With the advent of Android Enterprise, OEM vendors have started allowing MDM solutions to configure OEM-specific settings on Android devices by distributing their respective OEMConfig apps. These apps use managed app configurations to apply the configured features on the devices. It provides additional management capabilities and granular control over the devices by letting you manage custom features such as control of barcode scanners, enabling advanced security features, etc. OEMConfig is applicable for Non-Samsung devices enrolled as Device Owner/Profile Owner and Samsung devices running Android 6.0 or later.
Prerequisites
OEMConfig is applicable for Non-Samsung devices enrolled as Device Owner/Profile Owner and Samsung devices running Android 6.0 or later.
Add the respective OEMConfig app to App Repository
Points to note
You can distribute only one OEMConfig app to a device.
OEMConfig apps are specific to the OEM vendor. For ex, if a Sony OEMConfig app is installed on a Lenovo device, the configured settings will not be applied on the device.
The configurable settings available on MDM console depend on what the OEM vendor includes in their OEMConfig app. MDM doesn't have any control over the settings provided by the OEM vendor.
Whenever OEMConfig app is updated on Google Play, MDM syncs the latest version of the app on the server. Only the configuration values of the latest app will be available on MDM. If you face any version conflicts, contact the OEM vendor for assistance.
Refer the documentation provided by your OEM vendor to ensure you are entering the right value for the configuration keys. The profiles are saved and deployed to your devices with the values you configure.
Ensure the OEMConfig app installed on the managed devices are always up to date, to avoid version conflict by applying Automate App Updates policy or by manually pushing app updates every time an update is released for the OEMConfig app.
Procedure to set up OEM Configuration
Follow the steps below to apply app configurations:
Click Device Management on the MDM Web Console.
Click on Profiles -> Create Profile -> Android
Select OEM Configurations as the Profile Type.
Provide a configuration name.
Vendors who support OEM Configurations will be listed in Config App. From the dropdown, select the OEMConfig app that needs to be configured.
Provide a description of the profile, if needed and click Continue.
If the selected Config app is not already present in the App Repository, you will be redirected to the app approval page where you can approve and add the app to the App Repository.
Once the app is added, you can set up the configurations in the profile .
After configuring the OEMConfig app to your preference, Save and Publish the profile.
Note:
After configuring OEMConfig app, it is recommended to distribute the profile to a test device and test the OEMConfig profile before distributing it to devices in your production environment.
After modifying the profile, re-publish it to update the configurations on the devices.
Using MDM, you can only configure the settings included by the OEM vendor in their OEMConfig app. MDM doesn't validate or change the configurations provided by the OEM vendor. Contact the respective OEM vendor for assistance if any problem arises with the configured settings on the device.
You can use dynamic variables to ease the process of setting up App Configurations. You can use dynamic variables to set up App Configurations for the first time before distributing it to devices/groups. Dynamic variables automatically prefetch the required data from enrollment information, thus easing the process for IT admins. The following dynamic variables are supported in MDM:
%username% - Fetches the user name of the device user.
%upn% - Fetches User Principal Name(UPN) associated to the user.
%email% - Fetches the e-mail address of the user.
%udid% - Fetches the UDID associated with the device
%imei% - Fetches the IMEI number associated with the device
%serialnumber% - Fetches the serial number associated with the device
%devicename% - Fetches the name associated with the device
%domainname% - Fetches the org domain, of which the user is a part of.
%apn_username% - Fetches the APN user name of the user.
%apn_password% - Fetches the APN password of the user.
%easid% - Fetches the EAS ID associated with the user.
