Get started with Knox Guard

Knox Guard is a cloud-based service which enables you to protect your devices and enterprise assets from fraud and theft.

With Knox Guard, you can remotely manage, message, and if necessary, lock Samsung devices to reduce your organization’s financial risk, black market sales of devices, and overdue subscriber payments.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure you have the following:

• Access to the Knox Admin Portal. For information on how to apply for access, see Create a Samsung Knox account.
• Samsung devices running an appropriate Knox version. For the most up-to-date list of devices that Knox Guard supports, see Devices secured by Knox.

Step 1: Request approval for a Knox Guard account

Once you have access to the Knox Admin Portal, you can apply for a Knox Guard account. Please work with your Samsung contact to receive approval for your account.

If you don’t have a contact, you can reach out to the Knox Guard team at knoxguard@samsung.com with the following information:

• Your company name
• Email address
• Phone number

Knox Guard domains

Each Knox Guard account is associated with a tenant domain.

A domain is defined by its mandatory, optional, and recommended features, tailored to its specific use case. Depending on security needs, some domains may grant access to specialized features, such as Hardened Security mode. Regardless, basic Knox Guard features are available to all domains.

When you register for a Knox Guard account, you’ll be asked to select a domain. To help determine which domain best suits your business needs, see Tenant domains.

Device Financing tenant types

For device financing customers, depending on your business model, you may require different policies to best match your operations. There are two types of financing tenants in Knox Guard, suitable for different use cases:

• Normal — Users pay to use a device. In the event of an overdue payment or a misplaced device, you can remotely lock the device. In addition, you can configure custom lock screen messages instructing device users on how to unlock their device.
• PAYG (Pay-as-you-go) — Users pay a subscription fee to use the device. Devices can be unlocked when the fee is paid, and relocked once the user’s device use time runs out.

Each type of tenant has different policies they can apply to devices. Your Knox Guard administrator can help you identify which type of account best suits your use case.

Step 2: Access the Knox Guard console

Once you have a Knox Guard account, you can access the Knox Guard console through a direct link, or through the Knox Admin Portal.

• Sign into the Knox Guard console directly:

  • US — https://us-kg-portal.samsungknox.com/admin/dashboard
  • EU — https://eu-kg-portal.samsungknox.com/admin/dashboard

• Access through the Knox Admin Portal: If you use any other Knox cloud services along with Knox Guard, you can access Knox Guard through the Knox Admin Portal. Conversely, you can access the Samsung Knox Admin Portal link from the Knox Guard console, as shown below.

  

Once you sign in to the Knox Guard console, the Dashboard displays device and license status information. For more information, see Dashboard.

Step 3: Obtain a license

To use Knox Guard, a license is required. Knox Guard offers both free trial licenses and paid commercial licenses to suit your needs. There are two ways you can obtain a license — you can either generate a trial license in the console, or purchase a commercial license.

• You can generate a license on the Licenses page. Trial licenses are only valid for three months and can only be applied to 30 devices.
• When you’re ready to purchase a commercial license, we recommend you contact the Samsung Knox sales team. You can also directly contact a reseller in your country. There are three types of commercial licenses:
  • Commercial license — A commercial license has a one year activation period and devices remain active for three years. The number of seats is predetermined during the purchasing process.
  • Post-paid license — Similar to a commercial license, a post-paid license has a one year activation period and devices remain active for three years. However, the number of seats in a post-paid license is unlimited. Payment occurs at a later date and you’re charged based on the number of seats used.
  • Knox Guard Advanced license — Knox Guard Advanced provides additional management capabilities on top of all of Knox Guard’s standard features, allowing you to have greater control over your devices. Advanced licenses are available in trial, commercial, and post-paid formats.

For more information, see Manage licenses.

Step 4: Upload devices to your account

Next, upload your devices to the Knox Guard console:

• Devices purchased through a Samsung-approved reseller will be directly uploaded to your console. You can manage your resellers on the Resellers page. Once devices are uploaded, you must accept them on the Devices page.
• Upload your own devices to Knox Guard using a CSV file. Devices you upload are automatically approved. For more information, see Upload devices.

Accepted devices are automatically assigned a Knox Guard license. If you don’t have enough license seats, or have yet to add a license, devices can’t be accepted. For more information, see Manage licenses.

Step 5: Use Knox Guard

You can manage and apply policies to devices once they are uploaded to Knox Guard:

• View the management and license status for all devices on the Dashboard.
• View and manage your devices on the Devices page.
• Lock or restrict a device effectively using Knox Guard’s diverse Policies.
• Generate, view, and manage your licenses on the Licenses page.
• Manage your admins and roles on the Administrators and roles page.
• View the Activity log to assess Knox Guard events — including information such as when they occurred, admins involved, event category, action type, and description.

You now know how to launch and use Knox Guard. For more information on how to use the console, review our how-to guides or watch the how-to video. If you require assistance, you can reach out to the support team by submitting a support ticket in the Knox Admin Portal.