Apple Deployment Programs V: VPP in Silverback

Register Volume Purchase Program

Enrollment into Volume Purchase Program is handled in Apple Business Manager Configuration part.

Shop Application

Login to Apple Business Manager
Navigate to Apps and Books
Search for Application by Name, Keyword, ISBN, or URL
Select your search
Choose a Location where you want to assign this app
Enter a quantity: e.g 50

Do not buy a useless amount of applicationsor licenses. It will just increase traffic.

Click Get

Configure Import Settings

Login to Silverback as Administrator
Navigate to Admin
Open Volume Purchase Program
Navigate to Import Section
Configure your default values for importing VPP Applications:

Setting	Description
Automatically Push to Managed Device	Installs the App on the device when enrolled into Silverback If the Allow App Store restriction has been disabled, App Store Apps will not be automatically pushed to Managed Devices.
Remove App when MDM Profile is removed.	Removes the App from the device when MDM Profile is removed from Silverback.
Prevent Backup of App Data	Prevents iTunes from backing up any information from this client to a computer when tethered.
Take Management if the app is already installed	Take management of the application if the user installed this themselves outside of management. This is silent for supervised devices and will normally prompt the user.
Ignore Metadata for Device Families	By enabling this option, given Metadata for Volume Purchase Program applications will be ignored by Silverback and flagged iPhone applications will be automatically added as iPad applications in the App Portal. With enabling this option, you acknowledge that some available iPadOS application might not be installable on iPadOS devices even if they are listed in the App Portal. These scenarios will be out of support.

Click Save Settings

In case of updating these values, it is possible to update all current existing applications or just to save new values and all newly imported will receive this settings.

Navigate to Overview

Review Additional Tabs

Volume Purchase program is divided into

Overview
Assets
Users
Licenses
Import

Overview

The Overview Section provides a high level view of your VPP Account, lets you enter the company token and configure VPP Settings.

Item	Description
Last modified	Shows the last time Silverback retrieved updated information from Apple.
Organization Name	The name associated with your VPP Account. This is provided when you sign up for the VPP Program.
Token Expiry Date	The date that the VPP Token will expire. New tokens can be retrieved from the VPP Program website from Apple. The token can be managed from the Settings Section.
Total Users	Total users that have been added to your account, whether the user has associated themselves or not.
Associated Users	Users that are assigned to VPP and have also accepted and associated their iTunes account with your VPP Program.
Total Licenses	Total licenses purchased for your VPP account, whether assigned to users or not.
Associated Licenses	Total number of licenses that are assigned to users in your system.
Total Assets	The number of applications in the system (regardless of the number of licenses per app).

Settings

Settings Name	Description
Un-assign licenses from external users	Will instruct Silverback to automatically remove licenses from users it’s not aware of. This is helpful when migrating from another solution that managed VPP for you, without you needing to manually un-assign all licenses.
Period to refresh VPP data	Time in minutes before VPP information should be updated. We recommend to sync twice a day .
Country code	Country code of the VPP apps you wish to install.
Language code	Language code of the VPP apps you wish to install. This should be the same as Country code.
VPP Operation Mode	Allows you to determine the default behavior when assigning VPP apps to devices or users. Please refer to Volume Purchase Program: Operation Modes for additional information.

Assets Section

The assets section provides a list of all VPP applications in the system Silverback displays the following application information:

Asset ID
App (Name)
Asset ID
Total Amount of Licenses
Total Assigned Licenses
Total Available Licenses
Retired Licenses
Is Irrecoverable
Product Type

Users Section

User section displays information about VPP users and the offers possibility to export the list of users in the system.

Item	Description
Export Users	Allows you to export the list of users in the system.
VPP User ID	Silverback’s ID for the user.
Client ID	The unique identifier for the user in your VPP account.
Email	The email address of the user entry in your account.
Status	The status of this user in your system: Registered – The user has been added to your account, but the user has not yet associated their iTunes account. Registered users will not receive VPP App Licenses. Associated – The user has been added to your account and also associated their iTunes account. Associated users are eligible to receive VPP Applications.
Invite URL	If the user isn’t associated, you can see the invite URL here. Users should be invited automatically, but you can also distribute this URL to the user to let them enrol in the system.
Actions	Retire user. This will remove the user from the VPP account and release all licenses. This is not permanent; the user can be re-invited to your system at a later date.

VPP Users Export

The CSV export for users contains the following fields:

VPP User ID
Client ID
Email
Status

Licenses Section

The licensing section allows you to view the users, devices and licenses associated with your account. The main view is a table which shows you the licenses in your account, and the information associated with it. You can also export a list of licenses, and manually assign and un-assign licenses from users.

Item	Description
Export Licenses	Allows you to export the list of licenses in the system.
VPP License ID	Silverback’s ID for the license.
License Id	The unique identifier for the license in your VPP account.
App Name	Displays the (iTunes) Application Name .
User Email	The email of the user who owns the license, if associated.
Serial	If the user isn’t associated, you can see the invite URL here. Users should be invited automatically, but you can also distribute this URL to the user to let them enrol in the system.
Asset Id	The asset ID number for the app (check Assets).
Status	The status of this license in your system. Available – The license is not in use by any user, and is available to be assigned Associated – The license is assigned to a user.
Actions	Lets you manually assign or un-assign a license. When clicking assign, only valid users and devices will be selectable from the list. Assign Unassign

Assign Licenses

When you click the icon in the action column on a license that is assigned, the license will be removed from the user or device. If the action button is to Assign, you will be given a pop-up to assign the license. By default, you will see the valid users that this can be assigned (if available) to and choose one. When you click Devices, you will see valid devices this license can be assigned to.

VPP Licenses Export

The CSV export for licenses contains the following fields:

VPPLicense ID
Licence Id
Adam ID (Asset ID)
Status
UserEmail
Serial

Distribute Applications

Navigate to App Portal
Apps with Type VPP were automatically imported via the Volume Purchase Program
Navigate to Tags
Create a new or edit an existing tag
Navigate to Apps

If not active, navigate to definition, enable Apps and click save.

Click Assign More Apps
Select applications

Search by Name or Description.

Click Add Selected Apps
Click Save & Close or change distribution options for this tag (Auto Population)

Silverback offers automatic and manual assigning methods for Tags. Either configure Auto Population inside the Tag that needs to be assigned or select the device from Devices panel and use the tag action to assign the tag manually.

Proceed with a device enrollment.