Build agent always shows offline without restart

Hi all,
  I'm having some problems that I'm unable to solve with labeling, and it's getting a bit frustrating.  Labelling from trunk works well, but labeling from a branch fails.  Here's is my setup.

VCS repository settings

location: http://svn.foo.com/svn/app/server/

structure:

svn/app/server/
   branches
   tags
   trunk

Labeling rules

+:trunk=>tags
+:branches/build-2.5.3-38-hotfix=>tags

Note: Though I'd like to replace the "+:branches/build-2.5.3-38-hotfix=>tags" with "+:branches/**=>tags"  Is this possible?


Project checkout rules when tag works

+:trunk => .

Project checkout rules when tag fails

+:branches/build-2.5.3-38-hotfix=>.

Exact error from web interface "Labeling process failed: No labeling rules found for checkout rules branches/build-2.5.3-38-hotfix=>"

This is a bit frustrating.  I think I have my setting right, what am I missing?

Thanks,
Todd