TfsDeleteProject.exe thwarted by Windows SharePoint Services permissions

The other day I was cleaning up one of my Hyper-V machines. I had let Jim use it for a project creation test and since he was done, I wanted to whack that TF project to regain some space. So, I fired off this command, like you would…

TfsDeleteProject /server:https://TREVORH-WSTFS08:8081 "JimSau Project"

Failure…

TF30063: You are not authorized to access trevorh-wstfs08.8081

Interesting, considering I am a machine admin, TFS admin, and more on the machine. My assumption was I had deity-like powers on the box and this was just the result of a typo. A quick check later though and I found that it was not a typo, but a valid error.

I won’t go into the gory details on this, since there are quite a few forum and BLOG posts about it already. I will say that in my case the problem was lack of rights in WSS to the project portal I was trying to delete. I will also say that I found the feedback from TfsDeleteProject to be insufficient, and have entered a bug against it for Dev 10 – asking that it provide more feedback on the exact permissions failure. So a word to the wise on this: if you encounter this error, or one like it, when trying to use TfsDeleteProject to delete a Team Project, make sure you have sufficient privileges in all the areas which comprise it: SQL RS, WSS, and TFS.

-Trev