Activating Apple devices
Configuring DEP in both Apple Business Manager (ABM) and KACE Cloud can seem like a lot of work, but the payoff is that you can now deploy Apple devices into your workforce without having to touch them first. Now that it is configured, let’s look at what you see in KACE Cloud when new devices are purchased and how to configure and activate them.
Assigning new devices
If you configured everything to be automatic, then new devices are automatically assigned to the MDM server in ABM, automatically synchronized with KACE Cloud, and automatically associated with a DEP profile. These devices will up in the system with the Unenrolled status. This happens because they are not activated yet, which means they are not actually able to be managed by KACE Cloud. You can only see the serial number of the device, because that is all the information that Apple provides until the device is enrolled.
Activating a device
To get the device enrolled, the device must be activated. This is done by one of the following:
- Turning on the device, or
- resetting the device to factory defaults.
Remember, this has to be done AFTER the device has been synchronized from DEP to KACE Cloud. Doing it before the process is complete results in the device being set up as just a normal iOS device.
If the DEP profile is configured to force MDM enrollment, then the device is automatically enrolled during the activation process. If you manually enrolled an iOS device before, you will notice one big difference: the DEP-enrolled device does not ask for a user name and password during the enrollment process. Instead, these devices are automatically enrolled without an assigned user, but you can manually assign a user to the device once enrollment is complete.
After the device is activated and enrolled, all configuration items and policies that are marked for auto-deployment are pushed out to the device. Once complete, the device is ready for use.
When the end user receives their company-owned device, they must complete the setup process. Once the device logs in to the KACE Cloud server, it is automatically managed, provided that Automatically Assign New Devices is selected when you configured the related MDM server.
Additionally, administrators can manage the setting that allows supervised devices to register with activation lock. For more information, see Enable activation lock on iOS devices.