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Android Zero Touch Enrollment

What is Zero Touch Enrollment?

When you have a whole lot of corporate-owned devices to be enrolled in bulk, Zero-Touch Enrollment (ZTE) is the best way to go. Android ZTE is a one-time process for the secure deployment of corporate-owned devices without manually configuring each of them.
It is an out-of-box enrollment method where the devices will be enrolled in the MDM once it is powered on and connected to the network. It prevents unauthorized devices from joining your MDM environment, thus enhancing your security.

Note:

Android Zero Touch Enrollment is available on Pro, Enterprise, Ultimate and Ultra subscription plans.

What are the key features of Zero Touch Enrollment?

  1. One-time setup: It is a one-time setup where the end-user needs to just power on the device and connect to the network to get enrolled with MDM.
  2. Bulk enrollment of devices: It allows large scale roll-out of corporate-owned devices without physically accessing any of them.
  3. Enrolled as Device Owner or WP-C: Devices enrolled through ZTE will be provisioned as Android Enterprise-enabled devices, configured either as Device Owner or Work Profile on Company Owned Device (WP-C).
  4. Allows resellers to add devices to the portal.

What are the requirements for Zero Touch Enrollment?

Before starting the enrollment process, the following pre-requisites are to be met.

  • Devices should be purchased directly either from a Zero touch reseller partner / Google partner and not from a consumer store. ZTE extended the support for all devices including Samsung devices running on Android 9.0 and above. For Samsung devices running on lower OS versions, you need to use the Samsung Knox Mobile Enrollment (KME) to enroll such devices in the Hexnode UEM portal.
  • Phones/tablets running Android 9.0 and above.
  • Ensure that your device is compatible with ZTE from the list of Android Zero Touch Devices.
  • A Google account associated with corporate email. Ensure that you don’t use your personal Gmail account.

Configure Zero Touch Enrollment

There are four steps by which you can complete Zero Touch Enrollment:

  1. Associate a Google Account.
  2. Setup Zero Touch enrollment portal.
  3. Add MDM Configuration.
  4. Apply MDM Configuration to devices.
  5. Note:


    Before configuring Android Zero-touch enrollment, make sure you have enrolled your organization in the Android Enterprise program.

Associate a Google Account

You need a Google account associated with your corporate email to set up the Zero touch portal.

  1. Navigate to Create your Google Account.
  2. Provide your name.
  3. Provide your corporate email in the field Your email address. Ensure that you don’t click on Create a Gmail account instead.
  4. Provide other requisite details and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the account creation process.

zero touch enrollment

Setup Zero Touch Enrollment Portal

  1. Sign in to Zero Touch Portal using the Google account linked to the corporate email.
Navigation Panel Description
Configurations You can create, modify and delete MDM configurations here. If required, you can set default MDM configurations to be applied to the devices added to the portal.
Devices The devices added to the account will be listed here. You can assign the configurations to the selected devices. If not required, you can even remove the devices from here.
Manage People You can add, modify or delete the users that can access and manage the portal here.
Resellers If required, additional resellers can be added here so that your account can be shared with multiple resellers.

Add MDM Configuration

  1. Sign in to Zero Touch Portal.
  2. Navigate to Configurations.
  3. Click on the Add button to add a new configuration.
  4. You will have the following options to be configured.
Settings Description
Name Provide a suitable name to identify your configuration.
EMM DPC Select Hexnode For Work app from the list of EMM apps.
DPC extras Provide the JSON data here. JSON data is available under Enroll > Platform – Specific > Android > Android Zero-Touch. Select the JSON file based on whether the device is managed in ‘Device Owner’ or ‘Work Profile on Company-Owned Device (WP-C)’ mode and create a configuration.
Android Zero-touch enrollment JSON file
Notes:

  • Leave the username and password fields of the JSON file empty for open enrollments and authenticated enrollments via Active Directory (AD), Microsoft Entra ID, Google, and Okta directory services. That is, the JSON file should be of the form:
  • Devices enrolled via Open enrollment will be assigned to the Default User selected under Enroll > Settings > No Authentication.
  • Leaving the username and password fields of the JSON file empty for self-enrollment (local) cases will prompt the local users to authenticate with their local user credentials to enroll in MDM. You can also skip the authentication process by assigning devices directly to local users while enrolling devices via self-enrollment. In that case, provide the email address and password in the ‘username’ and ‘password’ fields respectively of the JSON file. Here, the JSON file will be of the format:

Company Name Provide the name of your organization. This name will be shown on the user’s device during enrollment.
Email address Provide your organization’s IT admin email address here. This will be displayed on the user’s device during enrollment, and it can be used to contact the IT admin in case of any issues with enrollment.
Phone Number Provide your organization’s IT support phone number here. This will be displayed on the user’s device during enrollment, and it can be used to contact the IT admin in case of any issues with enrollment.
Custom Message Provide an optional message to be displayed on the device screen during enrollment.
Notes:

  • You can assign a default configuration so that any new devices purchased in the future will be enrolled by default.
  • Ensure that you add the configurations under Default Configuration in the Zero Touch Portal.

Apply MDM Configurations to devices

Once the configurations are created, you need to associate them with the devices. You can apply the configuration to a single device or multiple devices.

Apply configuration to a single device

  1. Sign in to Zero Touch Portal.
  2. Navigate to Devices.
  3. Select the devices to which configurations are to be applied.
  4. Under Configurations against the selected devices, select the configuration which you have created previously.
  5. If you need to temporarily remove the device from the ZTE, select No config under Configurations.

Apply configuration to multiple devices

Configurations can be applied to multiple devices by using a CSV file.

CSV file should be in the following format.

Field Description
modemtype The parameter in this field should be always set as IMEI in uppercase character.
modemid Provide the IMEI number of the device.
serial Provide the serial number of the device.
model Provide the model name of the device.
manufacturer Provide the name of the device manufacturer.
profiletype The parameter in this field should always be set as ZERO_TOUCH in uppercase characters.
profileid Provide the ID corresponding to the configuration to be applied to the devices.
  • Sign in to Zero Touch Portal.
  • Under Configuration, choose the required configuration to be applied.
  • The number sequence present under ID is the required profileid.

Once the CSV file is prepared, you can upload the file to the Zero touch portal.

  1. Sign in to Zero Touch Portal.
  2. Navigate to Devices and click on the ellipsis (3 dots) icon in the table header.
  3. Select Upload Batch Configuration.
  4. Upload the CSV file.
  5. All the devices in the CSV file will now be assigned to the specific configuration.

Remove the devices from Zero Touch Portal

You can remove the devices from the Zero Touch Portal through the de-registering process.

Follow the steps to deregister the device,

  1. Sign in to Zero Touch Portal.
  2. Navigate to Devices.
  3. Select the device you want to remove and click on the Deregister option against the devices.
  4. Click on Deregister in the confirmation panel.
Warning:

  • On deregistering, the device will be removed from the portal. Only the reseller can add these devices back to the portal.
  • If you want to temporarily remove these devices from the portal, you can remove the applied configurations from the device.

  • Enrolling Devices
  • Managing Android Devices