Course: CompTIA Certified A+ Training (Core 1 and Core 2) (TGS-2024048317)
Topic 01: Mobile Devices — Core 1, 13% of Core 1
Exam objective: Design a mobile device management policy and configure account synchronisation for corporate email, calendar and contacts, accounting for data caps (Core 1 objective 1.4).
You design an MDM policy for a small organisation issuing corporate devices, then configure and verify account synchronisation on a real device. You finish by calculating the data cost of a full photo sync so you can advise a user before they exceed their cap.
A written MDM policy covering eight control areas, plus a verified synchronisation configuration and a data-cap impact calculation.
Mobile device, a Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace account, IP Calculator, organisational policy template
- IP Calculator — https://alfredang.github.io/ipcalculator/
IP Calculator — the panels and fields this lab uses.
- Disconnect mains power and hold the power button for 15 seconds before working inside any machine.
- Wear an anti-static strap connected to an earthed point; hold boards and cards by their edges.
- Never open a power supply unit or a CRT monitor — both retain a lethal charge after being unplugged.
- Never puncture, compress or charge a swollen lithium battery; isolate it and follow hazardous disposal procedure.
- List the eight MDM control areas your policy must cover: device enrolment, screen lock, encryption, corporate email profile, two-factor authentication, application whitelisting, remote wipe and location services.
- For each control area, write the specific rule your policy enforces and one sentence on the risk it mitigates.
- Distinguish MDM from MAM in your policy: MDM controls the whole device, while MAM controls only the corporate applications and data on it.
- Write the BYOD section covering what the organisation may and may not wipe on a personally owned device, and why a full remote wipe is inappropriate there.
- On the device, add a Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace account and select which data types to synchronise: mail, calendar, contacts and photos.
- Verify synchronisation by creating a calendar entry on the device and confirming it appears in the web client within one minute.
- Open the device's data usage screen and record the current billing-period total and the configured data cap or warning threshold.
- Estimate the size of a full photo library sync, then calculate what percentage of a 5 GB monthly cap it would consume and state whether it should run on cellular.
- Configure the account to synchronise photos on Wi-Fi only, and record the exact setting path so it can be included in a user guide.
- Write the user-facing section of the guide: how to enrol, what the organisation can see, and what to do if the device is lost or stolen.
Your policy covers all eight control areas with a rule and a risk for each, clearly separates MDM from MAM and corporate from BYOD, synchronisation is verified end to end within one minute, and the data-cap calculation supports a stated Wi-Fi-only recommendation.
| Symptom | What to check |
|---|---|
| A command returns "command not found" | Re-run the apt-get install step at the start of the lab — the playground starts with a minimal package set. |
| The Killercoda terminal has reset | The playground times out when idle. Reopen it and re-run the setup commands from step 1. |
| A browser tool will not load | Check the URL against labs/tools.md. All four tools run entirely client-side and need no login. |
| Output differs from the guide | Record what you actually observed — your environment differs from the reference, and explaining the difference is part of the exercise. |
- State the exam objective this lab maps to, in your own words.
- Which single step in this lab would you perform first on a real support call, and why?
- What evidence would you attach to a support ticket to show this work was completed correctly?
- Name one thing that would make this procedure fail, and how you would recognise it.
Complete worksheet.md as you work through this lab and keep it — the Practical Performance assessment mirrors these tasks.