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Mobile Application Delivery with System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 and Windows Intune - Part 2 of 5

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Hi again, it’s Jeff Buller. I am a Program Manager on the Windows Server and System Center CAT team. This is part 2 of a 5 part series on mobile application delivery. This post will discuss how to deliver iOS applications to users, utilizing Configuration Manager 2012 R2 and Windows Intune. A table of contents of the full series is listed below.

      Table of Contents

  • Part 1: Introduction
  • Part 2: iOS application delivery
  • Part 3: Windows 8 and Windows RT application delivery
  • Part 4: Windows Phone 8 application delivery
  • Part 5: Android application delivery

iOS Application Delivery

In the first post of this series, I discussed how Configuration Manager 2012 R2 with Windows Intune has the capability to deliver mobile applications, including iOS. Two types of iOS applications are supported, internal applications (side-loaded) and App Store applications (deep-link). The process to deliver an iOS application to a user with this solution is straight forward and simple. A high level summary of the administrator and user process is listed below.

Administrator Process to Deliver an iOS Application

  1. Create a Configuration Manager Application and iOS Deployment Type
  2. Deploy the application to a Configuration Manager User Collection

User Process to Access an iOS Application

  1. Access the Company Portal
  2. Install the application

In the rest of this post, I will walk through the administrator and user steps required to complete this process.

Prerequisites

Before I begin, there are some prerequisites that need to be in place in order to perform iOS application delivery with Configuration Manager and Windows Intune. The prerequisites include:

  • Configuration Manager 2012 R2 is setup and running.
  • Windows Intune Subscription (Trial Subscription is ok).
  • Configuration Manager and Windows Intune properly setup and configured to work together.
  • iOS enrollment enabled and the Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) certificate uploaded using the Configuration Manager Management Console.

image

Windows Intune Subscription Properties window showing iOS enrollment enabled and APNs certificate uploaded

If your environment doesn’t meet these prerequisites, please refer to the links below for guidance on implementing Configuration Manager 2012 R2 with Windows Intune.

Administrator process to deliver an iOS application

The following administrator steps outline the process to deliver an iOS App Store (Deep-link) application using the Configuration Manager Management Console. The administrator steps are broken into two areas, creating the Configuration Manager Application and then deploying the application to a User Collection.

1. Creating a Configuration Manager Application and iOS Deployment Type

1. Open the Configuration Manager Management Console, Click on the Software Library Workspace and Expand the Application Management folder. image
2. Right Click on Applications and Select Create Application from drop down menu. image
3. In the “Create Application Wizard/Specify settings for this application” window, Click on the Type field drop down menu and Select App Package for iOS from App Store. For the Location field, Click on the Browse button. image
4. In the “App Package for iOS Browser” window, search for your iOS App Store application. image
5. In this example, I searched for Microsoft OneNote for iPad and then Clicked OK. image
6. The Location field is now populated with the path to the Microsoft OneNote for iPad application in the App Store. Click Next. image
7. In the “Specify information about this application” window, you can edit and populate fields as appropriate. Click Next. image

8. On the “Confirm the settings for this application” window, Click Next.

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9. On the “Create Application Wizard completed successfully” window, Click Close. image
10. Microsoft OneNote for iPad application is now listed in Applications. image

2. Deploying the iOS application

1. Open the Configuration Manager Management Console, Click on the Software Library Workspace, Expand the Application Management folder and Click on Applications. image
2. Right Click on the Microsoft OneNote for iPad application and Select Deploy from the drop down menu. image

3. On the “Specify general information for this deployment” window, Click the Collection Browse button and select the User Collection to deploy this application to. In this example, I have selected the All Users and User Groups Collection and then Clicked on Summary.

Note: The members of this user collection must be a member of the collection defined in the Windows Intune Subscription Properties in the Configuration Management Console.

 image
4. On the “Confirm the settings for this new deployment” window, Click Next. image
5. On the “Deploy Software Wizard completed successfully”, Click Close. image
6. Microsoft OneNote for iPad application is now listed in Applications as having 1 deployment. image

User process to access an iOS application

The following user steps outline the process to access the Windows Intune Company Portal and install the Microsoft OneNote for iPad application.

1. Access the Company Portal on iPad

1. Open the Windows Intune Company Portal application.

Note: The Windows Intune Company Portal is a free application available in the App Store.

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2. Enter the user id and password.

Note: The user must be a member of the collection defined in the Windows Intune Subscription Properties in the Configuration Management Console.

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3. The Company Portal is now displayed. Click on “All Apps” to view applications the user is entitled to install. image

2. Install the application on iPad

1. While in the Company Portal, in the “All Apps” window, Click on Microsoft OneNote for iPad. image
2. In the “App Details” window, Click on Launch. image
3. From the “App Store, Microsoft OneNote for iPad” window, Click on Free. image
4. From the “App Store, Microsoft OneNote for iPad” window, Click on Install. image
5. From the “App Store, Microsoft OneNote for iPad” window, Click on Open. image
6. Microsoft OneNote for iPad is now installed. image

Summary and Next Post

As you can see, iOS application delivery using Configuration Manager 2012 R2 with Windows Intune is a straight forward and simple process for the administrator and the user. In part 3 of this series, I will walk through the steps to deliver a Windows 8 application using a similar administrator and user process.

Talk to you soon,

Jeff

Comments

  • Anonymous
    December 10, 2013
    Having just hunted and pecked my way through a custom Windows 8 App deployment in Intune, it feels like there's more to this story.  Are there more steps required when the administrator wants to publish an app that isn't in the store - that is to say the IPA scenario directly above the one you selected in this article?  For Windows 8 we wound up having to provision the signing certificate in the target machines' Trusted Root Authority certificate store, which wasn't very well documented.  We also found the exceptions to be largely useless since clicking the links just took us to Windows Update articles.  Would love to know more about these distribution scenarios. Also, I know my comment above sounds harsh -> series is great so far, but the TOC leads me to believe you might be skipping some of the things that would cause adoption to slow down :).

  • Anonymous
    December 11, 2013
    Hi Jamie, Thank you for your comments and question. It was good feedback. Regarding your question “Are there more steps required when the administrator wants to publish an app that isn't in the store - that is to say the IPA scenario directly above the one you selected in this article?” The process is similar, but there are some differences in the steps and I have listed them below. Administrator process to deliver an iOS application

  1. Creating a Configuration Manager Application and iOS Deployment Type
  • Step 3 is different. You would select “App Package for iOS (*.ipa file)”, specify the UNC path of the signed application .ipa file and click Next.
  • Steps 4-5 wouldn’t apply.
  1. Deploying the iOS application
  • Step 3 is different. Instead of clicking Summary, you would click Next and specify the content destination (manage.microsoft.com). After that step, you could click Summary or click Next to specify deployment settings, scheduling, user experience and alerts in the wizard. I can cover more details regarding sideloaded applications in future posts. Thanks, Jeff
  • Anonymous
    December 18, 2013
    Pingback from Mobile Application Delivery with System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 and Windows Intune | MS Tech BLOG
  • Anonymous
    January 06, 2014
    Pingback from Mobile Application Delivery with System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 and Windows Intune – Part 3A
  • Anonymous
    January 06, 2014
    Pingback from Mobile Application Delivery with System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 and Windows Intune – Part 3A
  • Anonymous
    February 14, 2014
    If you push apps to an ios device that is linked to the iTunes store can you block students from accessing the iTunes store, but will still be able to get the app from the company portal? Thanks, Mike