diff --git a/python/sglang/srt/managers/tokenizer_manager.py b/python/sglang/srt/managers/tokenizer_manager.py
index 8d5895a40..5f6378553 100644
--- a/python/sglang/srt/managers/tokenizer_manager.py
+++ b/python/sglang/srt/managers/tokenizer_manager.py
@@ -454,7 +454,8 @@ class TokenizerManager(TokenizerControlMixin, TokenizerManagerScoreMixin):
         self.disaggregation_mode = DisaggregationMode(
             self.server_args.disaggregation_mode
         )
-        start_disagg_service(self.server_args)
+        # Keep a reference so the bootstrap server is not garbage-collected.
+        self.bootstrap_server = start_disagg_service(self.server_args)
         # Single-source counter for auto-assigning fake bootstrap_room.
         self.fake_bootstrap_room_counter = 0