Visual SourceSafe 2005 and Its New Remote Performance Options

While I wait on Team Foundation Server, I’m playing with VSS2005. Also all of our code is hosted in VSS hives, so looking at what VSS 2005 does for me today is natural.

What's New in Visual SourceSafe

A) VSS 2005 is backward compatible with 6.0.
This means hives created and used with 6.0 can be used with VSS 2005, out of the box. I’ve seen this in action as I’ve been using VSS 2005 with our 6.0 hives all morning.

B) VSS 2005 has new “Server” options
One of the things that I hope will help me in the very near future are the new server options now available.

VSS2005 comes with a HTTP proxy AND a “LAN Booster Service”.

While I would never host a VSS hive on an external web site, I’m hoping the HTTP proxy will help VSS performance when I’m VPN’ed into work. Also the Booster sounds like it could help some too.

One thing to note about the HTTP proxy and Booster, is that they are only supported in the VS – VSS Provider/Plug-in.

If we do implement this, this will require some change on my part. Since lessoned learned in MS Delta, I’ve always used the Explorer to manage my projects. When VPN’ed in, even today, the Browser is the only really viable option. But I’ve recently been burned by this approach and would REALLY like to start using the VS VSS  Provider/Plug-in…

How to: Enable the LAN Booster Service for Enhanced Performance
“For the database administrator, this topic explains how to enable the LAN booster service on the server machine to allow increased performance during database access. This optional capability is only available to the SourceSafe LAN plug-in in Visual Studio. …”

How to: Enable the Internet Service for Remote Access
“For the database administrator, this topic explains how to enable the Internet service to enable remote access to a database. This capability is only available to the SourceSafe Internet plug-in for Visual Studio…”


In any case, I’ve kicked of the introduction of VSS2005 for usage by our Dev group, so hopefully I’ll have some good news to report in the near future. We’ll see…