Your situation is a bit tricky.  It's even worse if some or all of your old Android 4.x Samsung devices are using non-ELM device agents.  To be able to use Antivirus functions now offered by Bitdefender AV engine,  your server needs to be at least v13.4.4339 and the agents need to be v13.5+.  To be able to use reasonably good Android Enterprise features, your server needs to be v13.4 or later.   Server v13.2+ is needed to support Android 7.0 devices.

Your Samsung devices that cannot properly run any Samsung ELM agent have to be removed from the system before you can upgrade your server to v13.3 or later. I have old Samsung device running Android 4.3, but is supported by v13.5.0/13.5.1/13.6.0  ELM device agent, so I think your Android 4.4 devices should be OK. Your Android 4.1.x devices are the major problem.

Though I don't have all the necessary details of your device replacement schedule, I believe targeting your server to be eventually upgrade to the latest patch version of v13.4.0 is likely to be your best choice.

With this as the target, your server definitely need to be upgraded in MULTIPLE steps according to the recommended upgrade path documented in the online manuals, and some device agent upgrades may be needed in some of the steps to maintain control. At some stage, some devices may need to be unenrolled and the licenses reused by newer devices to be enrolled to the system.  So Microsoft Operating System and MS-SQL server may also need to be upgraded to support new MobiControl server version.

 There are really many factors to consider.  Also, it can be inconvenient to talk about implementation and server details on an open forum due to security reason.  Even worse, improperly executed upgrade may render some devices out of control and thus require device recalls or re-enrollments.   Hence,  it's best for you to open an official support case with Soti support team to confirm your required upgrade path and how to proceed.

I second the recommendation for the latest Maintenance build of 13.4 based on your circumstances. 13.4 is very feature rich relative to 14.x which primarily has just brought massive changes to Webconsole UX. 

Yes, I have "technological gap" situation. Sams GT-I8552 don't accept any agent (Non-ELM) upper than 12.4 and no one ELM agent. Sams GT-I9300I can accept any ELM, but Exchange ActiveSync profile can't be applied to it in MC 14.2... Any Android 7+ can be enrolled in MC 12.2 but can't be fully managed there...

I feel that the best way to bridge this gap and avoid potential (and very probable) upgrade issues is to have two MC installations until old phones naturally dead...

Anyway, thanks, and is it right assumption that ordering interim (not latest) MC versions for testing is subject for Case Logging?

Hi Andrew,

Latest maintenance releases of MobiControl can be found through the release notes page. I have included a link to the 13.4 release notes page and the download for the installer is located at the top beside the version number. https://docs.soti.net/soti-mobicontrol/release-notes/v134/134-maintenance-releases/. 

We do recommend that you upgrade to the latest released version as it includes the latest improvements and bug fixes. If there is a specific version that you would like to upgrade to that is not the latest, you will need to open a case with support and we will be able to provide you with a direct download link.

The upgrade path that you would follow if you choose to move forward with the upgrade after your testing can be found in the 13.4 help documentation. I have included a link below.

https://www.soti.net/mc/help/v13/en/default.htm#Setup/UpgradePath.html%3FTocPath%3DInstallation%2520and%2520Setup%7CUpgrade%7C_____1

Regards,