Resolution:
Q. When bringing down RTserver from the command line ($rtserver -stop) the following message is generated:

hh:mm:ss: {SVC.CLIENT./_node@protocol:port:X} Failure in reading from SPC 'protocol:node:port:X' {end of file}

A. What is happening it that the rtadmin process (invoked by "rtserver -stop"), which looks like an RTclient to the RTserver you are stopping, is exiting before the RTserver actually shuts down.  This causes the RTserver to throw a warning message that it failed to read from the "rtadmin" process (end of file) because it exited.

NOTE: This failure notice is benign and can be ignored.