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Adding computers to Apple Business Manager / Apple School Manager with Apple Configurator

  • Updated

Introduction

Apple Configurator for iPhone enables users to add any Mac that has the T2 Security Chip or Apple silicon to your organisation in Apple Business Manager / Apple School Manager so that Automated Device Enrolment can be used.

Please note: Apple Configurator workflows are only covered in this article for informational purposes only. We do not support this as a primary method of assigning computers to Apple Business Manager / Apple School Manager using Configurator and strongly recommend contacting your reseller so that they can assign them directly. Support requests for Apple Configurator will be declined by our Service Desk, as the Apple Configurator application and Apple Business Manager / Apple School Manager services are not owned/managed/operated by dataJAR.

This document gives a high-level overview of the steps to add a computer to your Apple Business Manager (ABM) or Apple School Manager (ASM) portal and datajar.mobi instance.

Further details are provided by Apple here:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/apple-configurator/welcome/ios 

Requirements

The following is a list of requirements to add a macOS computer to ABM/ASM:

  • The computer must not already be in an existing ABM/ASM portal.
  • The computer must be running macOS 12 or higher.
  • The computer must have an Apple silicon processor or an Apple T2 Security Chip (Intel).
  • The computer will need to be wiped to complete this process.
  • An iPhone or iPad running iOS 15 or higher.
  • The credentials for your ABM/ASM account.
  • The URL for your datajar.mobi instance.

Install Apple Configurator

Install Apple Configurator on your iPhone or iPad using the App Store. If the device is managed by dataJAR, Apple Configurator can be deployed as a managed application through Managed Distribution/Volume Purchase via Apple Business Manager / Apple School Manager.

A direct link to the Apple Configurator application in the App Store can be found here:

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/apple-configurator/id1588794674

 

Assign a computer to Apple Business Manager / Apple School Manager

The steps below provide a broad overview of the process to add a computer to Apple Business Manager / Apple School Manager:

  1. Sign in to Apple Configurator on the iPhone/iPad using your organisation's Managed Apple ID with the Device Enrolment Manager role. To provide a network configuration for the Mac, share the network configuration of the iPhone or choose a configuration profile to install on the Mac.
    Screenshot_2022-05-13_at_14.48.47.png
  2. Erase and reinstall macOS 12 or higher on the computer.
  3. Select the language in Setup Assistant, click Continue, then do not progress any further after reaching the Country or Region pane.
  4. Bring the iPhone/iPad that's running Apple Configurator near the computer. The computer will show an image and display a PIN:Screenshot_2022-05-13_at_14.49.17.png
  5. The serial number and other information about the computer are uploaded to Apple School Manager/Apple Business Manager.Screenshot_2022-05-13_at_14.51.09.png
  6. Wait for the assignment process to complete, then click Shut Down to turn off the computer. Do not restart the computer until you complete the following steps:
        1. Sign in to Apple School Manager/Apple Business Manager
        2. Select Devices from the sidebar, then use the filter to show only “Devices added by Apple Configurator.”. The computer should appear in the list. (You may need to refresh the list of devices before the newly assigned computer appears.)
  7. The computer may now be transferred to an existing MDM server. Choose the appropriate “datajar.mobi” server from the list to assign the computer to dataJAR.
  8. Please refer to the following guide to assign the computer to an appropriate Pre-Stage and enrol it into dataJAR.mobi: Enrolling macOS devices into datajar.mobi via Automatic Device Enrolment (ADE)

 

Need further support?

If you still require assistance with us or have any further questions, please raise a ticket with our support team.

Alternatively, please see our frequently updated knowledge base articles for reference.

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