BRDLite 1.0 Hands-on Lab – Glitches which are not for the faint hearted :)

The BRDLite reference template shipped as part of Visual Studio Build Customization Guidance and we recently made available a hotfixCLIPART_OF_27309_SMJPG (BRDLite Build Reference Template – Hotfix 1 has been posted) .

As part of ongoing testing and feedback from in-the-trench usage we have stumbled across a few more gremlins in the hands-on lab (HOL) manual and BRDLite reference template, which we would like to highlight herein and address in the next hotfix.

What has become apparent is that mingling in the world of the Team Foundation Build is still not for the faint hearted, as spaces in names, spelling mistakes in variables or arguments and incorrectly configured builds can often lead to interesting build log files, that contain warnings and errors that require many coffees and patience to analyse, isolate and resolve.

This blog post is based on v 1.0, 2011-07-01, of the hands-on lab manual.

#1 – HOL: User Rights… what is the bare minimum?

Exercise 6, p61, step 7, talks about modifying the Application Pool identity under the Process section to use a Custom Account. It does, however, not specify the access rights that the user requires. We are investigating the minimum rights needed … in the meantime work with the Admin user.
BRDLite_HOL_4

#2 – HOL & Template: DO NOT use Deploy Arguments & Feature

Exercise 6, p66, step 6, tells you to define False for the [Deploy] option.
BRDLite_HOL_5

We are going to remove the [Deploy] arguments as this feature has been retired and must NOT be enabled, especially not when using the [Web Deploy] features.

#3 – HOL: Misleading Figure Caption

Exercise 6, p67, has two illustrations with misleading captions. <-- 1 should be “Deploy Script: Invoked with the /T option” and <-- 2 should be “Deploy Script: Invoked with the /Y option”.
BRDLite_HOL_3

#4 – HOL: Command Line Syntax Error

Exercise 8, p73, step 2 contains a syntax glitch that could frustrate you for a while. In the highlighted argument TailspinCertificate the .cer suffix is missing. Note that the certmgr command in step 3 and the illustration are showing correct values.

BRDLite_HOL_6

#5 – HOL: Re-creating what has already been created … huh?

When you get to exercise 10, which is the “Extending the Template” exercise, the HOL currently asks you to create variables, assignments and @@ which already exist in the reference template. Three steps which are affected are:

  1. p84, step 11
    BRDLite_HOL_7
  2. p85, step 15
    BRDLite_HOL_8
  3. p87, step 18.b
    BRDLite_HOL_9

We will be updating the reference template and/or the HOL to resolve the fifth gremlin as above.

If you are coming to TechReady 13 (Internal Microsoft event) bring your build stories and gremlins to the ChalkTalk “DEVCT302 - Rangers Build Customization Guidance and BRDLite Reference Template”, whereby we will probably blog about the session and discussed topics in 2-3 weeks.
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