Subversion MultiSite Release Notes

New to version 4.1?

Subversion MultSite 4.1 introduces some big enhancements and some changes that you need to know about: Read about important changes in 4.1

Release: 4.1 Build: 5229

Monday 23rd September, 2013

Issues Addressed

  • You can now select Subversion 1.8 when enabling Pre-Replication Hooks on the Proxy -> SVN Settings page. (NA-6174)

  • We've fixed an issue that generated checkout errors when using SVN serf client in skelta mode (the default when both cient and server are using Subversion 1.8). (NA-6145)

  • A problem when attempting to checkout a subfolder from the command line has been fixed. (NA-6114)

  • We've fixed an issue with adding and committing files into a subfolder when using Subversion 1.8. (NA-6134)

Release: 4.1 Build: 3498

Thursday 8th April, 2013

Issues Addressed

  • Adding a user to a group through the admin console no longer forces a password change for the user. Password changes can now be made after ticking the new 'Reset User Password' checkbox on the users' edit screen. (NA-5791)

  • We've fixed an issue where multiple processes could use the same prevayler, a situation that could lead to the loss of journal data, which might have resulted in a loss of sync in the MultiSite system databases. (NA-5682, NA-5732)

  • We've fixed an issue in the talkback script which could cause inconsistencies in the Access Control database and lead to loss of information such as Users or Teams on the node where it was used, specifically where the 'backup' function is invoked. (NA-5795)

  • Additionally, we've fixed an error when running the talkback script on a Windows machine (NA-5695)

  • It's no longer possible to enter a broken regex value (|*./) in team rules. (NA-5659)

  • We've fixed an issue where the 'repo repair' function could cause Garbage Collection to fail. (NA-5153)

  • There's now no need to manually reset existing nodes when deploying a new replication group. (NA-5785)

  • We've fixed an issue where password changes could be initiated without having to confirm the new password. (NA-5130)

  • When importing users with the system-wide case insensitive flag set all users will now be converted to lowercase. (NA-5708)

  • Sorting users in the 'List Users' screen now behaves as expected (NA-5169)

Release: 4.1 Build: 1636

Thursday 4th October, 2012

Issues Addressed

  • We've addressed an issue with LDAP caused by entering invalid bind user details. (NA-4998)

  • A problem with admin login to LDAP has been fixed. The LDAP location of the admin users group needed to be specified. (NA-4873)

  • An issue which caused problems with serf clients being used with MultiSite has been fixed. (NA-4880)

  • An issue with admin authentication via LDAP where we had a WAN dependency for local administration has been addressed. (NA-4839)

  • An issue with importing users from invalid *.csv files has been addressed. A detailed error message is now displayed. (NA-4927)

  • The ability to remove a user via the RESTful API has been added. (NA-5002)

  • An issue with importing a MultiSite 4.0 (and earlier) backup into MultiSite 4.1 that contains more users than the licence key allows has been fixed. (NA-4865)

  • A problem with upgrading MultiSite where repositories were not re-added has been fixed. (NA-4997)

  • Users of IE8 would occasionally see errors of the form: "javascript error message 'Object doesn't support this property or method'". The error only occurred on certain pages and the page still rendered correctly. This error has been addressed. (NA-4937)

  • A problem with changing LDAP Settings, which changes User Membership but not Team Membership causing LDAP Sync to break has been fixed. (NA-5068)

  • An issue with the global disable option for LDAP authorities, where it only disables them on the local node, has been addressed. (NA-5065)

  • An issue with the ability to set the Authentication Realm name on a per-repository basis has been fixed. This was in relation to Jenkins for CI. (NA-5066)

  • A problem with the Cancel button on the Manage LDAP Settings window has been fixed. (NA-5067)

Release: 4.1 Build: 0984

Monday 20th August, 2012

Issues Addressed

  • We've addressed a conflict between our case-insensitive LDAP authentication and LDAP group management features - duplicated accounts had been created when usernames provided during login didn't match the case of usernames stored in LDAP. The case-insensitive LDAP authentication now handles this scenario. If you don't need to handle both case-sensitive and insensitive usernames then you can now apply this as a system-wide setting.You can find the option on the System Settings, under the System tab of the admin console. (NA-4903) (NA-4885)

  • Since Solaris 10 has deprecated init.d, we now provide a service manifest file "<install_dir>/svn-replicator/utils/init.d/solaris/solaris-svnreplicator.xml" for starting the Subversion MultiSite via the Service Management Facility. See the accompanying readme file for more details. (NA-4872)

Release: 4.1 Build: 0667

Monday 23 July, 2012

Issues Addressed

  • Fixed a problem where the deletion of folders would fail to replicate if the folders contained locked files, causing loss of sync between nodes. (NA-4650)

  • Fixed an issue where the 'quorum not available' message was not being returned to the SVN client, when the replication group was not in quorum. (NA-4666)

Release: 4.1 Build: 0154

Friday 1st June, 2012

What's New

  • We've added support for case-insensitive usernames when using LDAP pre-replication authentication - this feature is enabled by ticking the case-insenstivity check box on the LDAP settings screen. (NA-3857)

