Skip to main content

Move Android Devices to a New Tenant

Learn how to move devices from one tenant to another, including quick tips to make migration easier. 

You may have a development tenant to test your devices on. When it’s time to move those devices to a tenant where they’ll interact with customers, you can copy your assets from one tenant to another. 

There are many ways to copy assets from one tenant to another. This guide covers how to use Esper’s support tools for our Templates experience. 

Requirements: 

Tip: Ensure that any parameters set for your previous tenant are also set for your new tenant. You may need to contact Esper before moving devices to a new tenant. 

In this article: 

Copying Templates

There are several ways to copy a Template from one tenant to another, but overall, EAST is the most efficient way to copy over Template information. 

Note: It’s not possible to copy a Compliance Policy in the same way as a Template. However, you could create a new Template with the Compliance Policy information applied to it. When you do this, be sure to link any Groups from the previous Template to the new Template.

Use the Esper API Support Tool to quickly copy Templates from one tenant to another. To get started, see the Getting Started with EAST guide.

After setting up EAST, add the tenants you’d like to copy the Templates to and from. Click on File > Add New Tenant and add the tenant information.

File-add-new-tenant-in-the-East-interface.png

After adding the two tenants, switch to the tenant you want to copy the Template from by going to the Tenants menu and selecting the appropriate tenant.

switching-tenants-with-navbar.png

Then go to Run > Clone > Clone Template.

clone-template-selected.png

Select the (previous) Source Tenant and the (new) Destination Tenant and search for the name of the Template you’d like to copy. A preview of the Template will appear. Then press OK to begin cloning the Template.

Note: Search results are case sensitive.

clone-template.png

If there’s an asset in the Template that’s not present in the tenant you’re cloning it to, EAST will attempt to add that asset to the tenant. Assets can include: 

  • Applications 
  • Wallpapers 
  • Linked Groups

Applications: Google Play Store applications will not carry over to tenants that aren’t enrolled in EMM. However, the Template will still copy over without those applications. 

Groups: Only the Group linked to the Template will copy over. Subgroups or parent groups will not copy over. Groups that are copied over will become a subgroup of the All Devices Group.

Recreating the Groups 

Tip: Give the Groups the same names they had in the previous tenant to speed up the process. You’ll be able to verify that devices are moved into the correct Groups and, if you plan to use developer tools, you’ll be able to programmatically move devices. You can always change the Group names at a later time.

If you copied Linked Groups from a Template, the Group will appear in Devices & Groups in the new tenant. You may need to Move Groups to recreate the subgroups from the previous tenant and create any unlinked Groups through the Console interface.

You can also use the API to create Groups in a tenant. The Create Group API can create one Group at a time.

Request

POST https://tenant-api.esper.cloud/api/v0/enterprise/enterprise-id/devicegroup/

Body

Key Required Data
name yes String. The name of the group.
parent no String. The ID of the parent group. 
{
"name": "group name",
"parent": "parent id"
}
Keep in mind that IDs are unique to each tenant. You can take note of a Group’s ID from the JSON body after each successful request, or on that Group’s page. 

Saving a Device Report

Before migrating devices, you should generate a report so you can reference any device information from the previous tenant before the devices are removed.

Use EAST to generate a device report. 

EAST’s device reports also contains the following information which is especially useful for migration: 

  • Serial Number
  • IMEI 1
  • IMEI 2
  • Template
  • Group
  • Alias

Resetting Devices 

Once you’ve created the Templates and Groups you need in the new tenant, it’s time to move devices. Devices will need to be Factory Reset. Use EAST to perform a bulk factory reset. In EAST, navigate to Run > Bulk Factory Reset. Your account will need permissions to Factory Reset the selected devices.

bulk-factory-reset.png

There are different requirements for devices communicating with Esper (online) and those that are not (offline). Learn how to perform a factory reset in both of these cases. 

Setting Up Devices in the New Tenant 

Device IDs are unique to each tenant. After provisioning the devices to a new tenant, they’ll have new IDs.

After a Factory Reset, devices may be provisioned in the new tenant using any of the provisioning methods. 

When you provision the devices with a Template that has a linked Group, the devices are automatically assigned to that Group. 

If you were able to provision the devices with Templates and the appropriate Group, then you can start working with devices on your new tenant!

If, for some reason, you weren’t able to link the new Groups to devices, you can also use the device report and our developer tools to move the devices manually. See the following sections for more information.

Match the Devices Using Device Reports

You should have a report of the devices from the previous tenant. Once you’ve provisioned devices in the new tenant, use EAST to generate a new report. You can then match the new Device IDs to their IMEI or serial numbers in a spreadsheet program. After matching them, you should be able to create a spreadsheet matching the new device IDs to their previous Groups. 

Tip for interacting with our Developer Tools

Whenever you interact with the API (that is, our developer tools), it’s a good idea to perform actions in batches. You can, for example, move 20 devices at a time to ensure you are not rate limited by your network or ours. Start with smaller batches before working up to larger ones.

Using EAST

Use EAST to move devices into Groups. You’ll be able to move 500 devices at a time. Although devices will not have the same IDs they had in the previous tenant, their IMEI information will remain the same. You can use the device report generated in the previous step to verify that the devices are placed in the correct Group. 

In EAST, first select the devices you’d like to move by clicking on Select Devices. 

select-device.png

Ensure that the devices are selected by clicking on them in the device list.

device-selected.png

 Then click on the Action dropdown menu and select Move Selected Device(s) to new Group.

move-selected-devices.png

You’ll then be prompted to select the Group.

You’ll be able to verify that the devices were moved by running a device report in EAST or interacting with the devices in the tenant.

Using the API

You can also use the device report to group devices into the Groups on the new tenant. Use a spreadsheet program to organize devices by Groups and add the new Group IDs. Then input the information into the API request. If you’re a developer, you can also programmatically use the API to achieve this at scale with a script.

Use the following API request to move the devices into their Groups:

Request

PATCH https://{tenant}-api.esper.cloud/api/enterprise/{enterprise}/devicegroup/{group_id}/?action=add

Body

{
	"device_ids": 
		["device_id"]
}

Once you’ve moved devices into their Groups, ensure other features on the previous tenant are also set up on the new tenant such as Alerts, Content Management files, Geofences, and more.

Related articles

Featured content