Intro to Apple services with Fleetsmith
You must pair Fleetsmith with Apple Push Notification service (APNs) so devices can receive notifications and so you can link Fleetsmith to Apple School Manager or Apple Business Manager. You can also decide which Apple IDs (Managed or personal) users should use on their devices.
Apple Push Notification service
Apple devices learn of updates, MDM policies, and incoming messages through Apple Push Notification service (APNs). For your Apple devices to work with APNs, you must allow network traffic from the devices to Apple’s network (17.0.0.0/8) on port 5223, with a fallback option of port 443. You may also need to configure your web proxy or firewall ports to allow all network traffic from Apple devices to Apple’s network.
Apple School Manager and Apple Business Manager
Apple School Manager and Apple Business Manager are simple, web-based portals for IT administrators to deploy iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, and Mac computers all from one place. When these portals are used with Fleetsmith, you can configure device settings and buy and distribute apps and books. And Apple School Manager integrates with Student Information Systems (SISs) and federated authentication with Microsoft Azure Active Directory (AD) so you can quickly create accounts with school rosters and classes. You can also upload accounts using SFTP.
Note: To learn whether Apple School Manager is available in your country or region, see the Apple Support article Availability of Apple programs for education and business.
Use Managed Apple IDs or personal Apple IDs
When setting up a new device, one of the Setup Assistant panes asks the user to sign in with an Apple ID. Signing in with an Apple ID during device setup is necessary in order to use features like iCloud services and the macOS App Store.
Fleetsmith doesn’t create new Apple IDs for users. Users can use their Managed Apple ID, personal Apple ID, or create a new Apple ID using their company email address.
With Apple School Manager– or Apple Business Manager–enrolled devices, it’s possible to hide the Apple ID setup screen if you prefer that users don’t sign in at all. This can be configured at [company-name].fleetsmith.com/mdm/configuration.