Issues Addressed

  • Performing a partial synchronized stop - where only selected nodes are stopped no longer causes garbage collection to stop running once the stopped nodes are put back into replication. (NA-4504)

  • Fixed a problem affecting users of LDAP pre-replication authentication on Windows. After a htpasswd file change we have added a delayed recheck, in case the file is currently locked by another Windows process. (NA-4496)

  • We've fixed a problem with password encryption logic which in some situations would result in passwords being mismatched. As part of this fix we've also changed the conditions that get an existing Subversion user added to MultiSite's password file; now, doing a checkout is enough to get you added to the password file. (NA-4620)

Release: 4.1 Build: 9379

Tuesday 20th March, 2012

Issues Addressed

  • The Talkback script can now include the backup settings, invoked using a "-backup <location>" option. (NA-2362)

  • Access Control's permission structure has been changed to allow for the users to be assigned as team leaders, without being able to change anything: a user with no explicit user permissions effectively has view-only access. (NA-3927)

  • Team leaders can now be limited to adding and managing users, without permission to add or modify Access Control rules. This has been implemented with the addition of a permission for modifying rules which is enabled for team leaders by default. (NA-4030)

  • The replicator will no longer crash, with loss of sync if a user attempts to commit to a locked filed that has a path that contains folders in which there are plus (+) characters. (NA-4111)

  • Fixed a problem that caused the MultiSite packager, optionally used to create additonal nodes, to fail if it is unable to create a temp subdirectoy in the selected packager directory. (NA-4168)

  • Work has been completed to reduce the networking overhead for replication, resulting in a significant improvement in performance of the Subversion List command. (NA-4223)

  • It's no longer possible to set LDAP pre-replication authentication without first defining an LDAP authority - which would result in a 500 error page. (NA-4312)

  • We've fine-tuned how Subversion MultiSite manages connections to Apache to ensure that the available connections are not exhausted which would force Subversion MultiSite to restart. (NA-4409)

Release: 4.1 Build: 9140

Thursday 16th February, 2012

Issues Addressed

  • Addressed an issue that affected LDAP authentication on Windows-based servers. (NA-4335)

Release: 4.1 Build: 9073

Monday 13th February, 2012

Issues Addressed

  • Fixed an issue where conflicting rules defined for a specific resource could result in incorrect results being reported from the lookup/search operation. (NA-4253)

Release: 4.1 Build: 9007

Monday 6th February, 2012

What's new

  • Installation/Upgrade

    **This change was introduced in Build: 8300 (beta). It is noted again because it represents an important change to the deployment requirements**

    When the installer confirms the admin console port (6444 by default), the next nine consecutive ports (by default 6445-6453) are now also reserved for various MultiSite network activities. The specific ports can be specified during the installation, or from the node settings screen. (NA-3517)

  • HTTPv2 -
    Full support for HTTPv2 has now been added. (NA-2509)

  • Access Control
    The Access Control product (available as an add-on) has been updated, introducing new functionality and changing its underlying access model. Users' permissions are no longer based on roles and groups that require unwieldy access control lists to maintain complex security policies. Access Control now uses a simplified approach that applies access rules to heirarchical teams.

    Delegated administration - Administrators can now create teams and assign a team leader who can then manage the uses and resources that have been assigned to the team. These team leaders are unable to access any users or resources that have not been assigned to their team.
    Support for LDAP has been completely overhauled. Subversion MultiSite now supports:

    • Admin user managed via an LDAP group.

    • The functionality of our free LDAP plug-in has been integrated into Access Control (Under the Security tab), allowing Users and Team membership to be synch'ed with LDAP groups. (NA-2784)

    • LDAP Authorities assignment screens have been expanded to include additional functionality. (NA-3853)

    • All access control activity is now written to a dedicated log file in the "path/to/svn-replicator/logs/ac" directory.(NA-3975)

  • MultiSite's internal database is now periodically dumped to assist in the event of a system corruption. The dump is also used as part of an improvement to MultiSite 's settings export/import capability. (NA-200)

  • The Emergency Reconfiguration procedure allows you to permanently drop a node from the replication group, making it easier to recover from the loss of a node. (NA-2561)

  • Support has been extended to pre-commit, pre-lock and pre-unlock hooks, which can be assigned on a per-repository basis and configured from the admin console instead of via a manual edit to the prefs.xml file. (NA-2593) (NA-2476)

  • Email notification is now sent out when there are more than 50,000 pending transactions on a node. The number of pending transactions that triggers the notification can be configured on the System Settings screen, under the admin console's System tab. (NA-2609)

  • To assist in troubleshooting, thread information is now periodically dumped to file. The dumped is saved once per hour to the "path/to/svn-replicator/logs/thread-dump" directory. By default, the dump files cycle after a week. (NA-2943)

  • MultiSite's SSL certificate stores are now managed from a centralized screen located under the System tab of the admin console. (NA-3248)

