Remote Desktop service fails intermittently with SEP 14.3 RU3-RU5 installed

Products

• Endpoint Security Complete

Issue/Introduction

Citrix VDI servers are affected. Other server types do not appear to be affected.

The Windows Remote Desktop Service was in a broken state. When attempting to restart it the service would hang and would have to be forcibly killed. This fixes the issue without a reboot. When the issue is happening and a netstat is run in CMD, the system shows that it has stopped listening on port 3389. Nothing is logged to the Event Viewer.

Removing Symantec entirely resolves the issue.

Environment

Release : 14.3 RU3-RU5

Cause

Unknown

Resolution

The cause of the issue was not found, however a work around was discovered.

1. In Active Directory, assign the affected systems to a different GPO group.
2. Wait to ensure the systems receive the change in GPOs.
3. If required, assign the systems back to the original GPO group.

With the above steps, either 1-2 or all 3, the issue did not return.