In this post, I am going to talk about how to restore a deleted test suite. For deleting a test suite, a user needs to have manage test plan permission on the area path of the test plan. This is quite restrictive permission but still we have heard numerous instances where users have deleted the suites knowingly/unknowingly which have caused data loss for an organization. We don't have a automated way to restore deleted suites . You can restore it manually though by creating a replica of the deleted suite if you have a back up copy of the TFS database (both configuration and project collection) which contains the deleted test suite. Normally most of the big corporates policies enforces to have backups so the pre-requisite is easily satisfied.
First step is to identify the deleted suites. All the list of deleted test suites can be retrieved by running following query on project collection database:
Select * from tbl_auditlog where ObjectType = 11
Sample output- --
PartitionId AuditId DateModified Action ObjectType ObjectID1 ObjectID2 ProjectId AuditIdentity
Over here DateModfied represents the date of deletion, Object1 represents the deleted test suite Id and AuditIdentity is the TFS identity of user who deleted the suite.
For finding more information about the user who deleted the suite, run the following query on TFS configuration database
select * from tbl_Identity where Id = 'AuditIdentity'
Till now, we have identified the deleted test suite and the user who deleted it. So far so good. Now we want to restore this test suite back again. Since this test suite is deleted, current database would not hold any information of this suite. We need to find out the latest back up database in which the test suite was present. We already know the date of deletion of test suite, so pick up a database which was backed up just before the deletion date of suite.
Detailed Steps are as follows:
1. Creation of new suite
Get basic information of test suite like team ProjectName, TestPlanId, ParentSuiteId, Title, SuiteType, Query, RequirementId by this SQL query over Team project collection database:
select p.ProjectName, s.*
from tbl_suite s
join tbl_Project p
on s.ProjectId = p.ProjectId
where s.SuiteId = @deletedSuiteId -- deletedSuiteId is the identity of deleted suite
Now in Microsoft Test Manager, connect to the project having its name as ProjectName. Find the test plan with its id asTestPlanId and connect to it. Suites can be of three different types which are as follows:
Type 1 represents Query Based Suite.
Type 2 represents Static Suite
Type 3 represents Requirement Based Suite.
If the type is for Query Based Suite then create a query based suite with its query as Query under the suite whose id is ParentSuiteId. Edit the title of suite to match with Title
If the type is for Requirement Based Suite then create a requirement based suite with its requirement as RequirementId under the suite whose id is ParentSuiteId.
If the type is for Static Suite, just create a new static suite with its name as Title under the suite whose id is ParentSuiteId.
2. Set configurations on newly created suite
select inheritConfigs
from tbl_suite w
here SuiteId = @deletedSuiteId
If inheritConfigs flag is 1 then just set "Inherit configurations from parent test suite" in Default Configurations window from Microsoft Test Manager otherwise we need to retrieve configurations for this test suite.
Find the test configurations associated with deleted suite by using the below SQL query
select c.* from tbl_SuiteConfiguration s
join tbl_Configuration c
on s.ConfigurationId = c.ConfigurationId
where s.SuiteId = @deletedSuiteId
In the default configurations window, Set these configurations for the newly created suite.
3. Add test cases to the newly created suite. This step is applicable only for Static and Requirement Based Test Suite.
Find the test cases associated with deleted suite by using the below SQL query:
select e.TestCaseId
from tbl_SuiteEntry e
where e.SuiteId = @deletedSuiteId
and e.TestCaseId <> 0
Add these test cases to the new test suite from Microsoft Test Manager
4. Now the test suite has been created similar to deleted suite and is ready to use. This step is required only for those users who wants to restore the latest test results for the deleted suite. This step is applicable only for manual test cases.
Find the test results associated with deleted test suite
select c.Name, r.*
from tbl_TestResult r
join tbl_Point p
on r.TestPointId = p.PointId
and r.TestRunId = p.LastTestRunId
and r.TestResultId = p.LastTestResultId
join tbl_configuration c
on c.ConfigurationId = r.ConfigurationId
where p.SuiteId = @deletedSuiteId
The above query returns the last result for a given test point. A test point is a test case/configuration/test suite tuple. Useful attributes of test results are OutCome, State, RunBy. Using this result attributes for a given test point, user can create new test runs from Microsoft Test manager over the newly created test points. For example if OutCome value is 2 for a test case/configuration name tuple, user can mark this tuple as passed.
Possible list of test outcome is as follows:
None = 1,
Passed = 2,
Failed = 3,
Inconclusive = 4,
Timeout = 5,
Aborted = 6,
Blocked = 7,
NotExecuted = 8,
Warning = 9,
Error = 10,
NotApplicable = 11,
Paused = 12,
Note: If the deleted suites contain child suites, same steps can be followed to restore each child suite as well.