  • Subversion MultiSite now supports multiple system admins without needing the add-on Access Control to be included. (NA-3829)

  • There's a new health monitor for deployments that use Zeus load balancing. The monitor "zeus_read_only_monitor.pl" is stored in a new svn-replicator/util/ directory. (NA-3836)

  • Backup and Restore functionality has been extended. Exporting Settings now generates a backup directory that includes more system settings, including prefs.xml, replication group and mail server information. (NA-3875)

  • An info message is written to the logs when an LDAP group sync changes membership. (NA-3907)

  • Subversion users can now use the Lookup/Search tool to verify their access to a specified repository resource. (NA-3926)

  • When MultiSite is set to use pre-replication hooks it now automatically checks the hooks directory in each repository for hooks that start with an 'ms_'. Currently, the following hooks are supported: ms_pre-commit, ms_pre-lock, ms_pre-unlock. (NA-3995)

Issues Addressed

  • Fixed a problem that resulted in a "ConcurrentModificationException: createResponse" Java error caused by two threads attempting to simultaneously create a page. (NA-2422)

  • Talkback now better handles the collection of Apache configuration files by checking for extra config files that are referenced within includes. (NA-2604)

  • Fixed a problem where a shutdown from the admin console would stop init.d script start from working. (NA-3364)

  • The repository repair screens now indicate more clearly the status of 'helper' node. (NA-3839)

  • Improved handling under very high latency situations, which could result in transactions failing to complete. (NA-3964)

  • When using Access Control, client requests that fail because the user is not defined now return a 401 (not found) instead of 403 (forbidden) error. (NA-3919)

  • Access Control Rules now applies deny copy rules to both source and destination, previously, the deny rule was only applied to the copy source, not the destination. (NA-2836)

  • Removed a dependency on 'Current Working Directory' which could stop the log rotation from working after starting a node from a different directory. (NA-3894)

Known Issues

  • If a MultiSite (system) administrator is assigned to a team then a team leader of that team is able to disable the administrator's account. A team leader should not have control over admin accounts so this ability will be removed in the next release. (NA-4201)

Release: 4.1 Build: 8300 Beta

November 17, 2011

Issues Addressed

  • When the installer confirms the admin console port (6444 by default), the next nine ports (by default 6445-6453) are now also reserved for various MultiSite network activities. The specific ports can be specified during the installation, or from the node settings screen. (NA-3517)

  • Fixed a problem that caused nodes to go out of sync when folders containing locked files are deleted. (NA-3183)

  • Fixed a problem where updating htpasswd file on windows via LDAP pre-replication authentication forced a restart of the replicator. (NA-3187)

  • Remote password changes are now improved, so that initial differences between the files on different nodes do not result in the files going out of sync. (NA-2757)

  • Resolved a problem which stopped the automatic restarts of the replicator in the event of an IOException being thrown while writing to a .journal file. (NA-3358)

  • Connection closure is now better managed when Apache KeepAlive is on and large values for KeepAliveTimeout are used. (NA-3059)

  • The admin console dashboard now indicates when nodes reach a synchronized stop proposal. (NA-3008)

  • Improved logging for LDAP authentication failure. (NA-3005)

  • Fixed a problem where empty revisions resulting from a repository created via svndumpfilter would cause the consistency checker to error out (NA-3035)

  • A Garbage Collection screen has been added to the System tab of the admin console. This screen gives control over the Maximum buckets per garbage collection and can be used to ensure very large garbage collections do not impact the system's overall performance. (NA-3040)

  • Entry fields for SSH settings remain visible and editable even if SSH is not used to deploy new nodes. (NA-3026)

  • Fixed a problem that occurred when adding a parent path directory containing a repository with multibyte characters in the name of the root. (NA-3028)

  • Fixed a problem that stopped the running of "java -jar lib/svn-replicator.jar -anything" from within the replicator directory. (NA-3032)

  • Improved log messaging for prevaylor errors. This may result in a "Duplicate entry" message if a node is restarted without all nodes first being reset. (NA-2769)

  • Validation is now in place to ensure that all repositories use a managed password file when LDAP is enabled (NA-2774)

  • The filesize of proposals are now included in the log file. (NA-2770)
  • Fixed a problem where LDAP authorities were displayed out of order (NA-2775)

  • Access is now blocked to repositories that are not defined within Subversion MultiSite. (NA-3230)

  • WD_JVMARGS settings have been removed from the sample init scripts, it should be set from the reputils.pm file. (NA-3016)

  • All WARNING and SEVERE messages are now written to the STDERR log file. (NA-3019)

  • Failures during an import from a system backup directory now results in an error message. (NA-3048)

  • Fixed a problem that caused restarts of the replicator to also restart the log rotation. (NA-3190)

  • The end of the replication group activation process indicates the status of each node more clearly. (NA-2955)

  • The log size limit has been increased to 2MB. To change this parameters, edit the following line in svn-replicator/config/log.properties: java.util.logging.FileHandler.limit = 2000000 (NA-3110)