Connectors

NAVIGATION   Modules > Integrations > Connectors

SECURITY  PSA > Read-only access to all PSA Integration pages

SECURITY  PSA > Full access to all PSA Integration pages

From the Connectors page, you can review details about all of the Apple MDM and virtualization connectors created for your VSA 10 account and create new connectors.

Overview

From the Apple MDM view of the Connectors page, you can view existing VSA 10 mobile device management (MDM) connectors for supported devices.

The list of connectors displays the following information:

Column Description
Organization The VSA 10 organization to which the MDM configuration applies.
Type The type of connector applied to the organization: Apple MDM Push Certificate or Apple Automated Device Enrollment.
Refer to Types of Apple MDM connectors for descriptions of each.
Expiration date Surfaces the date on which the certificate for the MDM connector expires.
Filter by connectors that have expired or are expiring soon using the Filter by drop-down menu.

To search for specific connectors, enter a partial or whole value in the search bar to filter the current list to matching records. To sort a column alphabetically or chronologically, click the column heading. To edit a connector, hover over the row and click the Edit icon .

Types of Apple MDM connectors

Apple MDM Push Certificate

This connector facilitates communication between the Apple devices and the MDM server, ensuring real-time management.

Apple Automated Device Enrollment

Automated Device Enrollment (ADE) is a feature within the Apple MDM ecosystem that simplifies the deployment of Apple devices at scale. By leveraging Apple Business Manager, devices can be preconfigured with specific management settings as soon as they are powered on, bypassing manual setup steps and streamlining the onboarding process. This ensures that devices are enrolled in mobile device management (MDM) from the start, offering zero-touch deployment for organizations.

IMPORTANT  You are required to add both an Apple MDM Push Certificate connector and an Apple Automated Device Enrollment connector to each organization you are configuring ADE for, starting with the push certificate.

To learn more about ADE, refer to ADE in VSA 10 MDM: enrollment.

To learn how to create these types of connectors, refer to Apple MDM in Creating connectors.

The Virtualization view of the Connectors page provides status reporting and management options for all of the hypervisor connections you've created.

The list of connectors displays the following information:

Column Description
Name The name of the connector.
Type The type of connector: Hyper-V or VMware.
Filter by either type using the Filter by drop-down menu.
Probe The probe performing discovery for the connector. Refer to Network discovery and automatic agent deployment.
Filter by any one configured probe using the Filter by drop-down menu.
Status Indicates whether the connector is active or inactive.
Filter by either status using the Filter by drop-down menu.

To search for specific connectors, enter a partial or whole value in the search bar to filter the current list to matching records. To sort a column alphabetically, click the column heading. To edit a connector, hover over the row and click the Edit icon .

Creating connectors

To create a new connector, perform the following steps:

  1. From the left navigation menu in VSA 10, navigate to Integrations > Connectors.
  2. Select Apple MDM or Virtualization.
  3. Click Create Connector.
  4. Depending on your selection, expand one of the following sections for next steps:

For descriptions of both connector types, refer to Types of Apple MDM connectors.

NOTE  The Apple MDM Push Certificate connector must first be configured for an organization before the Apple Automated Device Enrollment connector can be configured for that organization.

On the Create Connector page, select the Apple MDM connector type from the Type drop-down menu:

  1. With Apple MDM Push Certificate selected as the connector type, select the organization with which the new device will be associated.

  2. Click Next.
  3. In the Download CSR File section, click Download CSR. VSA 10 will transfer a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) file named CertificateSigningRequest.plist to the default download location on your computer.
  4. In the Create the Apple Push Certificate section, click Go to Apple portal.
  5. Without closing the Create Connector page, you'll create a push certificate via the Apple portal and return to VSA 10 to upload the certificate file. For step-by-step instructions on this process, refer to Create a push certificate in VSA 10 MDM: enrollment.
  1. With Apple Automated Device Enrollment selected as the connector type, select the organization and site associated with the devices you wish to automatically enroll in VSA 10.

    2. NOTE  The Organization Name field displays an error message if the selected organization is missing an Apple MDM Push Certificate connector, which you must configure first. Refer to the preceding section for instructions.

  2. Select the specific agent group in which the devices will be automatically enrolled.
  3. Optionally, enter a phone number and/or email address at which your support team can be reached, which users will see during device activation.
  4. Click Next.
  5. Click Download Public Key. VSA 10 will transfer a Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) file named ABM_Public_Key.pem to the default download location on your computer.
  6. In the Generate New Server Token section, click Go to Apple Business Manager.
  7. Without closing the Create Connector page, you'll upload the public key to Apple Business Manager and return to VSA 10 to upload a server token. For step-by-step instructions on this process, refer to Configure Automated Device Enrollment (ADE) in VSA 10 MDM: enrollment.

  1. The Create Connector page will load. In the Name field, enter an alias for the connector that identifies its purpose.
  2. From the Type drop-down menu, select either VMware or Hyper-V.
  3. In the Probe field, select the probe you'd like to use for device discovery.

    NOTE  If you haven't created any probes, perform the steps described in Network discovery and automatic agent deployment.

  4. Turn on the Active toggle to immediately initiate the connector upon its creation. Then, if you chose Hyper-V in step 2 of this section, proceed to step 8.
  5. If you chose VMware in step 2, input the hostname or IP address of your virtualization server in the Server Name or IP field.
  6. In the User Name field, enter the hypervisor's login name.
  7. Enter the hypervisor's password in the Password field.
  8. Click Test Connector to validate that VSA 10 can communicate with your virtualization server.
  9. Click Create to save your configuration. You'll see the new connector appear in the Virtualization table on the Connectors page.

Once a Hyper-V connector has been added, VSA 10 will expose the hypervisor and its child entities on the Devices > Site Maps page topology map and the Devices > Active Connectors page. You can view version information, status, events, and other information from these areas.

If you enroll the Hyper-V host within Site Maps, you will unlock the management features of both hosts and virtual machines nested under the host, such as powering on/off, restarting, suspending, and working with snapshots. Once the host is enrolled, when you open the device details pane of a virtual machine, select See system details to access the management capabilities.

NOTE  Enrollment of a host will consume a single device license.