The Visual SourceSafe Server
The Visual SourceSafe server machine has the responsibility of maintaining one or more SourceSafe databases and to manage the server-side components. The server applications and services are:
- Visual SourceSafe Administrator application
- LAN booster service
- Remote access XML Web service
The Visual SourceSafe Administrator Application
The Visual SourceSafe Administrator is the main Graphical User Interface (GUI) administration tool.
The Visual SourceSafe Administrator allows us to:
Detailed information about the administration tasks is provided in the administration Appendixes B and C at the end of the book.
The LAN Booster Service
The LAN Booster Service is a Windows service used to increase the performance of the Visual Studio SourceSafe LAN access plug-in. It is used to speed up operations like getting file names that have newer versions on the server or getting file statuses. It uses the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol for communication. The following figure illustrates the LAN booster's Windows service properties:
The XML Web service provides an internet interface for remote users who need to access the SourceSafe databases on the Visual SourceSafe Server.
The service is installed by default on the Internet Information Server's (IIS) default website at http(s)://[serverdomain]/SourceSafe/VssService.asmx and it is used by the Visual Studio SourceSafe internet plug-in.
The SourceSafe internet plug-in supports operations like database open, database add, check in, check out, get, undo check out, rename, delete, share, diff, and merge, but does not provide more advanced functions like get by time or by label, history, properties, labels, or branches.