Setting Up Apple MDM Management

In this article: 

• What is Apple MDM Management?
• Accessing Apple MDM Management
• How to Set Up Apple MDM Management
  • Setting Up an APNS Certificate 
  • Setting Up a DEP Token 
  • Setting Up a VPP Token

What is Apple MDM Management?

Apple MDM Management allows you to manage the certificates and tokens you need to provision iOS devices in the Esper console. After setup, you can sync devices between ABM and Esper.

If you plan to provision iOS devices, you must set up certificates and tokens in your Esper console. The following chart explains which certificates are needed for which provisioning method: 

After setting up the certificates and tokens in Apple MDM Management and enrolling them in Esper, you should navigate to the Esper Apple MDM page and press Sync Devices. 

Devices are now synced with ABM and Esper. 

Accessing Apple MDM Management 

To access Esper MDM Management, click on your profile. 

Then click on Apple MDM Management. You’ll see the certificate and tokens needed to begin provisioning iOS devices.

How to Set Up Apple MDM Management

Setting up the APNS Certificate

To set up an APNS Certificate, read Apple’s official APNS Certificate documentation.

After obtaining the APNS Certificate, go to the Esper Console, click on your profile, and select Apple MDM Management. 

Then click on Setup Certificate. 

First, click on Download Certificate. 

The certificate will download to your computer. 

Then click on Open Apple Identity Portal. 

You’ll be redirected to the Apple Push Certificates Portal. You may need to sign in with a different account than your ABM to access Apple Push Certificates.

Then click on Create a Certificate. 

Input the tenant name (your tenant name appears as the URL of your tenant: https://{tenant-name}.esper.cloud) and then click on Choose File. Choose the certificate you downloaded from Esper and press Upload. 

Then press Download. 

Next, on Esper’s Manage Apple Token page, input your Apple ID. It must match the ID you used to create the APN certificate. This is usually an email address. 

Then press Upload Apple Certificate to upload the certificate. 

You’ve set up the APNS certificate. 

Setting up the DEP Token

To set up the DEP token, read Apple’s official documentation. 

Then navigate to Esper’s Apple MDM Management section, and click on Setup Token. 

Then add the DEP Token. Click on Setup Token. Then click on Download Esper Key. 

The key will be downloaded to your computer. 

Then click on Open Apple Business Manager. 

You'll be redirected to your Apple Business Manager account. Log in, click on your profile, and go to Preferences > MDM Server Assignment. 

Name the MDM server, and then upload the Esper Key. 

Then press Save. 

Then go to press Download Token from that page. Select Download Server Token. 

In Esper, click on Upload Apple Token. 

Upload the token to Esper. 

Setting Up the VPP Token

To use applications from the Apple App Store®, you'll want to set up the Volume Purchase Program (VPP) Token. To get started, click Setup Token in the VPP section.

Click on Open Apple Business Manager. You’ll be redirected to the Apple Business Manager page. You may have to log in. 

Create a location in your Apple Business Manager account for Esper MDM. We recommend creating a specific location for Esper. You'll need Administrator or People Manager privileges to create a location. See how to Configure Locations in Apple Business Manager. 

Then, navigate to Payments and Billing. In the Content Tokens section, choose the MDM (it'll have the same name as the location) and click Download next to your linked Esper MDM. 

Next, go to Esper’s VPP page, and click on Upload Apple Token. Upload the Apple Token. 

You’re now set up with Apple MDM in Esper. If you worked with a reseller, you should have devices in your ABM portal. Use the automatic ABM onboarding guide to add those devices to Esper. If you have devices that you'd like to add to ABM, see the manual ABM onboarding guide.