DEP for iOS and OSX clients

[CharlieRich]

Hi all,

 

I am currently in the middle of setting up DEP for our school and have a couple of questions that I wonder if anyone could shed some light on.

 

At the minute our current provision is this:

• 32 iPad Airs in a "bank" (shared devices)
  
• 10 SLT dedicated iPads
  
• ~15 staff dedicated iPads
  
• 25 iMac suite
  

 

We are using Meraki (free) for our MDM solution and now want to use this in conjunction with DEP to automate the enrollment and deployment process.

 

I have setup our DEP account with an Apple ID and 2-factor authentication (don't ask...) and our supplier has been linked to our DEP account so any new devices we buy will be preconfigured for DEP over-the-air deployment.

 

Deployment process is as follows:

• User "unboxes" a brand new iPad and switches it on
  
• Setup wizard asks to join a wifi network (our BYOD network works fine)
  
• The iPads serial number is recognised as being "associated" with our organisation (as it is added by our supplier to our DEP account)
  
• The user is asked to authenticate with their AD credentials (not sure if this is 100% necessary but it works so oh well)
  
• A NON-REMOVABLE MDM profile is downloaded and installed onto the device (the only way you can stop users removing the root profile is through DEP apparently, thanks Apple...
  
• User is asked to sign in with an Apple ID
  
• Siri/iCloud setup screens
  
• iPad is ready to go.
  

 

Can Profile Manager and Meraki be used simultaneously?

 

In the profile Manager console, I am able to see the new device and put it into a group. I am also able to set restrictions (basically create a profile) and assign it to this group, however they never seem to be installed on the device.

 

In the Active Tasks tab I am able to see the job waiting but it will be stuck on Pending forever. Why is this and does anyone know how I can force these settings to be pushed to the iOS device? The internet connection is fine and our iPad SSID doesn't use a proxy.

 

Ideally we would like the process to be as streamlined as possible. So the steps detailed above, then an automatic install of our Meraki MDM profile, and VPP app assignment (the bane of my life).

 

Does anyone know why our Profile Manager settings would be "pending" and not being pushed through?

[Brimstone]

Slightly confused why you are using 2 different MDM's for DEP, you should only be using one of these....?

[Jwzg]

Slightly confused why you are using 2 different MDM's for DEP, you should only be using one of these....?

 

I don't think Meraki will tie in with LDAP and if he can't externally face the machine running Profile Manager that would explain it. Some sysadmins don't care for externally facing machines like this.

Edited September 4, 2015 by Jwzg

[Brimstone]

You should not be trying to "rope" together 2 x MDM solutions if Meraki does not support LDAP and use unsupported workarounds.

 

Using a proper MDM that supports LDAP or AD is the solution here.....

[Jwzg]

He may not have a choice

[Brimstone]

Really great planing and vision then..... I despair

[Brimstone]

I'm sure it's unlikely anyone from a decent Apple Education Solution Expert even had this conversation with the school in question.

 

Here's a decent blog post from one about the mistakes schools can make...

 

https://www.krcs.co.uk/news/5-common-mistakes.html

[Jwzg]

Agreed...however, lets try to help the OP work with what they have while helping them move forward.

[Jwzg]

Make sure you give your PM server a FQDN (not .local) and make sure it has a static IP on your network as well as and is NAT'd to an external address on your firewall. Open the ports outlined here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202487

[MacExec]

Make sure you give your PM server a FQDN (not .local) and make sure it has a static IP on your network as well as and is NAT'd to an external address on your firewall. Open the ports outlined here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202487

 

 

Hello Jwzg

 

I registered on this forum just to ask you a question.

 

In this thread http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mac/158158-dep-ios-osx-clients.html you wrote "Make sure you give your PM server a FQDN (not .local)"

 

Well, this is something I have been struggling to acheive. Could you please give me any guidance on how to achieve this.

 

Thank you in advance

[Brimstone]

The guide below should help you....

 

OS X Server 5 | krypted.com