bindings / user account issue

[dennisfrandsen]

I'm using Vault 4.1.4 with Visual Studio 2008, and am encountering an issue related to the server bindings. From time to time, usually at least 2 or 3 times per day, Vault suddenly thinks that I'm a different user and complains about files I'm trying to edit. Here's an example:

- I'm working on a project, using my "dfrandsen" Vault account.
- I have a number of files checked out, and I'm doing various edits.
- Suddenly Vault complains when I try to save a file (one that I've already edited and saved several times) and says that it's checked out exclusively to "dfrandsen".
- The only way to fix the problem is to "unbind" the solution, and then rebind it.

Another piece of information that might be related: when I first setup the project, I was using the "admin" Vault account. I worked under the "admin" account for several days before I created my new "dfrandsen" account and started using that. When I switched to the new account, I did the "unbind" process and then did a "bind" using my "dfrandsen" account. I'm not sure if this is part of the problem but it seems like when I get the issue described above, it's because Vault suddenly thinks I'm "admin" instead of "dfrandsen".

Any suggestions?

[Beth]

When you are rebinding in this case, I think we need to make sure that nothing from the previous bindings are left. I have two things here you can try.

Case 1 - Rebind
1) Open then solution. Unbind everything.
2) Click Ok after unbinding, then save everything to disk. If you have changes that need to be checked in, now would be a good time to make a copy of those files just in case they need to be overwritten.
3) Close all instances of Visual Studio and Vault.
4) Open Visual Studio and your solution.
5) Return to the change bindings window and bind the entire solution back to Vault.

How does it work after this? If it's fine, then don't bother with the next instructions.

Case 2 - Reopen
1) Open then solution. Unbind everything.
2) Click Ok after unbinding, then save everything to disk. If you have changes that need to be checked in, now would be a good time to make a copy of those files just in case they need to be overwritten.
3) Close all instances of Visual Studio and Vault.
4) Open Visual Studio
5) Perform a fresh Open from Source Control on your solution. You want it to overwrite any kind of binding setting.

From there, can you check out, edit and check in? If you overwrote some changes you were working on, then you can check out those particular files, drop the copied changed files on top, and check it in. Don't try overwriting the entire solution, because we don't want to get old bindings again.

[dennisfrandsen]

Option 1 didn't work, but option 2 seems to have done the job. It's been about a day now without any problems. Thanks for your help.

[Beth]

Thanks for the update.

[dennisfrandsen]

I spoke too soon. It happened again. I had been working all morning, checking files in and out through Visual Studio. Suddenly, when I went to check out a file, it told me my session was no longer valid. Upon re-establishing the session, it seemed I was now under the admin account again.

Anyhow, I've changed the password on the admin account, so hopefully it at least won't be able to silently log me into the admin account anymore.

[Beth]

How did you re-establish your session? Did a window pop up allowing you to log in? If a window did pop up, what did it say? Did you log in as you, and then somehow things looked like you had logged in as admin instead? What made it seem that way?

[dennisfrandsen]

From what I recall, it popped up a dialog saying something like "the session is no longer valid... and will need to be reestablished to continue" (something like that). I just clicked "OK" and it did it's thing. There was no request for credentials or anything.

After I changed the admin password, I opened the project in VS again. It then came up with a dialog complaining about invalid credentials. A Vault dialog came up asking me for my credentials and I logged in as me. Since then it seems to be working fine.

[Beth]

I will be able to meet with one of the developers next week to dig into why you might have experienced this issue. I will post back when I know more.

[Beth]

I don't have anything definitive on why this happened. If it comes up again, let me know and we'll work out a way to take a closer look.

[dennisfrandsen]

Thanks.

Everything has been good since I changed the admin password.

[Beth]

Thanks for the update.