Professional Team Foundation Server

Chapter 4. Setting Up Security

Security. It seems like no matter which way you turn in the IT world today, you run into that word. And for good reason. As our world becomes more and more connected, security becomes even more important. Team Foundation Server was built with security in mind, with the idea that the server be easy to secure yet also easy to manage.

To really understand how to secure Team Foundation Server, you need to look at three different categories. First, you need to examine the environment in which the Team Foundation Servers are deployed. Next, you need to look at how users to Team Foundation Server are authenticated. Finally, you need to understand how users are authorized to perform specific actions using Team Foundation Server. Most of this chapter covers authorization, but let's touch on the other two points briefly.

In your environment, you want to make sure that your clients can talk to the Team Foundation Server application tier, that the Team Foundation Server application tier can talk to the database tier, and that any unauthorized connections are not allowed. As mentioned in Chapter 2, several different ports need to be maintained to allow the different pieces of Team Foundation Server to communicate effectively. As well, be advised the database tier server(s) and the application tier server(s) must be on the same network segment, and cannot be separated by firewalls. You can also use HTTPS and Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to use the Team Foundation ...