Heavy use of TortoiseSVN / Subversion locks NT User account

Question

Strange one this, which isn't programming related directly, but I thought it important to ask here instead of ServerFault.com, as it is directly related to TortoiseSVN/Subversion usage.

Basically, through normal usage, TortoiseSVN operates absolutely fine with our Subversion repository, but as I'm responsible for our continuous integration build scripts, I'm actually quite a heavy user in that respect and have found that it's causing quite a problem when my NT user account gets locked out.

The Support desk are probably fed up of me getting my account unlocked, but I know it's related to my SVN dealings.

Any one else had this problem? If so, what can I do to stop it, or at least curb it's activity?

Answer 1

Are you running the build scripts manually or using CruiseControl or something similar? We have CCNet running off an SVN repository using a dedicated domain account and have not had any problems like this.

What makes you certain that it is SVN interaction that is causing your account to be locked out - do you see any errors or are there any in the logs.

My understanding of account locking is that this occurs when a user enters a password incorrectly too many times. Does your account get locked out shortly after a password change?

Answer 2

I used to run CC.NET on my domain account; I got a similar behaviour when I had to reset my password.

The only way I was able to do this without locking my account was to log on to build server, change my password, change password service uses and then reboot the server.

It seems that CC.NET spawns some other processes upon startup that do not refresh the password until reboot. If I didn't reboot it takes about 2 minutes for my active directory account.

So yes ... I have had a similar problem. Solution, like DilbertDave says try using a dedicated account.

Kindness,

Dan

Answer 3

I would imagine that your domain administrator would know, or at least have better tools for finding the exact reason your account is getting locked. It's possible some security rule is getting tripped (is the Subversion repository hooked into your domain for authentication?)

We've never had this kind of problem with the dedicated NT users we use for our CruiseControl builds, so all I can do is speculate, unfortunately.

Answer 4

Found the problem: I had used my SVN account details on a remote server, which still had them after the password had expired.

Simply finding this out was a major challenge, but has taught me to better-control the use of my login credentials!