Comments on System.What?: Subversion and NTLM with a Little Active Directory...

Diagram helps me to understand the scenario in det...

2011-02-20T20:09:59.001-08:00

Diagram helps me to understand the scenario in details. And it's a great idea to have reverse proxy use https and encrypt the channel. Tools like Apache and Subversion definitely allow happening even with constantly shrinking budgets.

You write:
"Subversion itself is quite unaware ...

2008-10-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

You write:
"Subversion itself is quite unaware of Active Directory and is unable to authenticate through NTLM"

Not anymore, as far as I understand. As of v1.5 of Subversion it uses the Cyrus SASL library to support various authentication methods natively ... among these are NTLM. This will provide NTML authenticatopn to not only the http/https transport (as is already possible today) but also to SVN's native transport (much faster).

Thanks for the comment, and clearing up that Apach...

2008-10-09T16:19:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the comment, and clearing up that Apache on Unix/Linux can also authenticate with NTLM. I didn't mean to imply that you're w/out options if you're not using a windows machine. The machine that was running SVN in this scenario just happened to be a windows box.

Thanks for commenting!

"Apache on the other hand can handle NTLM quite we...

2008-10-09T11:29:00.000-07:00

"Apache on the other hand can handle NTLM quite well so long as you install the SSPI Authentication module."

This sentence seems to be along the lines of the common misunderstanding that only Apache on Windows can authenticate seamlessly against Active Directory using NTLM. This is of course not true. On Unix/Linux you would use mod_ntlm which would give same result. It is quite old but battle proven. You could even use mod_ntlm on Windows if you wanted to.

Great heads up Marc. I downloaded and played with ...

2008-10-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

Great heads up Marc. I downloaded and played with VisualSVN Server in addition to watching a demo. It does a fantastic job of abstracting away all the Apache/SVN knowledge into a dead simple wizard.

I sure wish we'd known about it a couple years ago (were they around?) when we initially set up our subversion repository.

For info, VisualSVN Server is free an offers NTML ...

2008-10-02T02:41:00.000-07:00

For info, VisualSVN Server is free an offers NTML integrated via Apache out of the box, along with a management console (MMC) for setting ACLs etc.