Access TFS TeamProjectCollection from build step with PowerShell

Question

I'm trying to create a pre-build step with powershell in one of our team projects to increment the build number for all assemblies/applications within that VS solution. This is for TFS2015-update 2.

I found some example code here and there online and have pieced together what I imagine would work. I can run the powershell script manually on the TFS server (authenticated to the server as my windows account) and it works fine, but yet it won't function correctly within the build process.

Here is the sample code in question where I keep getting my error. It has to do with authentication/connection to the TFS server:

$CollectionUrl=New-Object System.Uri("$env:SYSTEM_TEAMFOUNDATIONCOLLECTIONURI")
$BuildUrl="$env:BUILD_BUILDURI"

# get the team project collection
$TeamProjectCollection=[Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.TfsTeamProjectCollectionFactory]::GetTeamProjectCollection($CollectionUrl)
# get the build server
$BuildServer=$TeamProjectCollection.GetService([Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Client.IBuildServer])

# get the build detail
$BuildDetail=$BuildServer.GetBuild($BuildUrl)

# get the build definition
$BuildDefinition=$BuildDetail.BuildDefinition

There error I am getting is:

Exception calling "GetService" with "1" argument(s): "TF30063: You are not authorized to access http://servername/TPCName

I have tried using both the call above to get the TPC, and the constructer for it and neither works.

$TeamProjectCollection=New-Object Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.TfsTeamProjectCollection($CollectionUrl)

So I started trying to build a credential object based on my login credentials to the server and see if I could connect to the TPC that way. Still doesn't work (on server or in build process), but different error:

$netCred = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential($username,$password)
$basicCred = New-Object Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.BasicAuthCredential($netCred)
$tfsCred = New-Object Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.TfsClientCredentials($basicCred)

# get the team project collection
$TeamProjectCollection=New-Object Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.TfsTeamProjectCollection($CollectionUrl, $tfsCred)

Throws the exception:

Exception calling "GetService" with "1" argument(s): "TF400324: Team Foundation services are not available from the server.

I have also tried my best at modifying TFS permissions for the windows account that TFS service runs as to make sure there were no issues there. I'm fairly certain I added it to all roles/groups that my identity was in, but still the build wouldn't authenticate.

I'm at a loss at this point. Can someone help me figure out how to connect to the TFS server correctly using defined credentials, or help me adjust what permissions the service account, identity, configuration choices, etc; needed to access the teamProjectCollection.

Answer 1

You need to specifically instruct TFS/VSTS to allow the executing build to call back to TFS/VSTS. This protects your server for malicious developers exiting build scripts.

You should see an "enable Auth" option in the Options Tab of your Build.

**note: You should use the Task SDK provided: https://github.com/Microsoft/vsts-task-lib