Device Enrollment Error in HMDM After Local IP Address Change

Question

I am experiencing an error when attempting to enroll a new device into my Headwind MDM (HMDM) server.

Installation Context:

• Server OS: Ubuntu 22.04.

• Usage: Local installation for testing purposes.

• Initial Setup: During installation, the server's original local IP address was used.

Steps Taken and Cause of the Error:

1. The host machine (HMDM server) was disconnected from the network over a weekend.

2. Upon reconnecting, the machine's local IP address changed.

3. I attempted to correct this by modifying the ROOT.xml file in HMDM to update the IP address.

4. The enrollment QR codes were regenerated.

5. When attempting to enroll a factory-reset device (fresh enrollment):

   • QR Method: The device remains in the "configuring" phase until it eventually throws an error.

   • F-Droid Agent Method: When attempting to connect manually using the HMDM agent downloaded from F-Droid, an error appears (http://192.168.x.x:8080/rest/public/sync/configuration/NAME). and failed to connect to /192.168.x.x from /192.168.100.x (port 46066) after 10000ms

   • Network Status: Both devices (server and client) are on the same local network.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions or procedures to fix this issue, especially if anyone has encountered a similar situation after a server IP address change. 

Answer 1

Headwind MDM, as any other server service, requires the IP address or domain name to be static.

Also, setting up Headwind MDM on the LAN is a complicated task, see details here: https://h-mdm.com/private-network/

So you have a combo: it is almost impossible to set up stable work of Headwind MDM on a dynamic IP address on the LAN.

For testing purposes (unless you have a special requirement to use Headwind MDM in a closed network), I recommend you to get a virtual machine by any hosting provider (AWS EC2 has a free tier by the way), and, ideally, assign a subdomain to it, to be able to use HTTPS.

In your particular case, the URL of the Headwind MDM APK has become invalid after the IP address change. This could be corrected in the "Applications" section. Regenerate the QR code after changing the URL.