Enrolling an iOS device using Apple Configurator 2

This article covers the enrollment of an iOS device in the Mobile Guardian platform using Apple Configurator 2. 

Apple Configurator 2 is an OS X (macOS) application that allows for mass configuration of iOS 9+ devices while being physically connected to the Mac Computer. Mobile Guardian provides administrators the ability to mass enroll and supervise devices using this application. 

Note: If your iOS devices are not in Apple's DEP you would use this manual enrollment method (Apple Configurator 2) using the enrollment URL that is provided by Mobile Guardian. 

You may be wondering why a school may want to use configurator as well as Mobile Guardian. The answer has to do with extended functionality and ease of use. With Apple configurator, the devices need to be physically connected to the Mac computer in order to be communicated with. Once the devices have been unplugged then configurator cannot communicate with the device. This has its obvious limitations and would be time consuming for the IT administrator. Using Mobile Guardian, the IT administrator is able to communicate with the device over the air and this extends to application installs, updates, device actions such as locking the device, location-based configurations, etc. The benefits of Mobile Guardian become a lot clearer when describing the limitations of physically connecting the device whenever something needs to change, and for a school with over 1000 devices this becomes an impossible task.

The following steps will show you how to enroll your devices using Apple Configurator 2:

Step 1

The preparation stage requires a few screens for you to move through but they are quite simple and should not take very long. What you would need to get from Mobile Guardian is the iOS Configurator URL which is specific to your Mobile Guardian account and you can find this by navigating to Devices > Add new school device and then selecting the IOS CONFIGURATOR tab to show the following screen:

Copy this URL to your clipboard so can paste it into the correct area in the Apple Configurator 2 preparation step. 

Step 2

You will need to download the AC2 application form the Mac App Store. If you have not done this already then you can do this by clicking here. Once you have downloaded the app you can open and run it. 

Plug in your device(s) and see them appear on the All Devices screen within Apple Configurator. 

Step 3

You would then ned to prepare Apple Configurator for your devices by clicking on the "Prepare" in the top bar within the Apple Configurator app. 

The manual process is being shown in this article therefore you can select the Manual configuration option. Then click Next.

Step 4

You would like to enroll in MDM so please select the New server... option in the dropdown. Then click Next. 

Step 5

You would need to then define a server which is where you would enter a name of your choosing (we recommend Mobile Guardian so that you know exactly what the server is referring to) and then paste the URL you copied from the Mobile Guardian dashboard in Step 1. Then click Next. 

Step 6

Do not be alarmed if you see the following screen with the message "unsupported URL". Click Next again.

Step 7

On the trust screen you can also click Next. 

Step 8

Choose if you would like the devices Supervised by your organization. Choose if you would like to allow pairing with other computers. Click Next.

Note: 

Supervision will allow many additional restrictions to be added to devices in Mobile Guardian later. Supervision helps keep your iOS devices managed by your school.

The "pair" option will not allow these iOS devices to connect to other computers via USB cable. If you do not allow pairing here, they will be undetectable to other computers via iTunes, Apple Configurator, or any USB detection. 

Step 9

Choose New Organisation. Then Click Next.

Step 10

Choose what steps you would like the iOS initial setup assistant to skip. Then Click Prepare

On-device Steps 

Once you’ve completed these steps, Configurator will begin setting up the devices you selected initially or plug in subsequently. As these devices are configured, they will appear in Mobile Guardian automatically.

Apple Configurator will now download the latest iOS version from Apple and install it on the connected devices. Be patient while the latest iOS version downloads and installs. All devices will now be prepared with these settings, which requires a device factory reset Now, your devices will be at their iOS initial setup assistant "Hello" screen. You will need to configure each iOS device from here one by one, just so it can connect to wifi and receive the enrollment profile.

Once you have gone through the setup steps on the device (this is based off your selections in Step 10) you should choose your wifi network and then see a screen asking if you want to accept the automatic configuration. Apply configuration here and you will be enrolled in Mobile Guardian. 

You can see the devices enrolling in the Device List screen within Mobile Guardian.