View 5.3 and Windows 8.1 domain join fail

[mammer]

Hi All

I just upgraded View Connections server and Composer from View 5.2 to 5.3. Still running vSphere/vCenter 5.0 but these are listed as supported in the support matrix.

My existing linked pools are working great (XP and Windows 7). I tried adding a new Windows 8.1 Pool with the latest View Agent installed on it but keep getting "view composer agent initialization state error (18) failed to join the domain".  The irony is it does actually join to the domain, however the VM status gets put into an error state so it cannot be used.

Here's my agent log

vmware-viewcomposer-ga-new.log

2013-12-12 11:11:45,563 [1336] INFO  VolumesReady  -  [VolumesReady.cpp, 115] Launching the Join Domain script: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VMware\View Composer Guest Agent\vmware-svi-ga.exe /JoinDomain

2013-12-12 11:11:45,563 [1336] DEBUG Wow64FsRedirectionOff  -  [Wow64FsRedirectionOff.cpp, 109] Successfully disabled WOW FS redirection.

2013-12-12 11:11:45,751 [2180] INFO  CSvmGaService  -  [svmGaService.cpp, 87] Initialized the Service

2013-12-12 11:11:45,766 [2180] INFO  CustomizationPersistentInfoReg  -  [CustomizationPersistentInfoReg.cpp, 98] Opened guest registry key for accessing customization info.

2013-12-12 11:11:45,766 [2180] DEBUG SvmDisk  -  [SvmDisk.cpp, 55] Found signature file //?/Volume{c7751884-6347-11e3-8259-806e6f6e6963}/simvol.dat at volume \\?\Volume{c7751884-6347-11e3-8259-806e6f6e6963}\ with mount point * and usage 001

2013-12-12 11:11:45,766 [2180] INFO  CSvmGaService  -  [svmGaService.cpp, 214] Found policy file on the volume: \\?\Volume{c7751884-6347-11e3-8259-806e6f6e6963}\

2013-12-12 11:11:46,876 [2180] INFO  CSvmGaService  -  [svmGaService.cpp, 305] Successfully parsed the policy and disk signatures

2013-12-12 11:11:46,876 [2180] DEBUG CSvmGaService  -  [svmGaService.cpp, 131] Joining domain

2013-12-12 11:11:46,876 [2180] INFO  Guest  -  [Guest.cpp, 272] Attempting to join WorkStation1 to the domain contoso.com

2013-12-12 11:11:47,719 [2180] FATAL Guest  -  [Guest.cpp, 285] Domain join failed: 2

2013-12-12 11:11:47,829 [2180] FATAL CSvmGaService  -  [svmGaService.cpp, 134] Domain join failedError 2 (0x2): The system cannot find the file specified.

Any thoughts?

[Linjo]

What makes you think that it joins the domain? Anything in the from the view composer server logs?

[mammer]

Hi Linjo

When I look at the VM in the VMware remote console, it has the domain listed as a login option. Although when I look at it now I see that the computer account trust is broken.

[mammer]

Here's an update

I logged into a Windows 8.1 Linked Clone when it was stuck at the domain join stage. I removed it from the domain and within a few seconds, the VM reboots and View Composer/Connection manager successfully joins it to the domain. So I thought, that's odd it seems to get stuck when removing the machine from the domain before adding it. So I created a new snapshot with the VM NOT JOINED to the domain. After a recompose the VM builds and joins to the domain successfully. Even though this goes against all documentation....

I thought, maybe its a vSphere compatibility issue. So I updated vcenter and vpshere to 5.5, then updated the VMware tools on the VM and reinstalled the view agent. Same problem.

For some reason when the master is joined to the domain it fails with "Domain join failedError 2 (0x2): The system cannot find the file specified." However if the master is in a workgroup, all is well.

Has anyone built a linked clone pool with Windows 8.1 yet?

[mammer]

Another update (I hope nobody minds, this is a progress trail for me and hopefully it may help someone else).

The problem still seems to be limited to Windows 8 and 8.1. I have built fresh master images of Windows 7, 8.0 and 8.1. Windows 7 has no issues, but Windows 8 and 8.1 master images will not join the domain. They will however join the domain if their snapshot is a workgroup member.

I also tried the recommendations in the KB found here but no luck. I am now going to log a ticket with VMware support.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=102441...

[mammer · Accepted solution]

Hi again everyone

I opened a ticket with VMware support and to my surprise the recommendation has changed for building parent vm's for linked clones. VMware now recommends for Windows 8 parent VM's, that they are not joined to the domain. (they should only be workgroup machines).  I hope this helps someone.