduction to Platform Testing with Microsoft Test Manager 2015 21247
Introduction to PreEmptive Analytics 21249
Introduction to SmartOffice4TFS 21250
Introduction to Team Foundation Build 2015 21198
Introduction to Test Case Management with Microsoft Test Manager 2015 21212
Introduction to Test Planning with Microsoft Test Manager 2015 21213
Introduction to Web Performance and Load Testing with Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 21214
Making Developers More Productive with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2015 21215
Managing Technical Debt with Team Foundation Server 2015 and SonarQube 21251
Testing and Debugging SharePoint Applications with Visual Studio 2015 21216
Unit Testing, Code Coverage and Code Clone Analysis with Visual Studio 2015 21217
Using Code Analysis with Visual Studio 2015 to Improve Code Quality 21218

 
This virtual machine is configured with:

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Evaluation
  • Microsoft Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 Update 2
  • Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2015 Update 2
  • Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013 (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook)
  • Microsoft Visio Professional 2013
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Standard
  • Sample users and data required to support hands-on-lab scripts accompanying the download

Using the virtual machine

There are quite a number of important instructions on how to use the VM including activating the VM, taking snapshots/check points, etc... documented in the “Working with the Visual Studio2015 ALM Virtual Machine.docx“.  Please read through the document prior to using the VM, even if you may have used the earlier version of the VM. Please also see the note below at the end of the post

The VM has about 15 GB of free hard disk space. Should you want to increase the size of the disk you will need to do so before creating snapshots/check points. You can refer this article on TechNet for instructions on expanding the virtual hard disk.

Download the virtual machine

The size of the download is about 30 GB. It is recommended that you use Free download manager

This utility provides:

  •  Auto-resume support for interrupted downloads.
  •  Multiple simultaneous download streams for (usually) a much faster download experience.
  • As the name implies, it’s completely free.

Steps to download and extract the VM

  1. Download and install Free download manager if you currently do not have one installed - We strongly recommend to download FDM V3 as the latest version does not support batch downloads at this point of time.
    fdmv3
  2. Download the ALMVM 2015 Update 2 URL.txt to your machine
  3. Select File-Import-Import list of downloads
  4. Specify a group or accept the default group to begin downloading
  5. When the download is complete, double-click the .exe file to self-extract the RAR files to a folder
  6. Read the “Working with the …” document to start using the VM

 

Note that when you try to import the VM in Hyper-V, you will hit an error that the 2012R2Eval.vhd does not exist in the WMIv2 folder. The VHD file is in the WMIV1\Virtual Hard Disks folder. Select the Use virtual hard disk option at the Connect Storage step and point to the VHD file in this folder. This is a known issue that we are working on.