How to troubleshoot Deployment Server (6.1.4) startup error "DeploymentClient - DC shares a Splunk instance with its DS; unsupported configuration"

[paulahoffman]

Architecture: deployment server, universal forwarders, indexers, search heads.
After a tech refresh of one forwarder the deployment box was restarted (reload deployment-server) and the following error is showing up:
ERROR DC:DeploymentClient - DC shares a Splunk instance with its DS; unsupported configuration.

Config data is not making it to the new forwarder.
Also, on the DS review of the splunk/etc/apps directory shows most of the same directories (apps) that appear in the /etc/deployment-apps directory.
Is this a problem? If so what exactly should be the only directories in the 'apps' directory of a dedicated DS?
If not - what is the best way to trace down the above DC error?
Thanks

[dantxto]

It sounds like the Deployment Server is being told to check in with itself. From what I understand the DS cannot also be a Deployment Client (under the same instance). I would suggest you check /SplunkPath/etc/system/local/deploymentclient.conf or check if you have a deployment client app.

Remove the offending deploymentclient.conf/app and then in your serverclass.conf put your DS on the blacklist.