• 01/26/22: Added link to address issue ‘The door is locked’ when accessing Hub Services.
• 07/20/20: Edited for clarity

Back in October 2018, I wrote a post on the transition from AirWatch Agent to Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub. At that time, my main focus was to understand the impact on the existing device enrollment and management with this transition.

As part of this transition, VMware rebranded the AirWatch Agent as an Intelligent Hub and added a long list of features for iOS and Android (Catalog, People directory, Home tab, and Notifications/For You) for the true digital workspace experience.

You can get a quick overview of all of these features via the video links below.

• VMware Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub: Catalog – Feature Walk-through
• VMware Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub: New App Notification – Feature Walk-through
• VMware Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub: Custom Notifications – Feature Walk-through
• VMware Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub: Mobile Flows – Feature Walk-through
• VMware Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub: Home Tab – Feature Walk-through
• VMware Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub: People Services – Feature Walk-through

This screenshot describes what the Intelligent Hub can do when it is combined with Workspace ONE Access.

For additional info on Intelligent Hub, check out this PowerPoint presentation titled Intelligent Hub Deep Dive by VMware. Another link I highly recommend is titled Working with Hub Services and Intelligent Hub App.

I also recommend the blog post below which explains the difference between the various options for the app catalog in depth.

VMware Workspace ONE Apps & Catalogs explained

VMware continues to enhance the Intelligent Hub with new features and performance improvement. So it’s worth bookmarking and reviewing the sites below on the latest.

• VMware Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub for Android Release Notes
• VMware Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub for iOS Release Notes

For this post, I will focus on the steps to replace our Legacy app catalog deployed as a web clip with the Hub app catalog that lives inside the Intelligent Hub.

So we will go from left to right in just five easy steps (or less if you don’t customize):

                                               

For this setup, I reference both the link below plus the PowerPoint presentation I mentioned earlier.

Enabling and Delivering Hub Services with Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub

There are two things to keep in mind before we continue:

1. Hub Services are cloud-based.
2. Hub Services do leverage Workspace ONE Access (or IDM). However, it is not a dependency for enabling the new app catalog (i.e. IDM does not need to be fully set up or configured.)

All five steps listed below are performed in the Workspace ONE UEM and Workspace ONE Access consoles respectively.

• Step 1: Configure Service Trusts Between Hub Services and UEM console
• Step 2: Activate Hub Services
• Step 3: Configure the Hub Services App Catalog / Customize Hub Features 
• Step 4: Apply Custom Branding for the Hub Services
• Step 5: Enable the Hub Services App Catalog

The screenshots that follow were taken based on a combination of UEM console version 19.07 and 20.06 to show a subtle difference with terminology.

Step 1: Configure Service Trusts Between Hub Services and UEM console

There are two ways to navigate to the section below. One way is GROUPS & SETTINGS > Configurations. Based on your console version, search for either VMware Identity Manager or Workspace ONE Access. Then, click on the link.

Console 19.07. Note that it continues to reference VMware Identity Manager.

Console 20.06 or later. Note that it has changed to Workspace ONE Access.

The other way is GROUPS & SETTINGS > All Settings > System > Enterprise Integration > VMware Identity Manager (or Workspace ONE Access). 

Whichever way you choose, click on Configuration.

Your environment may fall into one of the two possible scenarios.

• If the trust is already configured, it will look like this and no further action is required.

• If the trust is not configured, it will look like this. Click CONFIGURE to continue with the configuration.

• Fill in the Tenant URL, Username, and Password. Then, click TEST CONNECTION to confirm all is well and click SAVE.

Step 2: Activate Hub Services

Please note once you activate Hub Services, the Hub app on mobile devices will be enabled for Hub Services immediately as well. If you are not ready to go live, you can turn off Hub Integration by navigating to GROUPS & SETTINGS > All Settings > Devices & Users > General > Enrollment > Hub Integration. Next to Use Hub Services Features in Intelligent Hub, select DISABLED.

Go to GROUPS & SETTINGS > Configurations. Then, search for Intelligent Hub and click on the link.

As an alternative, you can also click on the 9 dot icon on the upper right-hand corner and then click Workspace ONE Hub Services.

Click on the GET STARTED button.

Once again, your environment may fall into one of the two possible scenarios.

• If Hub Services is already configured, review the Tenant URL and click YES to continue. Or click NO to use a different tenant.

• If Hub Services is not configured, fill in the Tenant URL, Username, and Password to establish communication with your Workspace ONE Access environment. Then, click TEST CONNECTION to confirm all is well and click SAVE.

Upon activation, here’s what you will see.

Alternatively, you can enable Hub Services in Workspace ONE Access (formerly known as IDM) under Catalog > Hub Configuration and click on Launch. I may write up the steps via a separate post in the future.

At times, you may need to re-configure Hub Services. Whatever your reason may be, you can do so within the Hub Services page.

To de-activate Hub Services altogether as a SaaS customer, you will need assistance from VMware support.

Step 3: Configure the Hub Services App Catalog / Customize Hub Features (optional)

Go to GROUPS & SETTINGS > Configurations. Then, search for Intelligent Hub and click on LAUNCH.

In one of my environments, I was presented with the error below upon clicking LAUNCH. I thought it might be because of my admin account credential being different between Workspace ONE UEM and Workspace ONE Access. However, changing the credential to match did not resolve the issue.

01/26/22 You can check out the resolution on this issue via my other blog post below:

“This door is locked” when accessing Hub Services through the VMware Workspace ONE UEM console

Here is where you can adjust the different fields for the Intelligent Hub App Catalog.

If you click on the down arrow next to the NEW SECTION, you can add additional fields to the Intelligent Hub App Catalog.

The VMware PowerPoint presentation has two screenshots that help clarify these settings in further detail.

Step 4: Apply Custom Branding for the Hub Services (optional)

On the same page where we configure the Hub Services App Catalog / customize Hub Features earlier, click on Branding. I highly recommend customizing this page as well.

Note: These branding settings will over-ride any branding you have previously set up in the UEM console if you ran the Intelligent Hub in Management-only Mode (no Hub Services).

Step 5: Enable the Hub Services App Catalog

There are two ways to get to this setting. One way is GROUPS & SETTINGS > Configurations. Then, search for Intelligent Hub and click on the link. Then scroll to the bottom of the page. You will notice that the Hub Catalog is already enabled for both iOS and Android. You can change that by clicking CONFIGURE.

You will then be re-directed to the page below which you can also access directly via GROUPS & SETTINGS > All Settings > Apps > Workspace ONE > AirWatch Catalog > General > Publishing.

Now that Hub Services are enabled and Intelligent Hub Catalog published, you will see three additional screens during device enrollment that briefly introduce the new capabilities of the VMware Intelligent Hub (from left to right).

And the Intelligent Hub App Catalog is ready to use!

More importantly, the core function of Intelligent Hub remains the same.

If you do have more than one enrolled in the Workspace ONE UEM console, you will see multiple devices listed under My Devices. The word (Current) next to the device confirms the active device.

In my future posts, I will share steps to enable additional features such as Notifications/For You, Home and People. Stay tuned!