Once the Apple Configurator 2 Command Line Tools are installed, you’ll find a binary called cfgutil at /Applications/Apple Configurator 2.app/Contents/MacOS/cfgutil. The cfgutil command has a number of verbs you can see by running the command followed by the help verb, as follows: /Applications/Apple\ Configurator\ 2.app/Contents/MacOS/cfgutil help The following is a list of officially supported verbs: activate: activate iOS and iPadOS devices. add-tags: add a tag for iOS and iPadOS devices. backup: Create a backup of an iOS or iPadOS device the Configurator computer has prepared. clear-passcode: Clear the passcode a supervised iOS or iPad OS device. erase: Erase any content and settings configured on any supervised iOS and iPadOS devices. exec:…
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Choose An Existing Supervision Identity in Apple Configurator
When using Apple Configurator, you can assign an existing supervision identity to be used with devices you place into supervision. To do so, first open Apple Configurator and click on Organizations. From Organizations, click on the plus sign (“+”). From the Create an Organization screen, click Next. When prompted to provide information about your organization, provide the name, phone, email, and/or address of the organization. If you are importing an identity, select “Choose an existing supervision identity” and click on Next. When prompted, click Choose to select the identity to use (e.g. exported from another instance of Apple Configurator or from Profile Manager). Click Choose when you’ve highlighted the appropriate…
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Automator Actions for the Caspers
Looks like Sal et al posted a suite of Automator Actions to link the Casper Suite to Apple Configurator at https://configautomation.com/jamf-actions.html. In my limited tests so far they work pretty darn well! Some pretty cool things here, like having the JSS rename a mobile device when managed through Apple Configurator, having Apple Configurator instruct the JSS to remove a device from a group, clear passcodes, update inventory, and other common tasks involved in workflows when leveraging Apple Configurator for en masse device management. Good stuff!
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Enable Apple Configurator Debug Logs
Apple Configurator 2 is a great tool. But you need to debug things from time to time. This might mean that a profile is misconfigured and not installing, or that a device can’t perform a task you are sending it to be performed. This is about the time that you need to enable some debug logs. To do so, quit Apple Configurator and then write a string of ALL into the ACULogLevel key in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.configurator.ui/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.configurator.ui.plist: defaults write ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.configurator.ui/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.configurator.ui.plist ACULogLevel -string ALL To disable, quit Apple Configurator and then delete that ACULogLevel key: defaults delete ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.configurator.ui/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.configurator.ui.plist ACULogLevel
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Use Apple Configurator 2 To Automate Casper Enrollment
Enrolling iPads and iPhones into JAMF’s Casper suite can be done through Apple Configurator 2, text messages, email invitations, Apple’s Device Enrollment Program (DEP), or using links deployed to iOS devices as web clips. When doing larger deployments the enrollment process can be automated so that devices are automatically enrolled into Casper when set up using an Enrollment Profile that is manually downloaded from Casper and deployed to device. Additionally, a certificate can be needed if the certificate is not included in the profile, an option available as a checkbox in the setup. While you hopefully won’t need to download the certificate, we’ll cover that as well: Download the Enrollment Profile…
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Manage Profiles To Control Settings On iOS Devices With Apple Configurator 2
Enter Apple Configurator 2, a free tool on the Mac App Store. This tool basically fixes most setup challenges for iOS, but does so over USB. This means that Apple Configurator is not necessarily a replacement for MDM. In fact, you can deploy Trust and Entrollment profiles for MDM and automate the MDM enrollment for a device through Apple Configurator 2. Instead, Apple Configurator 2 is a tool that can either help to manage iOS devices during a mass deployment and do so in a manner that is easy enough that you don’t need a firm background in IT to manage devices on a day-to-day basis. Here is what Apple Configurator can do: Update…
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Upgrade Devices And Apps Using Apple Configurator 2
Apple Configurator has always been able to upgrade devices. But it can also now upgrade apps that are on devices. To run an upgrade, first open Apple Configurator 2. Once open, right-click on a device and click on the Update… option. You can update all assets on the device concurrently, using the default option. Here, we’re going to select to update only the items we need to in the drop-down menu. Select Only Some Apps and then you’ll see a list of each app that needs an upgrade on the device. Check the box for the apps to be updated and then click on the Update button. Apps are updated…
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Using Apple Configurator 2 Blueprints to Manage iOS Devices
Blueprints are a new option in Apple Configurator 2. Blueprints allow you setup a template of settings, options, apps, and restore data, and then apply those Blueprints on iOS devices. For example, if you have 1,000 iOS devices, you can create a Blueprint with a restore item, an enrollment profile, a default wallpaper, skip all of the activation steps, install 4 apps, and then enabling encrypted backups. The Blueprint will provide all of these features to any device that the Blueprint is applied to. But then why not call it a group? Why call it a Blueprint? Because the word template is boring. And you’re not dynamically making changes to devices over…
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Disable iOS Initial Device Activation Options Using Apple Configurator 2
One of the things that Apple Configurator 2, or an MDM solution, can do to make large-scale iOS deployments easier is to disable some of the screens displayed to users during the initial setup of an iOS device. This is critical when trying to get to a zero-touch deployment. On a DEP-based device, most of these steps would be disabled by your MDM solution. However, on a non-DEP-based device, these options would be disabled on the iOS device directly. To disable the initial configuration screens during activation on an iPhone or iPad and therefore require less steps during the setup of devices, first plug a device into Apple Configurator. Then, right-click…
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Copy Big Update Files Between Apple Configurator 2 Machines
One of the things that is awesome and sometimes frustrating about Apple Configurator is that when you do certain tasks, you end up updating the OS on devices. The reason this is awesome is that it allows you to centralize operations. The reason this can be frustrating is that if you’re on a limited bandwidth connection, you may find that you can’t do very basic tasks before downloading a large OS update. And if you’ve got a bunch of Apple Configurator workstations, and you are running a training session, this can get infinitely more annoying. In these types of lab environments, you’re in luck. If you have an ipsw (the iOS…