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fieldsc
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Smart Policy controlled USB redirection on a Teradici Zero Client

Good Morning,

We have just started implementing UEM to enforce policies for non-persistent kiosk type workstations throughout our organization.  One of the policies that we've implemented disables USB redirection for all users that are not a member of a Security Group (which is the only way I know of to allow them to passthrough a USB scanner).  These Smart Policies seem to work as expected when connecting from a Windows/Linux/Mac horizon client, but if connecting from a Teradici Zero Client USB redirection is never enabled.  UEM logs show it evaluating the group membership condition correctly, but the Zero Client won't pass the devices through until it reconnects (almost like it is trying to negotiate USB redirection with the Horizon agent prior to the UEM agent applying that policy).

We are running Horizon 7.4.0 and UEM 9.3.0.804 on Windows 7/10.

Thanks,

Clayton

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DEMdev
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Hi Clayton,

There's an issue in the Horizon 7.4 (and 7.5) agent where it disables USB redirection regardless of the settings configured in UEM. This has been fixed in Horizon 7.6 (and requires UEM 9.5.)

There is a workaround, but that basically disables UEM's USB-related Smart Policies setting... Not sure whether that is useful to you, but if so, you enable the workaround by creating a REG_DWORD registry value UemFlags in key HKLM\Software\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\Agent\USB, and setting it to 1.

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DEMdev
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Hi Clayton,

There's an issue in the Horizon 7.4 (and 7.5) agent where it disables USB redirection regardless of the settings configured in UEM. This has been fixed in Horizon 7.6 (and requires UEM 9.5.)

There is a workaround, but that basically disables UEM's USB-related Smart Policies setting... Not sure whether that is useful to you, but if so, you enable the workaround by creating a REG_DWORD registry value UemFlags in key HKLM\Software\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\Agent\USB, and setting it to 1.

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fieldsc
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Interesting.  Why does that only seem to affect our Zero Clients, and how does a reconnect fix that?

I'm not sure we're ready to do an upgrade on our connection brokers quite yet.  I think I'll just disable that policy for now, and come back to this after we've upgraded our environment.

Thanks,

Clayton

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DEMdev
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Why does that only seem to affect our Zero Clients, and how does a reconnect fix that?

Sorry, I don't know the details on the Horizon side, but I think the problem wasn't sufficiently reproducible to figure out the root cause.

I think I'll just disable that policy for now, and come back to this after we've upgraded our environment.

Just be aware that the issue with Horizon agent 7.4/7.5 can also happen if no Smart Policies are configured, so you would need to have the workaround in place as well.

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fieldsc
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Awesome, will do.

Thanks,

Clayton

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chriskoch99
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DEMdev​ -- would this agent issue apply to connections using the Blast protocol as well, or is it strictly PCoIP? 

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DEMdev
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Hi chriskoch99,

I don't think the issue is protocol specific, but I don't know that much about the Horizon side of things.

Are you encountering any issues with USB redirection? If so, which versions of DEM/UEM and Horizon agent are you using?

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