Mass Deployment

Question

Level 1

15 points

Mass Deployment

I'm looking for a good deployment solution. We have two carts of 30 iPads that need to be set up exactly. We used the enterprise store to purchase the licenses, but is there a good deployment tool will allow you to set up one iPad the way you want it and clone it out to the others? I know that you can sync one that's set up and restore its backup to all of the other ones, but come on, that's not realistic. Plus, They each have a unique name that contains the asset number, so restoring them from a backup would mean going through and renaming each of them once it's done. There's got to be a better solution in this area. This seems to me to be an area that Apple is EXTREMELY lacking in (enterprise in gerneal). We have them set up according to which apps we want, which screens they have, and which folders they have (and what screens the folders are on). If anyone knows of a programs or solution to this we'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Kyle

Posted on Sep 19, 2011 9:56 AM

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Answer 1

gyrhead

Level 3

785 points

Sep 19, 2011 10:12 AM in response to Kyle Weber

Lion Server and it's integrated Profile Manager might be what you are looking for.

Profile Manager offers you simple yet powerful ways to set up and remotely manage computers running Lion and iOS devices such as iPad and iPhone. It also simplifies the creation of new configuration profiles and user accounts for mail, calendar, contacts, and chat; enforcement of restrictions; PIN and password policies; configuration of system settings; and more. Because it’s integrated with the Apple Push Notification service, Profile Manager can send out updated configurations over the air automatically. And it includes web-based administration, so you can manage your server from any modern web browser. Profile Manager even gives users access to a self-service web portal where they can download and install new configuration profiles, as well as clear passcodes and remotely lock or wipe devices that are lost or stolen.

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Answer 2

rccharles

Level 6

13,037 points

Sep 19, 2011 11:21 AM in response to Kyle Weber

Look at administrating iPads in the school environment. They are figuring this out.

gyrhead is an administrator in a middle school.

Robert

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Answer 3

Kyle Weber Author

Level 1

15 points

Sep 19, 2011 11:33 AM in response to gyrhead

gyrhead,

Thank you for your response. We are using profiles for things such as our wireless networks and security features. However, this utility doesn't seem to have any settings for how the home screens are arranged, what's in folders, etc. We're setting up a few labs for little elementary kids. It's much easier if you can say "go to the screen that looks like this" rather then "find program such anad such". As so, we'd like a uniform look across the lab. It would take days to set them each up to be identical, and the restore option isn't a valid solution as it too would take a very long time to deploy (not to mention that it renames them to whatever the master was). Thanks so much for your help!

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Answer 4

gyrhead

Level 3

785 points

Sep 19, 2011 11:54 AM in response to Kyle Weber

In our special education and lower elementary deployments all the apps that relate to a particular area are in folders that are named ABC , 123, etc. At the upper levels apps are put in folders called ELA, Productivity, Reference, etc.. You can put 30 ipads at once in the Bretford sync cart to set them up. If you need to rename it is just a double click in itunes. I am not sure why you need to have unique names...I put the serial number on the back of each one with a label gun and keep an inventory database by room and serial number.

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Answer 5

Sep 19, 2011 12:26 PM in response to Kyle Weber

Renaming is the least of your issues. You can actually plug in multiple Apple devices via a USB hub and the just click on the name and rename each from one computer. iTunes will recognize them as separate devices, even if they are all named the same. This means that once you transfer the image over all you need to do is click on the name of each device and rename it. This works well, especially if you are just restoring the same devices to the same image every so often. It gets really complicated when you are constantly setting up new images on new devices on a mass scale. (Hundreds at a time.)

You can also find a few pieces of hardware to help you out, such as powered USB hubs designed for this purpose. Datamotion Systems Inc. makes several such devices. http://www.pc-security.com/

Note: These are hardware only, you need to figure out how to image devices on your own.

One of my biggest issues is getting in hundreds of devices that require an iOS update. Even with the USB devices you can only update the iOS on 1 device at a time.

I found this article: http://wiki.canby.k12.or.us/groups/ipodusergroup/wiki/a507f/ and intend to test some of this out this week. It does require use of a Mac but other than that it looks promising.

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Answer 6

Kyle Weber Author

Level 1

15 points

Sep 19, 2011 12:43 PM in response to 2JollyRogers

Thanks for the links. We're currently using the labs that have a built in hub. You plug the iPads into the cart and there's one cable that comes out the top. That part is pretty slic and the naming isn't too bad. Hopefully Apple will release some real enterprise tools in the near future (but I've been saying that since before iOS 3, so I won't hold my breath).

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Answer 7

NBeszhak

Level 1

0 points

Jan 17, 2012 7:06 AM in response to Kyle Weber

Kyle, Did you ever find a solution to deploying the ipad apps so the folder arrangement and app location is identical with all the machines? I am in an elementary building and don't want to spend the time manually creating folders on each of the machines.

Thanks

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Answer 8

Kyle Weber Author

Level 1

15 points

Jan 17, 2012 7:17 AM in response to NBeszhak

NBeszhak wrote:

Kyle, Did you ever find a solution to deploying the ipad apps so the folder arrangement and app location is identical with all the machines? I am in an elementary building and don't want to spend the time manually creating folders on each of the machines.

Thanks

Unfortunately no. What we ended up doing was setting up one iPad just the way we want it, then backing that iPad up. We then restored each iPad from the backup that was created. We have one of the carts that plugs in all of the computers to one computer at once, which helped. However, after that you have to go back and rename each device. It's far from an ideal solution.

There's two things that I'd like to see from Apple:

1. An actual way to mas configure, monitor, and deploy iOS devices.

2. Being able to view the iPads with ARD or some similar program. When you have an entire school starting to use iPads, it would be nice to be able to check up on the devices every now and then and see if the kids are working on their assignments or playing angry birds.

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Answer 9

gyrhead

Level 3

785 points

Jan 17, 2012 7:26 AM in response to Kyle Weber

About 52 million ipads have been sold to date, with less than 1 million going to k-12 education. This means that you will not see much of a response from Apple to make the ipad easier to deploy for k-12, but you will see some good products from 3rd party MDM vendors to address corporate and education deployment and management needs.

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Answer 10

Kyle Weber Author

Level 1

15 points

Jan 17, 2012 7:37 AM in response to gyrhead

That is probably so. However, our Apple reps paint a very different picture. They talk of "massive educational adoption". But yeah, the numbers just aren't showing it... Then again, they also say that Apple is still "just as committed to enterprise as ever", while Apple discontinues the xServe and is rumored to discontinue the Mac Pro...

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Answer 11

Jan 17, 2012 12:29 PM in response to Kyle Weber

I've deployed a little over two thousand iPads in our K-12 district (with another 600-700 coming this summer).

The observation that Apple cares little for K12, in my opinion, is absolutely true -- and the abysmal lack of enterprise quality tools validate that Apple views the primar target as 1:1 users.

That's not a bad thing, nor is Apple at "fault". It's simply an observation that Education and Enterprise are courting Apple; not the other way around.

There are some new tools on the horizon -- until then, I'd strongly suggest looking into using Xcode as part of your deployment framework (it's a definite must when it comes to upgrading carts). Also useful for me has been the command line "AppleMobileBackup" binary inside of AppleMobileDeviceHelper.app -- it does a good job of making an initial password-less backup 'Master'.

This stuff is painful, though. Especially when you need a lot of iTunes accounts (hint: you'll need to notify Apple's Anti-Fraud group to get your IP cleared so that you don't get blacklisted when creating multiple accounts), are looking to insititue Find my iPad on all of your devices, etc...

Good luck.

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