configureBasicAuth.md

Using tfx against Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2015 using Basic Authentication

In order to use tfx against TFS on-premises, you will need to enable basic authentication in the tfs virtual application in IIS. This is a temporary solution until NTLM authentication is supported.

WARNING!! Basic authentication sends usernames and passwords in plaintext. You should consider configuring TFS to use SSL in order to enable secure communication when using basic auth.

Configuring TFS to use Basic Authentication

Follow these steps to enable basic auth for your TFS:

1. Install the Basic Authentication feature for IIS in Server Manager.
2. Open IIS Manager and expand to the Team Foundation Server website, and then click on the tfs virtual application. Double-click the Authentication tile in the Features view
3. Click on Basic Authentication in the list of authentication methods. Click Enable in the right hand column. You should now see Basic Authentication enabled.
4. Note: leave the domain and realm settings for Basic Authentication empty.

tfx login with Basic Authentication

Now you can start to use tfx against your TFS server. You'll want to login before issuing commands.

1. Type tfx login --auth-type basic
2. You will be prompted to add your service Url.

• Note for TFS on-prem: If the server name is part of the service URL, be sure to specify the fully-qualitifed domain name (FQDN) of that server (i.e. in the form servername.domain.local). Otherwise, TFX will fail to connect.

3. You will be prompted for your username. Use domain\user (e.g. fabrikam\peter). If you are on a workgroup machine, use machinename\username.
4. You will be prompted for your password. Enter the password for the username you entered.

You can now use any other tfx commands.

> tfx login --auth-type basic
Copyright Microsoft Corporation

Enter service url > http://localhost:8080/tfs/defaultcollection
Enter username > fabfiber\peter
Enter password > *******
logged in successfully