Diagnostic Server failed to start and Windows Event Log shows "catastrophic error occurred Error loading configuration" (4275177)

The Diagnostic Server failed to start and Windows Event Log shows the following error:

Stopping Diagnostic Server. catastrophic error occurred Error loading configuration from .\conf\MONITORED_ENTITY\<instance name>_sqlserver.xml : For input string: "L.0"

Invalid connection XML file 

WORKAROUND

1. Close any Spotlight console and stop the Diagnostic Server services from services.msc
2. Navigate to "C:\Program Files\Quest Software\Diagnostic Server\Agent\conf\Monitored_entity" and delete the mentioned XML file as mentioned in the error message
3. Startup the Diagnostic Service
4. Re-create the connection where the XML file is deleted