"Altiris Deployment Server Data Manager" service is constantly crashing

Products

• Ghost Solution Suite
• Deployment Solution

Issue/Introduction

You may have noticed that in the System Event logs on your GSS 3.3 RU12 server, the "Altiris Deployment Server Data Manager service" terminated and restarted multiple times:

The Altiris Deployment Server Data Manager service terminated unexpectedly

Environment

GSS 3.3 RU12

Cause

Another process was using a necessary port for the Altiris Deployment Server Data Manager service.  These ports are 8080 and 1433.

However, the main issue here is that this service is actually a legacy / obsolete one. It shouldn't be present and running in the first place. This service shouldn't be confused with "Altiris Deployment Server DB Management" service found at "...\Program Files (x86)\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\dbmanager.exe". These were two different and services as seen here:

In a standard GSS installation, the "Altiris Deployment Server Data Manager" service is not present as shown here:

However, the actual "datamanager.exe" file still exists in the GSS file system:

Resolution

As mentioned before, the "Altiris Deployment Server Data Manager" service is actually a legacy / obsolete one. It shouldn't be present and running in a GSS implementation.

The old service was found to be a remanant from upgrading from Deployment Server 6.9, and this should be disabled or even removed. It is no longer in use by GSS 3.x,