VS 2015: TF900547: The directory containing the assemblies for the Visual Studio Test Runner is not valid ''

4
votes

I Have VS 2015 only installed on my TFS 2013 build server, and get the following error:

TF900547: The directory containing the assemblies for the Visual Studio Test Runner is not valid ''.

Other sites say to install VS 2013, but why would I have to install VS 2013 on the build server to run unit tests when I have VS 2015 installed?

I have the following switches on my build:

  /p:VisualStudioVersion=14.0  /tv:14.0

(This is not a duplicate question as I am using TFS 2013 and am trying to use the Agile Test Runner not MS Test)

2
unit-testingtfsvisual-studio-2015tfsbuild
my guess is tfs is looking for lower version assemblies. Change 14's to 12's and it may help. – Claudius
It has to be 14 as I don't have MS Build 12 installed (don't have vs 2013 installed on build server) and also I need C# 6 features. – user917170
Which build process template are you using? – Cece Dong - MSFT
TfvcTemplate.12.xaml – user917170

2 Answers

2
votes

Check the solution in this case:

  1. Install VS 2015 or Microsoft Build Tools 2015.
  2. Edit build to use a build process template called TfvcTemplate.12.xaml.
  3. Set MSBuild arguments to /tv:14.0.

But this setting only works for build, not test. As there is no way to set the tool version or tool path for "Run VS Test Runner" activity, installing VS 2013 should be the only way to get rid of this error.

0
votes

I had a similar problem - was getting the error

TF900547: The directory containing the assemblies for the Visual Studio Test Runner is not valid 'D:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\TestWindow'.

It ended up being that even though Visual Studio 2015 was installed on the build agent, the user that the Build Agent was running as didn't have read/execute permissions to that folder.