Bulk iPad Setup

[Planehazza]

So I've changed jobs recently and have moved to another trust. To my sheer delight (not) I have discovered they have abut 500 iPads across the school. The previous IT didn't use ADE (DEP) etc and all was done through AC2 and Lightspeed MDM.

 

I now need to bring these all back in and wipe them and set them up afresh on our network. I'm using AC2 to 'enrol' them back up to Apple School Manager ADE rather than using AC2 to directly supervise them. Either way, I have to plug these devices into the Apple Mac Mini from 2012 one by one to update and add them to ASM ADE.

 

Just wondering what ways you've employed to speed up this process? I know way back in the day Apple Server was used to do it over the Internet, but I'm familiar with this process. Will the USB ports of the Mac Mini be beefy enough to use a powered 16 port USB3 hub to tackle a few at once? Or is this just going to be too much one one USB port?

 

TL;DR - what is the best way to quickly update iPadOS and 'enrol' ~500 iPads into Apple School Manager Automated Device Enrolment so I can hand them over to Lightspeed MDM?

 

P.S. Some might wonder why I'm using ADE at all given how many I have. I'm trying to remove the future need for the Mac Mini entirely so that any future purchases are made through Apple or a reseller and automatically appear in ADE ready to be enrolled into Lightspeed.

 

Cheers!

Harry

[Brimstone]

So I've changed jobs recently and have moved to another trust. To my sheer delight (not) I have discovered they have abut 500 iPads across the school. The previous IT didn't use ADE (DEP) etc and all was done through AC2 and Lightspeed MDM.

 

I now need to bring these all back in and wipe them and set them up afresh on our network. I'm using AC2 to 'enrol' them back up to Apple School Manager ADE rather than using AC2 to directly supervise them. Either way, I have to plug these devices into the Apple Mac Mini from 2012 one by one to update and add them to ASM ADE.

 

Just wondering what ways you've employed to speed up this process? I know way back in the day Apple Server was used to do it over the Internet, but I'm familiar with this process. Will the USB ports of the Mac Mini be beefy enough to use a powered 16 port USB3 hub to tackle a few at once? Or is this just going to be too much one one USB port?

 

TL;DR - what is the best way to quickly update iPadOS and 'enrol' ~500 iPads into Apple School Manager Automated Device Enrolment so I can hand them over to Lightspeed MDM?

 

P.S. Some might wonder why I'm using ADE at all given how many I have. I'm trying to remove the future need for the Mac Mini entirely so that any future purchases are made through Apple or a reseller and automatically appear in ADE ready to be enrolled into Lightspeed.

 

Cheers!

Harry

Have you checked with your reseller if you can get them ADE enrolled with ASM without AC2?.

 

Legacy devices can still be enrolled that weren't done originally all the way back to iOS11. You just have to know where they came from to ask your reseller to do this for you?

[Planehazza]

Have you checked with your reseller if you can get them ADE enrolled with ASM without AC2?.

 

Legacy devices can still be enrolled that weren't done originally all the way back to iOS11. You just have to know where they came from to ask your reseller to do this for you?

This is what I thought too and have emailed the people that might know. The iPads will have been purchased 5+ years ago before the trust was fully established. It's a weird situation and I won't bore you with details, but it's highly unlikely I'm going to know the simple information of where these were purchased

 

Oh and don't get me started on Lightspeed MDM. Granted, I'm biased, as I've gone from several years' experience with Meraki to only a couple of hours with Lightspeed, but man it's nasty. Nothing makes sense, but, it's very different to Meraki, so hopefully my way of thinking will adapt...

[XiJ]

I’ve used a cheap powered usb hub to do this before. From a 2011 MacBook Pro. I got a max of about 8. iPads connected. I think with a better quality hub and certainly better quality cables 10 iPads at a time would have been achievable.

 

Appreciate that’s still a long way when doing 500!

[Tefters]

As mentioned, 8 port hub is your best bet and do them in chunks other than that no.

 

At least you can be proud now knowing that it's all being done properly.

People really have no idea of the scale of work to setup an Apple IOS infrastructure properly, granted when it is setup its plain sailing most of the time but getting there and having people actually understand what you can and can't do on the things is painful.

Edited November 18, 2022 by Tefters

[Aprice]

iPads used to be about half my job when working for another MSP, think we had about 2000 on various Mosyle accounts.

All enrolled through a MacBook Air and a Griffin Multidock, Somewhere between 8 and 10 at a time. Have to say though quite a lot of the time iPads would error out on the first time and need to go back through the process again.

 

For this many devices a decent USB hub is a must, I've found Cambrionix to be pretty decent, their hubs can be found inside some of the LapCabby Sync / Charge units.

 

Also worth bearing in mind that the lightning port is only USB 2.0

[Planehazza]

Thanks all. It's bittersweet. I'm glad to know I'm doing it right but it's a shame that, as I sort of knew from the start, I'd have to go via AC2.x one way or the other. I need to find a a way to batch automate this. Surely I can find some apple script or AC2 process that detects a new unsupervised ipad, wipes it then prepares it... If not, I shall task the IT minions.

 

I'll get a decent powered USB hub. Should speed things along a bit.

[Tefters]

Thanks all. It's bittersweet. I'm glad to know I'm doing it right but it's a shame that, as I sort of knew from the start, I'd have to go via AC2.x one way or the other. I need to find a a way to batch automate this. Surely I can find some apple script or AC2 process that detects a new unsupervised ipad, wipes it then prepares it... If not, I shall task the IT minions.

 

I'll get a decent powered USB hub. Should speed things along a bit.

