Managing Team Foundation Server in a Workgroup

Managing Team Foundation Server in a workgroup environment is possible but can present some challenges. Active Directory environments are recommended for most Team Foundation Server deployments. If Team Foundation Server is to be deployed in a workgroup, it should only be deployed in workgroups with a very limited number of users and computers. 

Although deploying Team Foundation Server in a workgroup means less overhead in terms of general network administrator duties, it can be problematic for Team Foundation Server administration. Local accounts must be created in Team Foundation Server for each user requiring access to Team Foundation Server and its resources. Therefore for any other than very small workgroups, the account management required for workgroups can become prohibitive.

Team Foundation Clients and Team Foundation Server in Workgroups

Local user accounts must be created on the Team Foundation server for all users requiring access to the server. Local user accounts must be added to Team Foundation Server server-level and project-level groups so that the users are authorized on the Team Foundation server. When connecting from a Team Foundation client, such as Team Explorer, in the workgroup, the client user account credentials must match those of the server, or the user will be prompted for a user name and password for an account on the Team Foundation Server.

Team Foundation Clients in a Domain and Team Foundation Server in a Workgroup

Local user accounts must be created on the Team Foundation server for all users requiring access to the server. In order to avoid users having to type a user name and password every time that a Team Foundation client must connect to Team Foundation Server, these local user accounts should use the same user name and password as the domain user names. For example, if the Team Foundation client user's domain credentials are domainname\user1 and the local user account on the Team Foundation Server is servername\user1 with same password, the user will not be prompted for credentials when connecting to Team Foundation Server. If they do not match, the user will be prompted for alternative credentials for Team Foundation Server that must match a local user account on that computer.

Team Foundation Clients in a Workgroup and Team Foundation Server in a Domain

Team Foundation Build must be deployed in the Team Foundation server's domain. Local user accounts must be created on the Team Foundation client computers. In order to avoid users having to type a user name and password every time that a Team Foundation client must connect to Team Foundation Server, these local user accounts must be recreated on Team Foundation Server as local accounts, using the user name and password. For example, if the Team Foundation client user's local computer credentials are computername\user1 and the local user account on the Team Foundation Server is servername\user1 with same password, the user is not prompted for credentials when connecting to Team Foundation Server. If they do not match, the user is prompted for alternative credentials for Team Foundation Server that must match a domain account on that computer.

See Also

Concepts

Trusts and Forests Considerations for Team Foundation Server

Other Resources

Managing Team Foundation Server in an Active Directory Domain
Managing Team Foundation Server