Get started with Knox E-FOTA

Knox E-FOTA enables enterprise IT admins to remotely deploy specific OS versions and security updates to corporate devices, without any user interactions or interruptions. Furthermore, Knox E-FOTA maximizes flexibility by allowing IT admins to test updates prior to deployment and ensure compatibility between in-house apps and new OS versions.

This guide outlines how you can use the Knox E-FOTA API to utilize Knox E-FOTA’s firmware management features.

Workflow overview

This workflow diagram shows an overview of how to use the Knox E-FOTA API.

Prerequisites

1. Register for a Samsung Knox account, and sign up for Knox E-FOTA.
2. Get an OAuth 2.0 access token. You need this to access the Knox E-FOTA API.

Upload devices

Upload devices with the Knox E-FOTA API, which provides operations to upload and manage devices using device IMEIs or serial numbers. Devices uploaded through the API are automatically approved when the upload is complete. See the Knox E-FOTA API reference.

Once the device upload is complete, you can use the Knox Webhook Notification API to automatically receive change notifications in a resource-efficient manner. To learn how to get notifications for Knox E-FOTA, see the Knox Webhook Notification for Knox E-FOTA tutorial.

License registration

After you sign up for a SamsungKnox.com account, you can proceed to obtain a license. You can do this by either generating a Knox Suite trial license, or purchasing a license from a reseller. For more information, see Get a license in the Knox E-FOTA admin guide.

The devices will be assigned to the license and enrolled automatically when the Knox E-FOTA client is installed and launched. For more information, see Install and launch the Knox E-FOTA client.

Additionally, you can also register your license using the Knox E-FOTA API as well. For more information, see the Knox E-FOTA API reference.

Campaign creation

Create a campaign to manage firmware on a fleet of devices. With campaigns, you can schedule, throttle, and configure firmware policies through Knox E-FOTA. See the Knox E-FOTA API reference.

After campaign creation, manage firmware with Firmware policies.

Campaign details

The Knox E-FOTA API provides a detailed list of all available campaign settings complete with data types, default values, dependencies, and the hierarchy among campaign features. You can use the Get campaign schema operation, which returns the list of campaign settings as a schema in JSON format, and you can use this schema to implement a dynamic campaign creation UX on your EMM portal. When new Knox E-FOTA campaign features are released, the Knox E-FOTA API will return the newly updated schema, and your campaign creation UX can dynamically account for the newly added features.

Here is a sample JSON response from the Get campaign schema endpoint. You can parse the returned JSON to dynamically generate a campaign creation page, as shown in the UX sample.

• JSON schema
• UX Sample

Firmware policies

Create firmware policies for a campaign. Knox E-FOTA provides 4 firmware policies.

• Lock current firmware

• Latest any

• Latest up to Android OS version

• Select from firmware list

Since firmware provided by Samsung is depends on the combination of the device’s model name, sales code, and CSC, separate firmware policies must be set according to the different devices uploaded to Knox E-FOTA.

For example, separate firmware policies are needed for these two unique combinations of model, sales code, and CSC:

• SM-G986N / KOO / OKR — Latest Any

• SM-G986N / KTC / OKR — Latest Any

If a device is assigned to a campaign that has no firmware policies with a matching combination of device model, sales code, and CSC, the device will default to the “Lock current firmware” policy.

To create/update firmware policies, and get device information, see the Knox E-FOTA API reference. You can also view the list of available firmware for a given model name, sales code, and CSC combination with the Get firmware list operation.

Device assignment

Assign uploaded devices to a campaign. Once the devices are assigned, they will comply with the campaign and firmware policies set in the campaign. Every 24 hours from when the campaign was activated, the Knox E-FOTA client app on the assigned devices automatically polls the Knox E-FOTA server to check for any policy changes made to the campaign.

To assign devices to a campaign, see Assign campaigns.

Monitor results

Access information to monitor the current status of your campaigns, devices, and licenses with the Knox E-FOTA API.

Campaign information

Access campaign information such as the current settings for a campaign, number of devices assigned to a campaign, and the current campaign status. Below are descriptions for each campaign status.

To get campaign information, see List campaign.

Device information

Access device information such as:

• Device ID
• IMEI
• Serial number
• Model name
• Firmware version
• Campaign ID
• License ID
• Device status

Update status enables customers to easily access basic information about the device status — based on the operation and client status — directly on the dashboard. Below are descriptions for each device status.

To get device information, see List devices.

License

Access license information such as:

• License name
• Key
• Type (Trial or Commercial)
• Start and end date
• Total and consumed count
• License status
  • Active
  • Registered (License has been added but the account is not active yet)
  • Expired
  • Terminated

To get license information, see Get license list.