You would probably be better served by using the cart model (i.e. install apps with Configurator, manage with JSS) for your pilot. Migrate to official 1:1 deployment practices when you go 1:1.

@bbelew - we are looking into this as well but don't have any answers yet. Been in talks with Apple but haven't gotten anywhere.

Configurator model for shared carts is what apple recommends, but it's unfortunate to give up the ability to silently push apps just because a device is assigned to a cart versus a student. I wouldn't go as far to say anyone is 'better served' using Configurator to do anything. Locally stored databases across several schools (or sites) is a crazy way to manage devices in 2014 in my opinion.

Reminds me of the days when you had to plug in your iPhone to a computer to do OS updates.

I HATE the cart model. Having to touch all of those devices to install an app is a non-start for me. I'd rather not pilot a 1:1 program.. Plus I haven't had the greatest success with the carts. We have three carts of 30. Running them through configurator there is a 99% chance that 80% of them will fail in one way shape or form. Causing me to have to do them one at a time.

I spoke with apple's dep team and they said the "for students" portion is just for students and not to use it to mass create shared accounts. So i'll just manually create them all this summer. Not going to be fun but a day or two of pain is better than forcing teachers to bring me the devices when its time to update or put new apps on them.

Isn't this supposed to help you achieve what your after?

https://www.apple.com/education/it/dep/

I've never gone down that path yet, but maybe its what your looking for.

DEP is what I would be using to over the air supervise. Since the devices wouldn't be assigned to individual students in the pilot but instead shared accounts the Apple ID's for students portion of DEP won't work.

Any updates on this? HATE the cart also and wondering do you still have to have a cart with Casper? Or do you still have to use Configurator because of the shared apple id's??

The migration path from cart to 1:1 is non-existent. Managing iPads in a cart environment is not equal to a 1:1 environment. Making an AppleID per iPad is a hack at best unfortunately. The idea of using individual AppleID's works with the label on the back but wow is that the hard way... It may be a trial instructionally, but it is not technically.

For a cart, you're going to want to break down and do configurator most likely for managing licensed items. I know it sucks but it is the tool for that specific job. Casper and Configurator can certainly work together for some things and there is a positive impact there but otherwise, it's not fun.

From what I've heard, relief is coming in this area, but I don't have a timeline.

The problem with the cart model and no DEP is that profile management becomes so much more work then it needs to be. The only way to guarantee that profiles can't be removed and device restored is to use DEP. Its a pain but it is possible and we are attempting that route this year ourselves. There are scripts and programs that can batch create Apple ID's we are not quite there in our workflow for next year but they are out there with mixed reviews (search for Batch Apple ID's for some reading on this). I would say if you can wait Configurator2 and iOS9 are supposed to fix things where you can use DEP and the cart model. I would say don't create an ID for each iPad instead have each room have one and share the ID.

There are also workflows where one ID and Casper is used to distribute apps to 1000's of ipads. I would search for that too (sorry I don't have the thread link on that). The issue there is it is an unsupported workflow. Hope this helps you a bit.

@bbelew

We just used this to create a bunch of Apple IDs for our iPad carts: https://github.com/garrya100/Apple-ID-Creator-Universal

We used the 10 device limit per ID to our advantage and have 3 IDs per cart. We also called to whitelist our IP so that we would not get limited on Apple ID creation and I suggest you do the same if you go this route.

Worked perfectly for us, but unfortunately still need to verify each Apple ID after they are created unless there is a way to do that which I am unaware of.

Hope this is like something you are looking for!