Intro to federated authentication with Apple School Manager
You use federated authentication to link Apple School Manager to the following:
Google Workspace
Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD)
Your identity provider (IdP)
As a result, your users can leverage their Google Workspace, Azure AD or IdP user names (User Principal Name) and passwords as Managed Apple IDs. They can then use those credentials to sign in to their assigned iPhone, iPad or Mac, and even to iCloud on the web.
Note: You can link to Google Workspace, Azure AD or your IdP, but only one at a time.
To use federated authentication, your Apple devices must meet the following operating system requirements:
Usage | Minimum supported operating system | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Federated authentication with Microsoft Azure AD | iOS 11.3 iPadOS 13.1 macOS 10.13.4 | ||||||||||
Federated authentication with Google Workspace | iOS 15.5 iPadOS 15.5 macOS 12.4 | ||||||||||
Federated authentication with your identity provider | iOS 15.5 iPadOS 15.5 macOS 12.4 |
There are specific instances where you might use federated authentication:
Federated authentication only
When Apple School Manager and Google Workspace, Azure AD or your IdP are linked, users who sign in to Apple School Manager using their Google Workspace, Azure AD or your IdP user name and password have those same credentials become their Managed Apple ID automatically. If a user is removed from Google Workspace, Azure AD or your IdP, that user can be removed from Apple School Manager.
Federated authentication and Shared iPad
When you use federated authentication with Shared iPad, the sign-in process varies depending on whether the user already exists in Apple School Manager. To view the sign-in scenarios, see Sign in to Shared iPad.
The default password policy is standard (8 or more letters and numbers) and can be changed. See Password policy scenarios.
If the user forgets their passcode, you must reset the Shared iPad passcode.
Federated authentication with users from SIS or SFTP
When you link to Google Workspace, Azure AD or your IdP, Managed Apple IDs are automatically created for users, and they simply sign in with their current email address as their Managed Apple ID.
You then link to your Student Information System (SIS) or upload files with Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). All information, such as classes and rosters, are matched against users from Google Workspace, Azure AD or your IdP. If a user is removed from Google Workspace, Azure AD or your IdP, that user must be deactivated in Apple School Manager by an account with privileges to change the status of users.
Important: If you are connecting to a Student Information System (SIS) or importing users with Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), and using federated authentication, the user’s email address in SIS must match their Google Workspace, Azure AD or your IdP user name that they already use to sign in.