Best Practices when switching carriers and phones

[Bobby2234]

Hi All -

iOS only environment with on premise WorkSpace ONE.  We have our DEP tied to the MDM and our OU just under Global is linked to our AD and VPP, assignment groups, etc.  Also, our APN is linked to that top OU.

We are swapping all of our phones/iPads, etc. over to a new service provider and getting brand new phones.  Because of internal changes, I would like to rename that top OU.  Will that cause any issues with the above setups?  I would hate to make that change and lose communication to our phones...I know that sounds ridiculous but I have experienced some issues with similar items in the past with the APN.

What are the best practices for a migration like this?  Should all old phones be enterprise wiped?  Deleted?  A new OU for all the new phones?  I was hoping that not much configuration would have to be done but VMware support has not been helpful.  There is no way to archive old phones and easily enroll a duplicate user over to a new phone?

Appreciate the help

[chengtmskcc]

Hi Bobby,

In my previous position, we were also an iOS only environment with Workspace ONE. In my current position, we have both iOS and Android devices for both BYOD, COPE and COBO. Workspace ONE can accommodate them all so I would look into serving Android to your users unless security is upmost important.

Changing just the OU name does not have any impact to your existing devices. Even your smartgroup will be updated with the new OU name if it's ever changed.

Assuming these old phones belong to your company, I would recommend 'device wipe' them first and delete them later. When you do a one-to-one swap, the new phone needs to enroll in AirWatch just the old one. So I'm uncertain the reasons behind renaming the OU name or creating a new OU. The choice would depend on whatever the business need is.

[Bobby2234]

Thank you.  It is good to know that changing the name won't impact anything.  I asked this question two days ago for support and still no answer.

Have you ever did a large deployment?  I am trying my best to shorten and automate the steps.  The things I am having the biggest issue with is:

1.  We have to fill out a form for each user getting a phone with the serial, phone number, etc.  I see some potential for Workspace to automate this as the user enrolls the phone but it looks like I can only do some of what I want.

2.  Is there anything that I can add to all existing phones to allow IT staff to enterprise wipe from the device itself?  Instead of having to login to the console, finding the phone and starting the wipe?  Maybe some kind of link through the Hub app or something.  I haven't looked into this much yet.

If I could get those two things working...boy oh boy... That would save us a TON of time and energy.  We could have the users accept the AUP which gets emailed to IT, and the form they accept would contain the device variables with them accepting that they are receiving it and will be financially responsible if lost/damaged.  It seems semi possible but I can't seem to link it all together.  I have a request open but thought maybe you or someone else that reads this might know.

Appreciate the help!

[chengtmskcc]

1. What's the purpose of the form? Is it like a user contract before the device is given?

2. Best to wipe the device from the console to ensure the record is updated/deleted properly. Doing so on the device will not update the same record in the console.