Fixing the Visual Studio Team System error TF30177

If you are using Visual Studio 2005 Team System (VSTS), you are most probably also using Team Foundation Server as your version control and team workspace. However, in certain cases it can happen that once you've installed TFS and try to connect to it using Visual Studio/Team Explorer, you will get the following error message when creating your first Team Project:

TF30177: Team Project Creation Failed
New Team Project Wizard encountered the following error
and could not continue.

Error
Unable to connect to the specified SQL Server Reporting
Services at 192.168.218.129.  

Explanation

The Project Creation Wizard was not able to connect to
the SQL Server Reporting Services at 192.168.218.129.
The reason for the failed connection cannot be
determined at this time. Because the connection failed,
the wizard was not able to complete creating the SQL
Server Reporting Services site.

The error message dialog box looks like this:

Now, why did this happen? The message "the reason for the failed connection cannot be determined at this time" isn't very helpful. However, most probably this error is caused by DNS problems, especially if you are using virtual machines (VMware or Virtual PC/Server, it doesn't matter) to host your TFS server.

To work around or fix this problem, make sure your client (Visual Studio/Team Explorer) can properly resolve the name of the TFS server. That is, your TFS server host might be named "TFSSERV1", but your client PC might not return the correct IP address for the server, or might not return anything at all. In these cases, you can correct the DNS entry, or if no DNS server is present, flush the DNS cache on the client, or edit the "hosts" file on the client PC's (C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts by default) and add the correct entry there. This should solve the error and allow you to create your team projects normally.

Keywords: How To, Howto, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Team Foundation Server, TFS, Team System.