VMware Horizon desktop pool status stucks at customizing.

Recently, I needed to install a new VDI Infra using VMware Horizon for one of our customers. I needed to prepare and deploy a Golden Image for the Guest OS. Everything went well and I did not get any problems till the deployment process started.

The VMs would be deployed as complete virtual machines and dedicated to this deployment. I set all the necessary information and started waiting to be completed. It kept me waiting too long then I checked the status and saw the error message. It is said, “Failed” and there was no explanation. I removed the VMs and waited for the auto-deployed progress to be completed, but I failed again. I also noticed that there are no auto-created computer accounts under the OU that I set in the active directory.

I deployed a new VM using the Golden Image template via vCenter and logged into the VM. I ran the Sysprep utility and got failed. It was good at least I know what was the problem which occurred and made me to failed in the deployment process. As you see in the picture, the first error says, “Package Microsoft.StorePurchaseApp_11811.1001.18.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe was installed for a user, but not provisioned for all users. This package will not function properly in the Sysprep image.” Normally, when we finish the all necessary software on the Golden Image template, we need to run the VMware guest optimization tool for the best performance, and it removes Microsoft built-in software from the template. We run this software under an Administrator account, but as you see in the error, it fails because this software is deployed for not all users. That’s why it fails. We need to remove it using Microsoft PowerShell.

Remove-AppxPackage -Allusers Microsoft.StorePurchaseApp_11811.1001.18.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

It is done. Run the Sysprep utility again and see what is going on. In my case, after removing the package that occurred problem the Sysprep utility shut the clone golden image down successfully.

I converted my Golden Image to Virtual Machine and run the PowerShell command, then shut down the Golden Image and converted it again as a template.

Lastly, I removed failed machine in the VMware Horizon and waited for it to be deployed again.

+ Updated 07/26/2023

In another deployment today, I faced a similar problem, but this time there was a DHCP server that has a misconfiguration on the DNS settings. It was fixed when we pointed the DNS IP address to the IP address of the domain controller in the DHCP settings.

Thanks for your time reading.

Regards,
Hasan