How to guarantee correct Date, Time, and Time Zone on Android Classic devices?

EC
Enric Correa Yusa
mercadona001

Hi everyone,

What is the best way in SOTI MobiControl to ensure Android Classic devices always have the correct date, time, and time zone?

Thanks!

yesterday
SOTI MobiControl
ANSWERS

How you mean and in which state?

And i don't see a dependency to the "classic" enrollment.

EC

Hi Rafael,

We want to ensure that packages (deployed from the profile) are only installed between 23:00 and 23:59.

To achieve this, we've looked into the 'Custom Package Installation Schedule' option, but we see a few drawbacks:

If we use the UTC Time option: How can we guarantee that it will work on devices in Spain and Portugal, both in winter time and summer time?

As a summary of the impact:

  • In Spain (Mainland): 23:00 UTC would mean the installation runs at 01:00 local time in summer and 00:00 in winter.

  • In Portugal: 23:00 UTC would mean it runs at 00:00 local time in summer and 23:00 in winter.

If we use the Device Time option: How can we guarantee that the device always has the correct date, time, and time zone configured?"

Regards.

RS
Rafael Schäfer
19 hours ago

So, we speak about already enrolled devices ;)

So, you can define in Mobicontrol a general NTP:

  1. right click on the relevant or even main group
  2. advanced configurations
  3. time synchronisation
  4. time sync from deployment server or a defined NTP server of your wish
  5. you could also force devices to a specified time zone there but i guess this is not needed
  6. notice the information in the headline in the link i provided above!

A second option would be to provide NTP via OEM config app of the relevant manufacturers oem app, if available.

In addition check that your devices might have auto time synchronisation from network on in their date/time settings. If that's not the case, you need to investigate the manufacturers oem config app if you can set it there but by default this should be on.

But in general, at least from our side, the devices should do that by default if you don't block that from network side.

EC
Enric Correa Yusa
17 hours ago

I understand what you mean, and we already have it configured according to the documentation you attached. However, I understand that this does not guarantee in 100% of cases that a device will always have the time correctly configured, correct?

On the other hand, I'm not sure if you've had a chance to look into what I mentioned regarding the "UTC Time" option, but we would appreciate it if you could give us a hand with that configuration. We believe this option would guarantee in 100% of cases that nothing is executed outside the scheduled time.

RS
Rafael Schäfer
17 hours ago

Sorry, i may miss your problem here.

If devices are always having a data connection (no matter if Wifi or mobile data) they should sync with an NTP server (if not turned off in settings).

This means, as long devices are on and online, they will sync and should have their correct local time.

With the settings i mentioned above (see 5. and oem config app) you could also force devices to a timezone you prefer.

For me, i would keep the default NTP, which never caused timing issues from my end.
We provide devices with execution on local device time, trusting that NTP works fine as you want to execute tasks outside working hours which makes local device time the one to rely on best.
If NTP wouldn't work, most likely devices have issues connecting to internet via Wifi (we see this for long offline devices without SIM sometimes which then needed to be touched manually but this is a different story).

Ofc you need to test your setting before you put in production.

Similar Discussions