 

IT minions and then as you already know, authorised resellers moving forward so they automatically import them into ASM.

We use Sync as a reseller, highly recommend them.

[Planehazza]

IT minions and then as you already know, authorised resellers moving forward so they automatically import them into ASM.

We use Sync as a reseller, highly recommend them.

Yup. Will get them trained up next week. Will have to get approval from my NM for their lightspeed accounts but am sure it'll be fine.

 

We're a Google school and have many chromebooks so I'm hoping we won't be purchasing any more iPads to be honest.

 

Now I need to research shared iPads and getting staff to sign in to them rather than a simple PIN to unlock etc. Any tips? [emoji23]

[XiJ]

Yup. Will get them trained up next week. Will have to get approval from my NM for their lightspeed accounts but am sure it'll be fine.

 

We're a Google school and have many chromebooks so I'm hoping we won't be purchasing any more iPads to be honest.

 

Now I need to research shared iPads and getting staff to sign in to them rather than a simple PIN to unlock etc. Any tips? [emoji23]

 

I’ve never used shared iPads a mainly as they’re are, imo, designed as one to one devices. Shared also needs a minimum spec, which at the time I looked most of ours didn’t meet (was a while ago).

[Tefters]

I’ve never used shared iPads a mainly as they’re are, imo, designed as one to one devices. Shared also needs a minimum spec, which at the time I looked most of ours didn’t meet (was a while ago).

This.

 

Shared iPad specs are a PITA and the things are really designed for 1:1 use. Only real time I've seen shared iPad model work properly is primary.

[SYNACK]

Have just done 200 with configurator before Apple broke it with the latest osx.

 

Used two 5 port powered USB hubs to do 10 at a time and upgraded to an ssd in the Mac mini as the brain dead software will 'download' the software every single time. It's like they don't realize that not everyone works at Apple.

 

Once they are on the Apple school manager it is way easier but the enrolment stage is rubbish. The MSP people I have talked to use huge powerd hubs and a few more redos when they fail.

 

I had to use a PC with iTunes to restore an iPad recently as the latest osx refused with the usual nothing is wrong error messages.

[Aprice]

Other thing to be wary of is Activation lock, We've had a couple of stacks over the years where nobody knows the apple ID associated with each device. Just double check each one isn't signed into some random personal apple ID and find my iPad is disabled.

[Squip]

I need to find a a way to batch automate this. Surely I can find some apple script or AC2 process that detects a new unsupervised ipad, wipes it then prepares it....

 

Blueprint in AC2: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/apple-configurator-mac/cad5b401e306/mac

[Planehazza]

Thanks,all, I'll knock shared devices on the head for now, but it is probably going to crop up again in at least one of our primaries. They're keen to roll out Google Classroom on them and want the Year 3-6 pupils signing in to Google with individual accounts - I have plenty of experience of this nightmare where the onus is on the user to sign out of accounts on the device. The best option is sign in solution on the iPads itself, so I may need to investigate federated accounts between ASM and Google Workspace... sigh.

 

Other thing to be wary of is Activation lock, We've had a couple of stacks over the years where nobody knows the apple ID associated with each device. Just double check each one isn't signed into some random personal apple ID and find my iPad is disabled.

 

Yes, I feel your pain. PE came up to me once with a bunch of first gen iPad minis from about 2010 (they were old anyway) - "need these setting up with XYZ". Never seen them before supervised by a device that no longer exists and had personal iTunes accounts of former employees. Into the bin they went. Some went the office museum!

Have just done 200 with configurator before Apple broke it with the latest osx.

 

Used two 5 port powered USB hubs to do 10 at a time and upgraded to an ssd in the Mac mini as the brain dead software will 'download' the software every single time. It's like they don't realize that not everyone works at Apple.

 

Once they are on the Apple school manager it is way easier but the enrolment stage is rubbish. The MSP people I have talked to use huge powerd hubs and a few more redos when they fail.

 

I had to use a PC with iTunes to restore an iPad recently as the latest osx refused with the usual nothing is wrong error messages.

 

Yeah I looked at the griffin docking station mentioned earlier but I would get approval for a £600 device for setting up iPads that are eventually destined to be decomissioned most likely

Blueprint in AC2: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/apple-configurator-mac/cad5b401e306/mac

 

Thanks for that. I hadn't actually had a chance to look into it in depth but I wondered if Blueprints would be the answer. I haven't 'had' to use them in a few years now so hopefully this will speed up the process...

[DGardiner]

Thanks,all, I'll knock shared devices on the head for now, but it is probably going to crop up again in at least one of our primaries. They're keen to roll out Google Classroom on them and want the Year 3-6 pupils signing in to Google with individual accounts - I have plenty of experience of this nightmare where the onus is on the user to sign out of accounts on the device. The best option is sign in solution on the iPads itself, so I may need to investigate federated accounts between ASM and Google Workspace... sigh

 

 

The federated accounts works well but it doesnt do any grouping, the users login, it forwards to google and makes them set an ipad pin which logs them in going forward its a bit clunky... id rather it just made them login with google every time.

 

it also makes alot of the actual benefits of shared ipads a bit awkward though, it doesnt see groups/etc so all the backend setup is manual

[Planehazza]

Blueprint in AC2: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/apple-configurator-mac/cad5b401e306/mac

 

Dude, I'm stupid. I didn't know until now you could apply setup and prepare steps to a blueprint. It makes total sense now too.

[JRA]

I'm legit doing the same thing as you over Christmas, except I've only got 300. Going from Mosyle and unending suffering to Jamf and no doubt blissful academic perfection.

 

I'll race you.