Configurator - Preparing with Bretford tray/cart

[CasperSally]

We have been happily managing shared classroom iPads with iTunes and not Configurator thus far. I have avoided Configurator because we don't like the lack of flexibility with VPP app codes (we have iPads that get damaged that I wouldn't be able to return the codes to the Configurator station before sending to apple.. and thus lose those apps as I understand it when Apple replaces with new device). Right now apps are tied to an iTunes account (we do buy enough app codes to cover our devices), but no matter what happens to an individual device, we can always reload apps.

I haven't tested lately, but I found the app deployment with VPP codes in JSS too unreliable to depend on.

We also load 150+ PDFs through Itunes (organized in groups by chapter) on each device which I don't believe is possible with Configurator. The only negative with our iTunes set up is the initial set up - when you restore from backup to the ipads - even with a Bretford tray you can only restore one iPad at a time which is VERY time consuming (~12 mins per device).

Does anyone know does Configurator with a bretford tray allow you to prepare (restore from backup, including installing base set of apps) multiple devices at the same time? If so, this may be a reason to finally consider Configurator if our rollout of iPads continues to grow, even if the trade off is no more PDFs loaded by groups on the devices.

Will test for myself, but thought maybe someone can give a quick yes or no if preparing multiple devices simultaneously is possible.

Thanks!

[lehmanp00]

Yes it does.

However I must elaborate!

*I have not used Configurator for a few months so maybe some of this has changed

1. Apps with VPP codes are 1 time use I believe. I have used Configurator and don't bother with VPP Apps because of that. JSS is little better. What do you do when you have to wipe a device and re-install all the apps? Neither Configurator or JSS helps with VPP Apps. Stick with iTunes.

2. Configurator is great for mass updating iOS devices. Just plug in the cart and Configurator will update all the devices for you. But...you still have to unplug each device and go through the setup screens.

3. You can use Configurator to mass wipe devices too. But...that is even worse because you have to go through each devices' setup screens BEFORE you can install any profiles. Configurator will timeout too, so you have to race through the setup screens before it does or you end up having to re-do the profile install either with Configurator (just a profile run) or just do it manually.

4. Configurator does have a nice file copy window. Just drag files into it and it will be downloaded on the device. Not sure if it can do folders (or groups?) however.

What I do (at each of our 7 schools) is:

Update iOS: either use iTunes or OTA on each device.
Wipe a device: iTunes
Apps: iTunes or JSS
VPP Apps: iTunes
Profiles: JSS

You will end up having to touch each device for almost every task. That isn't really Configurators' fault more than the nature of the iOS eco-system. To me that makes Configurator almost not worth having. If Apple would at least let us skip the setup screens every time we update or wipe a device with Configurator, that would help a lot.

[CasperSally]

lehmanp00 - thanks for the great response.

Regarding Configurator - "What do you do when you have to wipe a device and re-install all the apps" as I understand as long as the iPad is still booting, you can plug the device in and return the app (codes?) to the database to be reissued before you wipe it. If the iPad doesn't boot (or you somehow lose your Configurator database to hard drive crash without a backup), you are out of luck and lose the VPP codes.

It sounds like your workflow is similar to mine... Although I do profiles through IPCU - one click enrollment in JSS is so much faster that OTA. How many iPads do you have? Right now we're around 350 shared devices and the summer set up is so time consuming versus imaging 350 laptops. We are considering buying hundreds more this summer (500+ additional ipads, or maybe even more if they get the cheaper mini).

Now I'm leaning towards build one master iPad with no apps but all local settings applied, create backup, restore backup to all other iPads. Then add apps (and PDFs) to iTunes library and use the sync stations to sync them up because at least then the copying of the apps can happen 30 iPads at a time versus 1. We will lose ability to group PDFs though if we did that, so those may need to go on the master iPad.

Would love to get any feedback if anyone thinks configurator managing hundreds of shared IPads is the way to go.

[lehmanp00]

"I understand as long as the iPad is still booting, you can plug the device in and return the app (codes?) to the database to be reissued before you wipe it. If the iPad doesn't boot (or you somehow lose your Configurator database to hard drive crash without a backup), you are out of luck and lose the VPP codes."

-I would love to know how to do that!

Yea, we are talking very similar number of iPads with more on the way. (hundreds)

My understanding was that IPCU didn't work since iOS 5.1?

We also don't use the Master Backup "image" either. However I know we could.

In all honesty, we have moved away from managing most of our iPads. The users (teachers) didn't like us messing with "their" iPads.

This year what most sites have done is assign a number of iPads to a teacher and their classroom. Those iPads were inventoried and enrolled in JSS. That is it. The teacher was responsible to create an Apple ID and add apps to their classroom iPads as needed. (They are supposed to tell us their Apple ID/passwords. We have a spreadsheet.) It is working very well. We don't have to do much and the teachers can feel like they have ownership of the iPads.

If something goes wrong we can help them troubleshoot. I can wipe the iPad, re-enroll and just hand it back to them. The vast majority just buy apps on the iPads. They don't even bother with iTunes. The only hang-up is VPP apps. The teachers use their classroom account to submit a PO to the Tech Dept. We purchase the VPP app and then either upload the spreadsheet to JSS (easy to install, but the code is lost if wiped) or we just give them the code and they redeem on the iPads.

We do still have Cart iPads. 1 for each building. Those we manage as before.

[CasperSally]

Not managing our iPads isn't an option for us.

See Removing apps from devices (configurator)
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5188?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

We used IPCU with 5.1.1 this summer - looks like iOS6 is also supported "Configuration profiles created with iPhone Configuration Utility 3.6 fully support iOS 6 devices."
http://help.apple.com/iosdeployment-ipcu/win/1.1/#appc28ee0f4

[lehmanp00]

Looking at the Apple KB...

So for supervised devices you can "un-redeem" the app. For unsupervised devices you cannot.

Edited for spelling