Apple School Manager and MDM server

[Dade]

Apple School Manager is the best and easiest way to organise numerous Apple devices and to setup managed Apple accounts to use with them.

Start here to sign up https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/apple-school-manager/axm402206497/web

If you purchase a number of Apple devices at a time most companies can add the purchased devices to the Device Enrolment Programme linked to your ASM allowing you to allocate the device to be managed  with an MDM.

JAMF would be my preferred MDM over LightSpeed and Meraki but they all do the same thing. Mosyle is a notable free MDM also worth a look (more advanced features need a payment but AppleTVs are free to manage).

All are time consuming to learn and setup but once understood and setup as required needs much less time than working separately with individual devices especially if more devices are added overtime.

Managed accounts allow you to reset passwords and give 200GB of iCloud storage to your users so much better than staff making their own personal accounts.

[Jim Bob]

Thanks Dade. I was hoping that our supplier would recommend an MDM to us.
We have quite a number of iPads in our school with apps installed under a school Apple ID. Do the iPads need to be wiped clean in order  to run them in ASM ?

[cully4299]

Thanks Dade. I was hoping that our supplier would recommend an MDM to us.
We have quite a number of iPads in our school with apps installed under a school Apple ID. Do the iPads need to be wiped clean in order  to run them in ASM ?

You contact supplier with the serial numbers and they add to ASM. Once you have the ASM you need to set up a VPP account for apps.

After this is done you link the manager to the MDM and then you have to wipe the device and it will go through the MDM setup.  We ran similar one apple ID for the ipads until 2 years ago where made the switch to a MDM which is a lot easier and a lot more control of them without having to use restrictions in screentime and changing manually on each device.

my biggest annoyance with Lightspeed is the lack of groups so i can say split 60 ipads into 6 groups of 10 and only change a setting on ipads 1-10 etc ( unless im overlooking this and someone here knows.)

[Jim Bob]

Thanks Dade. I was hoping that our supplier would recommend an MDM to us.
We have quite a number of iPads in our school with apps installed under a school Apple ID. Do the iPads need to be wiped clean in order  to run them in ASM ?

You contact supplier with the serial numbers and they add to ASM. Once you have the ASM you need to set up a VPP account for apps.

After this is done you link the manager to the MDM and then you have to wipe the device and it will go through the MDM setup.  We ran similar one apple ID for the ipads until 2 years ago where made the switch to a MDM which is a lot easier and a lot more control of them without having to use restrictions in screentime and changing manually on each device.

my biggest annoyance with Lightspeed is the lack of groups so i can say split 60 ipads into 6 groups of 10 and only change a setting on ipads 1-10 etc ( unless im overlooking this and someone here knows.)

Thanks.
Does Lightspeed cost much ?

[Statach]

We use Lightspeed and its about ?7 per device per year, initial setup with Apple School Manager takes a couple of hours but once its done there's very little to no maintenance.

Add Apps From Apple School Manager then deploy via Lightspeed.

[Dade]

Lightspeed does have a Groups option for me but is not as easy to use as it should be - other MDM's I have used group devices much easier and more logically.

The trick is to make your groups and then add membership to the required group to the device and also to any assigned user of the device. Doing this then lets you manage access to apps in the group under the App menu. The apps then appear via the self-service portal (if enabled in settings). This waydifferent groups can access different apps bwith core apps being inherited from the top group if desired. Whne logged in you can use the ? on the top right on the Lightspeed MDM to search their inbuilt help.

Last March JAMF also cost ?7.20 per iPad, ?13.80 for a Mac licence and ?7.20 for AppleTV's if you wish to manage them also.

I used the free version of Meraki in the past but it wasnt updated regularly like the others and as the new wifi uses the Meraki dashboard it may be worth considering for someone starting out with thier first MDM.

[cully4299]

Lightspeed does have a Groups option for me but is not as easy to use as it should be - other MDM's I have used group devices much easier and more logically.

The trick is to make your groups and then add membership to the required group to the device and also to any assigned user of the device. Doing this then lets you manage access to apps in the group under the App menu. The apps then appear via the self-service portal (if enabled in settings). This waydifferent groups can access different apps bwith core apps being inherited from the top group if desired. Whne logged in you can use the ? on the top right on the Lightspeed MDM to search their inbuilt help.

Last March JAMF also cost ?7.20 per iPad, ?13.80 for a Mac licence and ?7.20 for AppleTV's if you wish to manage them also.

I used the free version of Meraki in the past but it wasnt updated regularly like the others and as the new wifi uses the Meraki dashboard it may be worth considering for someone starting out with thier first MDM.

Where is it you add a device to a group?

Thanks

[Dade]

Once you have your groups organised you can traverse them via the boxes icon on the top left of the main screen and in the devices menu you can then search for a device. When searching you can use the device name to find them or serial number and as you type the devices should appear and the numbers reduce. Once found and selected you can click the Add Membership button beside the required device.

Once you are in a group when you click on group or devices or users or apps you should be in the same group level

For users you can assign them from the top level and then view the required user. Then under Group memberships use the + to beable to find the required group and add them to it. I found that this is essential for use with the app portal.

[Jim Bob]

When using Jamf for  teacher iPads is there a minimum requirement for iOS or iPad storage does anyone know ?
Thought I read somewhere that it?s minimum for 32g for pupil iPads. Would that be for 1-1 iPads or would it be different for shared iPads?

[Dade]

I think that 32GB is the required minimum for shared devices.

Jamf works on devices with 16GB but the device cannot be set up as a shared device.

[Jim Bob]

I think that 32GB is the required minimum for shared devices.

Jamf works on devices with 16GB but the device cannot be set up as a shared device.

Thanks Dade

[Johnny]

Mosyle is a notable free MDM also worth a look (more advanced features need a payment but AppleTVs are free to manage).

Ive been using ASM and Mosyle (the free version) for a couple of years now with our iPads with very few issues once the initial setup was complete.

Mosyle (free) gave me access to pretty much everything I needed and was looking for, the paid version is a tad more user friendly and as Dade said has more advanced features but i've personally never had a need for the features on offer. I think you get 3 free months to the paid version when you sign up if my memory is right