Symantec Network Boot services are unable to start

Products

• Deployment Solution

Issue/Introduction

Symantec Network Boot Services (PXE and BDSDP) fail to start on Windows servers and returned error:

Recursion too deep stack over flow

Environment

DS 8.x

MS Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 servers that have Symantec Boot Services and a third party DHCP Server installed on the same box

Cause

Third party DHCP servers that are installed on the same box as the Symantec Network Boot services prevent the Symantec Network Boot services from starting. Third pary DHCP servers should not be installed on the same server as the Symantec Network Boot services.  Microsoft DHCP is the only DHCP server that can be installed on the same server where the Symantec Network Boot services are installed.

Resolution

Steps to resolve:

1. Remove the third party DHCP server by following the instructions from the vendor.
2. Install Microsoft DHCP server by following the links below
   1. Windows 2k8 servers: Installing the DHCP Server Role
   2. Windows 2k12 servers: Installing and Configuring DHCP role on Windows Server 2012