iPad Management and Deployment

Amraam · 19 Aug 2015 at 15:55

Juist taken on a new role in a school, and I've inherited the management and deployment of ~40 iPads - something I have zero experience in.

Can I ask what people find the best method to manage bulk app purchasing etc? I'm doing my best to read up and understand Apple's way of doing it but it just seems so overly complicated.

Do I have to use Apple Configurator and an MDM? Or is there a better, simple all in one solution? I here reference to Meraki and Casper - is it worthwhile looking into these as alternatives?

Thanks!

Deleted member 77746 · 19 Aug 2015 at 16:16

JamF - Casper! We use it and it's fantastic.

zoomee · 19 Aug 2015 at 17:22

Meraki does well in the educational sector - not sure if its still free though since cisco took over.

Mr.Stu · 19 Aug 2015 at 18:03

Another vote for Meraki, very slick.

Amraam · 19 Aug 2015 at 18:44

Mr.Stu said:
Another vote for Meraki, very slick.

It's free up to 100 devices I believe which suits us well. It still requires the use of an MDM I believe which is where I'm getting confused... I thought it was an MDM?

traveyb · 19 Aug 2015 at 22:02

We use VMware AirWatch at my place for our iOS devices (and soon to be OSX mwahaha)

Amraam · 20 Aug 2015 at 08:13

OK so I've registered with Meraki. So far I've got my Apple MDM certificate registered. Am I right in saying I now need to enroll with Apple's VPP and DEP?

squerble · 20 Aug 2015 at 13:05

Apple Configurator on it's own should have been suitable. We do all our staff and student iPads, iPhones and Macs with it.

Mr.Stu · 21 Aug 2015 at 16:44

Amraam said:
It's free up to 100 devices I believe which suits us well. It still requires the use of an MDM I believe which is where I'm getting confused... I thought it was an MDM?

It is an MDM, as well as lots of other stuff

PurplePhoenix · 21 Aug 2015 at 20:30

Amraam said:
OK so I've registered with Meraki. So far I've got my Apple MDM certificate registered. Am I right in saying I now need to enroll with Apple's VPP and DEP?

Use Meraki and sign up for a educational account with apple.

You will find schools like Apple as it showing off. Need make sure it is right for the school and education for students.

traveyb · 21 Aug 2015 at 22:13

squerble said:
Apple Configurator on it's own should have been suitable. We do all our staff and student iPads, iPhones and Macs with it.

Yup we use Apple Configurator to load our AirWatch profile and to put them devices into supervises. Works well. Hopefully our network provider will soon support DEP so everything will be automated

Amraam · 26 Aug 2015 at 10:12

the macbook pro that supervises the ipad is dead and needs to be wiped and reinstalled. If I reinstall configurator on the same device, will it be able to unsupervise the devices or will it whine on saying that another configurator is supervising the ipads?

traveyb · 26 Aug 2015 at 21:00

Hmm not sure on that one. Reading through this article (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202430) it says:

If you have supervised devices with Apple Configurator and you lose the Apple Configurator data files, the devices are still supervised by your Mac with Configurator. Apple Configurator will not be able to reinstall app backups or user data onto those supervised devices

Not sure what that is really implying. Might be best off going on the Apple support forums