UEM Mode
This article applies to Enterprise Service Management version 9.1.3.
Overview
UEM stands for "Unified Endpoint Management" and reflects the fact that modern operating systems and devices support automated management in both legacy Configuration Management and Mobile Device Management (MDM). In the beginning, MDM was limited to smartphone and tablets. However, now modern operating systems like Windows 10 support remote configuration the same way mobile devices are managed. With this development, it is not possible to differentiate devices based on the way of management anymore — mobiles and computers become one group of devices.
Data coming from Configuration Management and Mobile Device Management tools needs to be stored in a common way. That is is the purpose of the UEM mode. Devices are now just stored and managed as "Computer" configuration item, while "Mobile Device" configuration item became obsolete. This way you can manage all endpoint devices under one navigation item and using the same dialog.
Enabling the UEM mode step by step
To activate the option, you need to run the Enable UEM Mode action from the Settings navigation item in the Assets application. As a result, the system will transform existing mobile devices into computers.
After running the action, you need to perform iisreset and restart services on the application server.
Enabling the UEM mode results in the following changes in the data:
- Navigation item, dialog, and preview for mobile devices as well as the Create Mobile Device and Import Mobile Devices actions will disappear
- Mobile devices imported from Silverback will be copied as computers
- All mobile devices imported from systems other than Silverback or created manually will be lost
- The computer dialog and preview will be extended with attributes specific for mobile devices
Post-processing of mobile data in the UEM mode
In the UEM mode all mobile devices are managed as computers. It means that the system creates a computer record for each imported mobile device and reassigns all related objects to the computer record. The following data gets reassigned:
- Ownership (organizational unit, cost center, and location)
- Principal user
- Stock keeping unit
- Workplace
- Environment
- Installed profiles and applications
- Purchase data (contract, supplier, internal contact, contract item, cost plans)
- Attachments, comments, journal, tasks, and appointments
- SIM cards
- Licensing information (license requirements, restricted and reserved licenses)
- AD groups
- Dependencies
- Services, primary and indirectly affected incidents, problems, change requests, and outages
Provisioning of services
After enabling the UEM mode, Silverback services are automatically adjusted to a computer target. Therefore, provisioning of Silverback services is now made for computers that represent imported mobile devices (you can filter them by management type Mobile Device Management). All previously assigned services get reassigned to new computer records.
Disabling the UEM mode
If you decide to disable the UEM mode after some considerable time of using it, take into account that you will lose all data that has been accumulated since enabling the UEM mode.
The system does not allow transferring data back from computers to mobile devices. Therefore, after you disable the UEM mode, the system will contain both original mobile devices and duplicated computers representing the mobile devices. All related objects will still be linked to computers. In this scenario, it is recommended that you delete both mobile devices and duplicate computers and then import Silverback devices from scratch.
To disable the UEM mode:
- Open the Settings navigation item in the Assets application.
- Run the Disable UEM Mode action.
- Perform iisreset and restart services on the application server.