Upgrading TFS–Don’t change the language of your TFS deployment during upgrade

I helped a customer upgrading their existing TFS 2010 environment to TFS 2015. Where the old version of TFS was using the English bits, for the 2015 installation they provided me the Italian installation media.

When I started the configuration process to trigger the upgrade, the installation wizard gave the following warning:

OK, it’s just a warning I thought, what harm could be done? So I clicked on the checkbox next to “I have read the above warning and would like to continue anyway”?

Turns out, that this was not one of my brightest ideas. A few hours into the upgrade process, a failure popped up;

[Info   @19:00:17.421] Executing step: 'Add Process Templates' ConfigurationProcess.AddProcessTemplates (716 of 765)

[Info   @19:00:17.439] Loading process template: Deploy\ProcessTemplateManagerFiles\1033\MsfAgile\Metadata.xml

[Error  @19:00:17.476] Value cannot be null.

Parameter name: input

[Info   @19:00:17.509] System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.

Parameter name: input

   at System.Xml.XmlReaderSettings.CreateReader(Stream input, Uri baseUri, String baseUriString, XmlParserContext inputContext)

   at System.Xml.XmlReader.Create(Stream input, XmlReaderSettings settings, String baseUri)

   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Admin.Deploy.Application.ProcessStepPerformer.ProcessTemplateMetadata..ctor(Stream metadataResourceStream, AddProcessTemplateStepData template)

   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Admin.Deploy.Application.ProcessStepPerformer.ProcessTemplateMetadata.GetMetadata(IVssRequestContext requestContext, ServicingContext servicingContext, AddProcessTemplateStepData template)

   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Admin.Deploy.Application.ProcessStepPerformer.AddProcessTemplates(IVssRequestContext targetRequestContext, ServicingContext servicingContext, AddProcessTemplatesStepData stepData)

   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server.TeamFoundationStepPerformerBase.PerformHostStep(String servicingOperation, ServicingOperationTarget target, IServicingStep servicingStep, String stepData, ServicingContext servicingContext)

   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server.TeamFoundationStepPerformerBase.PerformStep(String servicingOperation, ServicingOperationTarget target, String stepType, String stepData, ServicingContext servicingContext)

   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server.ServicingStepDriver.PerformServicingStep(ServicingStep step, ServicingContext servicingContext, ServicingStepGroup group, ServicingOperation servicingOperation, Int32 stepNumber, Int32 totalSteps)

[Info   @19:00:17.509] [2016-07-14 17:00:17Z] Passaggio del servizio 'Add Process Templates' non riuscito. (Operazione del servizio: 'ToDev14M95Deployment'; Gruppo di passaggi: 'UpgradeProcessTemplates')

[Info   @19:00:17.509] [StepDuration] 0,0883791

[Info   @19:00:17.510] [GroupDuration] 0,0900522

[Info   @19:00:17.510] [OperationDuration] 0,252088

[Info   @19:00:17.510] Clearing dictionary, removing all items.

[Error  @19:00:17.511]

Messaggio eccezione: TF400711: errore durante l'esecuzione del passaggio del servizio 'Add Process Templates' per il componente UpgradeProcessTemplates durante ToDev14M95Deployment: Value cannot be null.

Parameter name: input (tipo TeamFoundationServicingException)

Traccia dello stack eccezione:    at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server.ServicingContext.FinishStep(Exception exception)

   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server.ServicingStepDriver.PerformServicingStep(ServicingStep step, ServicingContext servicingContext, ServicingStepGroup group, ServicingOperation servicingOperation, Int32 stepNumber, Int32 totalSteps)

   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server.ServicingStepDriver.PerformOperations(Int32 stepsToPerform)

   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server.ServicingStepDriver.Execute(Int32 numberOfStepsToPerform)

   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Admin.UpgradeConfigDbDriver.Execute()

   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Admin.ConfigureUpgradeConfigDB.Run(ActivityContext context)

I had no clear indication if this issue was caused by the language change, but the fact that I had to click a checkbox had made me suspicious.

So I asked to download the English installation media, restored the backup and restarted the upgrade process. This time the process completed without any errors.

Lesson learned; don’t ignore warnings…