Horizon View not customizing

[RHamaker]

Guys and Gals, I am stumped on this one and don't really know how to troubleshoot it.  I am brand new to Horizon View and trying to set up a pool of floating desktops.  I have a windows 7 64 image that is patched (windows patches) and has the horizon view client installed as per the VMware white papers.  I have not loaded an antivirus solution on this image, as it is just for testing right now.  I did see the articles about there needing to be a microsoft patch applied to the systems to fix a compatability issue with the VMXNET 3 adapter, but i am using the E1000 adapter with my setup, plus i checked and the patch is already applied to the system. 

I setup the pool friday, and as of this morning, one of the machines says customizing and the other one timed out while customizing (I only put two machines in this test pool).  Horizon View will go through and create the objects in Active Directory, but the machines will not set their hostnames nor will they join the domain.  I am thinking there maybe an issue with the customization file in general, as i haven't had much success making it work with VCenter either. 

Thoughts or directions you could point me would be greatly appreciated.

Screen shot of error is attached, i know it probably isnt much help though.  The FQDN is removed, but the customization template has it added.

[Linjo]

This is usually because of Windows Activation. Are you using MAK or KMS?

[RHamaker]

We are using token activation.  It is activated from a smart card.

So i guess technically its a KMS system, but the root certificates are loaded into the system and it is activated off the roots in the trusted store.

[Linjo]

I mean the Windows License Activation not how the users login.

If the desktops can't activate then it will stop in the customizing stage.

// Linjo

[RHamaker]

Correct, the systems are activated off a smart card.  The users can choose to use a smart card or a user/password to log in to the system once it is build, but the windows activation is token based (smart card).  When you activate windows, it prompts for your smart card and pin number and activates based off your smart cards certificates.

Not sure if it matters or not but the base image is already activated.  I have also tried using a vanilla windows 7 (one from MSDN) to test with and i get the same results.

[Linjo]

Each Windows Desktop needs to be activated, no matter if the base image is activated or not.

I am not talking about how the users are logging in....

[RHamaker]

I am not talking about log in's either.  The windows operation system is activated off a smart card, if you open a command prompt and run slmgr /fta it shows you the options for token based activation. 

[Linjo]

Oh, did not know that was an option. Sorry for that.

Its only supported using KMS to activate, there are ways of using MAK or skip the activation.

[RHamaker]

Oh ok great, how can i have it skip activation all together?

I tried deploying an image from vcenter using the same custom template i am using in view.  It has the same end result, doesnt join the domain, rename the system, etc.  I am assuming it is all related to the activation problem

[RHamaker]

I am not sure if this is helpful or not, but I discovered yesterday that if I specify a host name in the customization template the machine builds and joins properly to the domain.  I havent tried it with View yet but will test that today.