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Hi,
We have several device groups based on what office the device is in.
If the device change location/office, we would like to use device relocation so it automatically change device group in mobicontrol.
Has anyone done this before, and can help us tell us the steps to do so?
Hi Nathalie,
The easiest way to do this is to use IP range-based relocation, assuming that each office has its own IP range (Policies > Device Relocation > New Device Relocation Policy > Add Device Relocation Mapping > IP Address, add a range and Destination Device Group).
The other option - if you cannot use IP - is to use Custom Data-based relocation. You can have a third-party application on the device that prepares some unique location identifier (=Custom Data) to be reported to MobiControl. The device relocation policy can then use this identifier to automatically relocate the device to the appropriate device group. In the past, I have developed such an application based on manual user input. Let me know if this might be useful for you.
Thanks for the quick response.
The IP adress won't work since the devices only uses simcards and never connects to any wifi etc.
Would the other solution require SOTI having access to APPDATA folder? Due to the nature of the device, SOTI does not have access to APPDATA.
Hi Nathalie,
Please clarify how you expect the device to know which location it is in? Automatically when GPS hardware reports new location, or when bluetooth or other pre-defined location-based beacon detected nearby? Or manually input by the device end-user on the device screen via an app/MobiControl kiosk item? Or by some other means?
The approach involving MobiControl custom-data with Device-Relocation policy mentioned by Radim recently has the new challenge of selecting device directory that can be accessed by both the device agent and a third-party app writing the custom data. Private AppData directory of each 3rd-party apps is not accessible by MobiControl device agent. Depending on the Android version, the usual common directory such as DCIM/Download can usually be used, though Google is tightening their read/write scopes/restrictions further for new Android release in recent few years.
GPS hardware reports new location via simcard connection.
Its mobile units, so to give an super exaggerated example would be that if a device in device group "Montreal", would be out of its geo-fence that is set to montreal or reports that its location is now Toronto, the device would be moved to the device group "Toronto" via device relocation.
Please note that GPS hardware may have problem getting location information in some indoor environment due to insufficient recived GPS signal strength. Assuming this is not a problem for your company locations, then geofence(s) in MobiControl's Alert Rule or Signal Policy can be used to perform the automatic relocation of device group required in your use case.
Device locations have to be sent back to MobiControl server to determine if entry/exit event of geofence has occured. Relocation of device to required device-group and associated change(s) of all MDM policies are all initiated by the server and the device thus need to be on-line at all time for this process to complete successfully. However, for geofence related policy implemented using MobiControl v2025.x+ Signal policy, I think it is also possible to define "device-side" script to be run if associated geofence entry/exit event has been detected on the device side even when the device is off-line. My team is carrying out some tests to confirm this functionality and measure/tune the performance.
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Access to APPDATA is not needed at all. The custom app can write the data to /sdcard/Download/.
If you are using v2024.x or later version of MobiControl, you can also use the enhanced signal policy to use geofence entry/exit and other supported condition(s) TOGETHER (defined with an arbitrarily complex nested expression of conditions) to trigger automatic relocation to desired device group. Alert rule in earlier MobiControl versions also support device relocation with geofence entry/exit, but is less flexible to combine other conditions compared to the enhanced signal policy in v2024.x+
Okay, could maybe work, but I assume the script would be sent to device or where's would the if statements go? It's android classic, so it's a bit limited.
As mentioned above, device relocation (with associated changes of profiles/policies/advanced-configurations) and script can both be actions for a geofence entry/exit event. The script will be sent from the server to the device after the geofence event detection. However, for device-side script action, the script is pre-pushed to the device such that the device agent can automatically run the script upon relevant geofence entry/exit event it detects even while the device is off-line when the event happens.
Hi Nathalie S ,
Thanks for posting on SOTI Pulse, Thanks Raymond Chan for responding to the post, your expertise and willingness to help are greatly appreciated!
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