Symhelp service will not start

Products

• Management Platform (Formerly known as Notification Server)

Issue/Introduction

Symhelp service fails to start at all and the event viewer reports it fails with the error "Incorrect Function"

Log Name:      System
Source:        Service Control Manager
Date:          6/5/2017 10:52:40 AM
Event ID:      7024
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      NotificationSever.EPM
Description:
The Symhelp 7.0 service terminated with the following service-specific error: 
Incorrect function.

Cause

Symhelp service depends on Java. This failure can by caused by Java not being installed correctly. 

Resolution

To see if you have Java installed and it is working correctly try loading the following URL in IE on the notification server: 

www.java.com/en/download/help/testvm.xml

If there appears to be anything wrong with Java, update it to the latest version and try starting the Symhelp service again. If after resolving issues with Java it still fails to start check the following directory  '*Install Drive*:\Program Files\Altiris\SMPHelp\target\' and verify that the following files exists: 

symhelp7.0.jar 

Ori_symhelp7.0.jar

 

If symhelp7.0.jar is missing, it will also cause the service to fail. You can make a copy of Ori_symhelp7.0.jar and rename it to symhelp7.0.jar. Then try starting the service up again.

If the issue was not related to Java, or if you still having issues after fixing the missing files look for specific errors in the commons-daemon.YYYY-DD-MM.log files in Program Files\Altiris\SMPHelp for more information on why it is failing.