Build VS2017 project with TFS 2012 build server

Question

We have an on-premise TFS 2012 server and build server. We are in the process of upgrading to VS and TFS 2017. At the moment, there is the request to set up another build

Answer 1

Old Visual Studio versions installed msbuild into C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\\bin and apparently the RunMSBuild activity used the ToolVersion + the ToolArchitecture to calculate this path.

VS 2017 instead installs it C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\15.0\bin and the RunMSBuild can't calculate the proper path anymore. You can not use the old DefaultTemplate11.1xaml to integrate with VS2017.

To make this work, you could try to modify the TFSBuildServiceHost.exe.config and you must have a version of VS 2013 or VS 2015 installed on the build server in order for this to work. More detail step please follow Jonesy2488's answer in this link:How to get VS 2017 working with TFS 2017 XAML Builds

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Moreover, XAML Build are deprecated in TFS 2017 and will not be available in tge next version of TFS(2018). VSTS already no longer supports them.

I'm looking for the hosted XAML build controller. Where did it go?

The hosted XAML build controller is no longer supported. Accounts created on or after April 2016 do not have access to it. We plan to remove the hosted XAML build controller from all accounts, possibly as soon as March 2017.

Source

Since you are going to upgrade and use TFS2017. Highly recommend you to convert your builds to vNext Build to access some new technology and support. For more please refer Why Should I Leave XAML Builds?