Sporadic E120171: Error running context: An error occurred during SSL communication

["Niemann, Hartmut" <ha...@siemens.com>]

Hello!

Our svn server is hosted on a virtual server managed by some subcontractor. (Redhead enterprise linux, AFAIK).
When committing, we get too often the following errors.

In tortoise SVN en example message is:
"Command: Commit
Error: Übertragen schlug fehl (Details folgen):
Error: Fehler beim Ausführen des Kontextes: An error occurred during SSL communication
Completed!"

On the command line it looks like
D:\PRJ\DPS\bin>svn commit -m "CTRL_SH ignorieren" eventmemory.py
Sending        eventmemory.py
svn: E120171: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: E120171: Error running context: An error occurred during SSL communication

There are some variants of these messages, obviously at different stages of the process.

As far as I know a restart of the apache web server does help, but after a few hours of use
these errors come back.
It feels like some resource is not properly freed, and when the server runs out of <i would like to know what>,
this error comes. Sometimes it helps to wait for 15 minutes and retry.

Who can tell me, what this message means and what to do about it?
What would I need to tell the server admins?

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Dr. Hartmut Niemann

Siemens AG
Infrastructure & Cities Sector
Rail Systems Division
Locomotives and Components
IC RL LOC EN CCI 1
Werner-von-Siemens-Str. 67
91052 Erlangen, Deutschland
Tel: +49 9131 7-34264
Fax: +49 9131 7-26254
mailto:hartmut.niemann@siemens.com

Siemens Aktiengesellschaft: Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: Gerhard Cromme; Vorstand: Joe Kaeser, Vorsitzender; Roland Busch, Klaus Helmrich, Hermann Requardt, Siegfried Russwurm, Ralf P. Thomas; Sitz der Gesellschaft: Berlin und München, Deutschland; Registergericht: Berlin Charlottenburg, HRB 12300, München, HRB 6684; WEEE-Reg.-Nr. DE 23691322

Re: Sporadic E120171: Error running context: An error occurred during SSL communication

[Lieven Govaerts <lg...@mobsol.be>]

Hi,

On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 3:30 PM, Niemann, Hartmut
<ha...@siemens.com> wrote:
> Hello!
>
>
>
> Our svn server is hosted on a virtual server managed by some subcontractor.
> (Redhead enterprise linux, AFAIK).
>
> When committing, we get too often the following errors.
>
>
>
> In tortoise SVN en example message is:
>
> „Command: Commit
>
> Error: Übertragen schlug fehl (Details folgen):
>
> Error: Fehler beim Ausführen des Kontextes: An error occurred during SSL
> communication
>
> Completed!“
>
>
>
> On the command line it looks like
>
> D:\PRJ\DPS\bin>svn commit -m "CTRL_SH ignorieren" eventmemory.py
>
> Sending        eventmemory.py
>
> svn: E120171: Commit failed (details follow):
>
> svn: E120171: Error running context: An error occurred during SSL
> communication
>
>
>
> There are some variants of these messages, obviously at different stages of
> the process.
>

It's difficult to tell from this error message, but does your server
require the use of client certificates?
IOW, do you have the 'ssl-client-cert-file' config set in your
~/.subversion/servers file?

If that's the case, you might run into an OpenSSL issue that's
triggered by serf (the http library svn uses). More details here:
https://code.google.com/p/serf/issues/detail?id=135 .

The error happens when a server requests a renegotiation (to ask for
your client certificate) while HTTP requests are waiting in its
in-buffer to be read.

>
> As far as I know a restart of the apache web server does help, but after a
> few hours of use
>
> these errors come back.
>
> It feels like some resource is not properly freed, and when the server runs
> out of <i would like to know what>,
>
> this error comes. Sometimes it helps to wait for 15 minutes and retry.
>
>
>
> Who can tell me, what this message means and what to do about it?
>
> What would I need to tell the server admins?
>

If it's solved when restarting the server, then this would be a server
error, but I can't remember seeing such a problem mentioned on this
list. In any case it's interesting to see the apache access and error
logs at the time you're seeing this error message.

If my guess about the client certificates is right, you'll see this
error in the apache logs: "Re-negotiation handshake failed: Not
accepted by client!?"

To get more info in the server logs try logging with log level "trace8".

hth,

Lieven

>
> Mit freundlichen Grüßen
> Dr. Hartmut Niemann
>
> Siemens AG
> Infrastructure & Cities Sector
> Rail Systems Division
> Locomotives and Components
> IC RL LOC EN CCI 1
> Werner-von-Siemens-Str. 67
> 91052 Erlangen, Deutschland
> Tel: +49 9131 7-34264
> Fax: +49 9131 7-26254
> mailto:hartmut.niemann@siemens.com
>
> Siemens Aktiengesellschaft: Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: Gerhard Cromme;
> Vorstand: Joe Kaeser, Vorsitzender; Roland Busch, Klaus Helmrich, Hermann
> Requardt, Siegfried Russwurm, Ralf P. Thomas; Sitz der Gesellschaft: Berlin
> und München, Deutschland; Registergericht: Berlin Charlottenburg, HRB 12300,
> München, HRB 6684; WEEE-Reg.-Nr. DE 23691322