View Virtual Desktops fail to fully join domain

[caelion]

In trying to complete the creation of virtual desktop machines, the machines never fully register with the domain. A placeholder account is created in the domain, but registration never completes, and ultimately, View Manager shows that an error has occurred and the machine was unable to join the domain.

When machines are provisioned into the parent domain, all works exactly as it should, but whenever they are provisioned into the child domain, this error occurs, regardless of credentials used, 32 or 64 bit operating system, or size of the pool being provisioned.

The setup is as follows:

• There are 2 domains in use. Domain A is the parent domain, and Domain B is a child domain of A
• The vCenter server and View Manager machines are located in Domain A
• The virtual desktops being provisioned are intended to end up in domain B
• A parent-child trust exists between domains A and B
• View Composer is using the credentials of the domain administrator for domain B during the provisioning process
• The base machine from which the template was made is a Windows 7 32-bit machine that is not a member of the domain and has vmware tools and the vmware view agent installed and functional on it
• Communications between the VMWare View machines on Domain A and the Domain Controller, DHCP server, and DNS servers on Domain B are functional and have been tested.
  
  

I have been through the boards and all over the web searching for some kind of direction. I would greatly appreciate any insight and assistance.

[Myersc]

see http://communities.vmware.com/message/1617121  it has to do with the HKLMsystem/CurrentControlSet/services/vmware-viewcomposer-ga/skiplicenseactivation, needs to be set to 1 and also HKLMsystem/CurrentControlSet/services/vmware-viewcomposer-ga/AllowActivateMAKLicense needs to be set to 1.  good luck

Craig

[Linjo]

Does the two domains have 2-way trusts? This is a requirement for View.

// Linjo

[caelion]

I gave the modification of the registry keys a shot, but it did not solve the problem.

Yes. There is a parent-child trust between the two domains. Unless it is restricted after creation, that is a two-way transitive trust between the parent and child domains.

[Linjo]

Then its time to dig into the logfiles, have a look at the View Composer logfiles that are on the vCenter Server.

// Linjo

[caelion]

I have been poring over the log files for weeks, but I cannot locate anything in them that would lead me to the specific problem preventing this from working.

Any more specific suggestions on what I might be looking for? Or at least which log to comb through?