TF50233: A cyclic group containment error occurred when adding a group member.

Question

 Hi,

I am recieving the exact same error .

[Error  @23:15:16.741] [2012-04-03 23:13:43Z][Error] TF50233: A cyclic group containment error occurred when adding a group member. The group [DefaultCollection]\Project Collection Valid Users already has the group Team Foundation Licensed Users as a contained member.

I have tried an inplace upgrade as well as upgrading to a new server. Both have the same results. In both cases I have installed TFS 2010 Service pack 1 plus the hot fix VS10-KB2135068. SQL Server R2 but I do not think this matters.

Server OS Windows 2003 for the inplace upgrade

Server OS Windows 2008 R2 for the migration upgrade

Is there anyway to clear these cyclical references before we run the upgrade.   I can not run the script given before the upgrade because the data model is different in TFS 2008 and if I run after the upgrade and try to reconfigure I see the error Cannot insert duplicate key in object 'dbo.tbl_gss_group_membership'

Thank you in advance for your Help,

Stuart

Answer 1

Hi Stuart,

Thank you for your question.

Based on this issue may has its own situation though with the same error, i split out form the original one, it will be better to follow up this issue.

I am trying to involve someone familiar with this topic to further look at this issue. There might be some time delay. Appreciate your patience.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

Best regards,

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Lily Wu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 2

The issue might be due to the “TFS valid users group” was added to one of the groups in Team Foundation server. We need to look into the TFS databases to figure out the group under which it has been added. This is not really something that can be done efficiently over a forum thread. If you cannot determine your answer here or on your own, consider opening a support case with us. Visit this link to see the various support options that are available to better meet your needs:  http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=fh;en-us;offerprophone.

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Trevor Hancock (Microsoft)
Please remember to "Mark As Answer" the replies that help.

Answer 3

Hi Trevor,

Thank you for your reply.   We are looking into opening a ticket with microsoft support and maybe have a microsoft rep to come out and help us out with the Upgrade of TFS.

In the mean time I will try to find out if the what group the  “TFS valid users group” is added to. 

Thank you for your help.

Regards,
Stuart

Answer 4

Hi Trevor,

I was able to figure out my problem. The version of TFS I am working with is Team foundation Server 2008 Workgroup edition. This version of Team Foundation Server has a user group called "Team foundation Licensed Users" group. In our server this referenced the Team foundation group  "Team foundation Valid Users" which also references "Team foundation Licensed Users" group . 

To Resolve the cyclical reference error I removed the "Team Foundation Licensed Users" group from our TFS Server and reran the upgrade.

Thank you again for your support,

Stuart