[ipad] Meraki MDM + Purchasing App Licenses with VPP

[L3OUGH]

Hi all,

 

This maybe a silly question, but I'm going to ask it anyway as I'd rather be safe than sorry as the saying goes.

 

I have a query about purchasing licenses with a VPP account when syncing with Meraki MDM. The main question is this:

 

How many licenses do I need to purchase from VPP?

 

Here is my scenario:

 

I have 2 Apple accounts. 1x VPP Account that does all the purchasing of apps and 1x normal Apple account used for installing the apps (This account is signed in on all the iPads for the App store under settings).

 

Within MDM under the VPP section you have a User Management section. I have a user setup here and the normal Apple account is associated with this user.

 

When you purchase a new app via VPP and do a sync with MDM you then assign one of those purchased licenses to a user within MDM then allowing you to push that app out to any device signed in with that user.

 

However what I'm not quite clear on is whether I need to be purchasing 1 license from VPP for the one user I have associated with the iPads in MDM or 1 license per iPad the app is going to be installed on?

 

 

Up till now the school have only requested 2 apps to be installed and both have been free. First time round I purchased 15 licenses as we have 15 iPads, synced with MDM assigned one of the 15 licenses to my user in MDM then pushed the app out to my 15 devices. Leaving 14 licenses unassigned.

 

Second app I did exactly the same as above but only purchased 1 license, not 15. I still managed to push the app out to all 15 devices as the MDM user is associated with all 15 devices. This is what I expected. It was like someone purchasing an app at home and it syncing to their personal iPhone, iPad and iPad for example.

 

So should I be buying 1 license (for the user in MDM to push the app out as it's signed in to every iPad) or should I be buying 15 (1 for each device).

 

Again, apologies if this was an obvious question.

 

Thanks

Liam

[tmoon-mint]

You need to purchase 1 licence per device. As long as you're using managed distribution in conjunction with an MDM you no longer need to use Apple IDs.

[L3OUGH]

I have DEP and Meraki MDM setup. How would I go about deploying VPP apps without the use of an Apple ID then? Most guides I've seen use an Apple ID. Would it be something like device licensing?

[RLR]

This is some documentation from Meraki website:

 

You need the paid version of Meraki.

 

https://documentation.meraki.com/SM/Apps_and_Software/VPP_App_Licensing_by_Device_Serial

[Matthewj]

Hi,

 

Ok you do not need the paid version you just can only have 100 iPad's then after that you have to pay. I've got this working at nearly 20 schools now. What you need to do is have iOS 9.0 or above. Then use the device assigned way to push apps. You don't need an itunes account at all linked to the iPad's or signed into the iPad's it's all done via serial numbers and owners.

 

If you have any questions about how to get this done just PM me

 

Thanks,

Matt