Distributing apps to Apple School Manager devices

4 min

You can distribute apps to teachers and students. The simplest way to do this is to use Apple Licenses and a label for teachers and students. Typically, you would distribute the Classroom app to teachers, and other apps to students. You will need to apply device-based Apple licenses to the iOS apps you distribute to Apple School Manager devices.

Using a device-based Apple License allows Apple School Manager users to install and use the iOS apps you distribute to them, regardless of the account they use on the device. By configuring any distributed apps to automatically install to the device after the device is registered to Ivanti EPMM, you ensure your users have the requisite apps.

Shared iPad logged-in users are not allowed to install apps via the Apple App Store and are required to be installed through MDM.

Prerequisites

You need to set up Apple Licenses on Ivanti EPMM before distributing iOS apps to Apple School Manager devices. For more information, see "Importing licensed apps from Apple Licenses account" in the Ivanti EPMM Apps@Work Guide.

Complete the procedure in Synchronizing Ivanti EPMM with Apple Education servers.

For detailed instructions on adding importing apps for use in Apple Education, see the "Using the wizard to import iOS apps from the Apple App Store" section in the Ivanti EPMM Apps@Work Guide.

Procedure

In the Admin Portal, go to Apps > App Catalog.

Select Add+.

Select iTunes.

Search for the app by name, for example enter Classroom to search for the Classroom app.

Select the app and then select Next.

Enter the basic information into the screen. The Application Name and Min. OS Version fields are read-only.

Select Next.

Select Send convert unmanaged to managed app request on device registration or sign-in (iOS 9 or later) so that after device registration is complete, the device user is prompted to install this app. If the app is already installed as an unmanaged app, the app will be converted to a managed app.

Select Enforce conversion from unmanaged to managed app (iOS 9 or later) to allow the app to be converted from an unmanaged app to a managed app in Apps@Work on devices running iOS 9 through the most recently released version supported by Ivanti, Inc. The unmanaged app will not require uninstall, as it will be converted directly to a managed app.

Select Finish. The app displays in the App Catalog.

Repeat the preceding steps for any student apps you want to distribute to student devices.

Create two labels, one for teachers, and one for students.

Go to Device & Users > Labels and select Add Label.

Enter a unique name for the label, such as teachers or students.

For the label type, select Filter.

In the Criteria field, enter a search expression for the label. For the teachers label, enter: "apple_education.role = "teacher" For the students label, enter: "apple_education.role = "student"

Select Save.

Repeat these steps so that you have one label for teachers and one label for students.

Apply a device-based Apple license to the app or apps.

Select Apps > App Catalog.

Use the check box to select the app or apps to which to apply Apple License device-based licensing.

Select Manage Licenses from the Actions menu.

In the License Summary page, select the desired license account.

In the Account Details page, expand License Type, select Device-based License, and then select Save.

Expand License Label Management and select the desired labels so that target devices that request the selected app receive device-based Apple licenses. This applies to devices running iOS 9.0 or supported newer versions.

Apply the apps to the relevant labels.

Select Apps > Apps Catalog, and check the box next to the Classroom app.

Select Actions > Apply to Labels.

Select the teachers label you created and select Apply.

Repeat these steps with the students label, and any apps you want to distribute to students.