Just a quick note in case anyone else runs across this.
My linked clone (Windows 7 Pro, 64-bit) deployment process looks like this:
Install/update the apps I need on my master image (the VM is not joined to the domain)
Update VMware tools and the View Client for new releases
Clone the machine to a new VM
Run sysprep on the clone (mainly to get the admin profile copied to the default profile for new users - the "right" way to do it in Windows 7)
Join the clone to the domain and log in to get GP to run (adds printers, ScriptLogic agent etc.)
Shut down the clone, snap it, and use it as my base image for deploying my linked clones (using quickprep)
All good, been working great for a year, and then I upgraded to 5.2. As soon as I did that, USB redirection stopped working. The VMware USB devices in device manager show "working" and there are no errors in the event logs. In the View client logs from a zero client I see this:
03/28/2013, 07:06:29.688> LVL:2 RC: 0 SOFT_USB :usb_urboip_process_plugin2: Plugging in device USB\Vid_013fd&Pid_0842 (device_handle 0x00000403)
03/28/2013, 07:06:29.688> LVL:1 RC: 0 SOFT_USB :VHUBLIB(error): Failed to plugin virtual device handle: 01013CC8, error: 0x1
03/28/2013, 07:06:29.688> LVL:1 RC:-500 SOFT_USB :usb_urboip_winif_vhublib_plugin_complete_cback: deferred plugin failed (9)! (device_handle 0x00000403)
03/28/2013, 07:06:29.688> LVL:1 RC:-500 SOFT_USB :usb_urboip_winif_plugin2: Vhublib_PluginDevice failed (9)
03/28/2013, 07:06:29.688> LVL:1 RC:-500 SOFT_USB :usb_urboip_process_rx_buffer: failed to process PLUGIN2
Figured it may have been a failed View Client upgrade, so I went back to my master (non-sysprepped image) and re-ran the View Client install. No help - deployed it again and still no USB. Decided to eliminate some steps and published my master (non-sysprepped) machine in a manual pool. Connected to it from a zero client and USB worked.
To make a long story - and about fours hours on the phone with VMware support - shorter, it looks like sysprep is breaking USB redirection with the 5.2 client. We don't know why, but if I reinstall or repair the View Client after running sysprep it's fixed. I have a dead-simple sysprep unattend file that adds a couple of user accounts, tells sysprep to copy the admin profile to the default profile, sets the language and license keys, and that's it. Nothing for devices (no full PnP rescan), just a "generalize" and "/oobe" on the command line. But even with those simple settings settings it's breaking redirection.
Support is going to try to repro the problem in the lab, but I figured I would post this here in case anyone else runs across the issue.
Geoff