The journey of the XR Hub from early Beta to General Availability continues… Recently, Workspace ONE XR Hub 22.11 Beta was launched, which is the first Release Candidate. As with every new release, there are a few bug fixes, but what makes this release special, is the following feature add:
Means: XR Hub is now supporting Android App Config or to use the right terminology Android Managed Configurations (for internal applications). This is supported from Workspace ONE UEM 22.04, which tells us that we have everything in place to run a quick test.
Except the Managed Config, not a lot has changed: How to enroll the Pico Neo 3 Pro (with a QR Code on a USB Stick) and the baseline configuration of Workspace ONE UEM and Workspace ONE Access remain the same, the only difference is that you can disable the Provisioning Product to push down the XRHubClientConfig.json, as these settings are now done via the Managed Config during the App Assignment when adding the XR Hub as an internal application in UEM. The XR Hub documentation is doing a great job leading an administrator on how to set things up – check the Anywhere Workspace Early Access portal for more details (links below).
Let’s get started: First, deactivate the relevant Product in Workspace ONE UEM when you had a previous config of an earlier version of XR Hub:
Now add the XR Hub 22.11 for the Pico Neo 3 Pro as every other internal application:
The App Assignment is the part which is of interest for us:
In the App Assignment, activate ‘Send Configuration’
Which enables the Managed Configuration / App Config settings:
In case you have deployed and tested XR Hub already before Beta 22.11, the fields which are populated will sound very familiar to you, as they are exactly the same as in the XRHubClientConfig.json – now just being in the UI instead of a text-file.
The settings are dependent to your previous setup or an initial setup, at least you have to configure the Workspace ONE Access URL (when deploying with Access authentication – still recommended) or the Config Client Entitlements Only (when deploying just using WS1 UEM). In my case, I’m using WS1 Access for authentication, so I have filled the Access URL Key Value Pair:
In addition, I usually change the Authorization Profile and activate another environment theme, to ensure there’s a seamless login and non-default Theme in XR Hub, which shows that the configuration was activated correctly:
The other settings can be set in relation to your requirements and haven’t changed from previous Betas.
On the Pico Neo 3 you can in the meantime use PICO Screencast to stream your VR screen to your PC, which makes capturing screenshots really easy. Just open the Screencast app and select to screen to your PC Browser, type in the outlined URL and hit ‘Start Screencast’ in your browser.
One additional confirmation on the Pico Neo 3 and the screencast starts.
All the rest is well know from the previous Betas
Just a little side-note: I tested Workspace ONE Mobile Threat Defense (MTD) with the Pico Neo 3 Pro as well. MTD is a collaboration with Lookout, which helps further securing mobile devices against malicious Apps, phishing, potential harmful content and dangerous web sites. While the unique approach of MTD is that it doesn’t require an auxiliary agent for most of the functionality as a Lookout SDK was developed into the Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub App, in our case we still require the Lookout for Work application. There’s currently an incompatibility of the Integrated MTD approach with devices running in AOSP (Android Open Source Provider) mode, which is a key requirement for any XR devices as we are missing Google Managed Services on these devices. However, once integrating MTD with the L4W App, it works and is detecting some potentially risky points:
Now, getting back to the XR Hub 22.11 Beta: As this is the first release candidate, we shouldn’t be too far away from General Availability (GA). We are just one small step away from finally getting the feature-packaged Launcher App for VR devices and now that you can set up the XR Hub entirely using the UI within Workspace ONE UEM, adds a final puzzle piece which was missing previously and is now adding some great simplification on the road of a unique immersive experience in the Enterprise.
Helpful documentation when setting this up:
- Anywhere Workspace Early Access Portal: https://beta-ea.vmware.com/ Find XR Hub documentation and binaries.
- VMware Techzone Enrolling Head-Mounted Wearables: https://techzone.vmware.com/resource/enrolling-head-mounted-wearables-vmware-workspace-one-uem#overview Guidance on how to configure WS1 UEM to allow XR device enrollment.
- Deploying internal apps on Android https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workspace-ONE-UEM/services/Application_Management_for_Android/GUID-AWT-INTERNAL-APPS.html
- Enrolling a Pico Neo 3 Pro with XR Hub 0.75 https://juliuslienemann.wordpress.com/2022/08/12/the-workspace-one-vr-experience-part3-pico-neo3-pro-and-xr-hub-0-75/
Environment and Setup:
- Use Case: Device Management with Secure Launcher and Unified App Catalog
- Set up with XR Hub, Intelligent Hub App, Workspace ONE UEM, Workspace ONE Access
- XR Hub Version: 22.11 Beta (Release Candidate)
- Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub 22.8.0.5
- Workspace ONE UEM: 22.10.0.3 (latest Cloud release)
- Workspace ONE Access: December 2022 Build cbcf142 (latest Cloud release)
- Pico Neo 3 Pro running PICO OS 4.8.17 https://www.picoxr.com/global/software/pico-os
Julius Lienemann 