TFS 2010 to 2018 migration to new hardware and domain

Question

As part of a server move, we'll be transferring our TFS and its SQL back-end. Can someone tell me if this is possible, and if so, what order we should be doing the migration vs upgrade? Would it be best to do the upgrade in-place before moving hardware/domain? Are there any particular pitfalls I should be wary of?

Details:

• Moving TFS2010 to TFS2018 (potentially via 2013.5)
• Moving SQL Server 2008 R2 to 2017
• All moves will be done to new hardware on a new domain
• Build and work item compatibility is not a concern, as we use TFS only for version control

Answer 1

Direct upgrade to Team Foundation Server 2018 Update 2 is supported from TFS 2012 and newer. If your TFS deployment is on TFS 2010 or earlier, you will need to perform some interim steps before upgrading to TFS 2018 Update 2. Please see the chart below for more information.

Can someone tell me if this is possible, and if so, what order we should be doing the migration vs upgrade?

Yes. You can upgrade from TFS 2010 to TFS 2018. But you have to upgrade to TFS 2012 and newer, then upgrade to TFS 2018. You could refer to the link below:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/vsts/tfs-server/upgrade/tfs-2005-to-2015?view=tfs-2015&viewFallbackFrom=tfs-2018

And, changing the hardware is a restoration-based move, and you should never combine the two move types. First complete the hardware move, and then change the environment: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/vsts/tfs-server/admin/move-across-domains?view=tfs-2015v

Would it be best to do the upgrade in-place before moving hardware/domain?

You could do in place upgrade, or move to new hardware. If you're upgrading in place, consider doing a dry run of your upgrade in a pre-production environment, and make sure the system environment is meet.

Are there any particular pitfalls I should be wary of?

Before upgrade, you can read this article first, and be sure you have full backup of your database.