Apple Platform Deployment
- Welcome
- Intro to Apple platform deployment
- What’s new
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- Accessibility payload settings
- Active Directory Certificate payload settings
- AirPlay payload settings
- AirPlay Security payload settings
- AirPrint payload settings
- App Lock payload settings
- Associated Domains payload settings
- Automated Certificate Management Environment (ACME) payload settings
- Autonomous Single App Mode payload settings
- Calendar payload settings
- Mobile payload settings
- Mobile Private Network payload settings
- Certificate Preference payload settings
- Certificate Revocation payload settings
- Certificate Transparency payload settings
- Certificates payload settings
- Conference Room Display payload settings
- Contacts payload settings
- Content Caching payload settings
- Directory Service payload settings
- DNS Proxy payload settings
- DNS Settings payload settings
- Fonts payload settings
- Domains payload settings
- Energy Saver payload settings
- Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) payload settings
- Exchange Web Services (EWS) payload settings
- Extensible Single Sign-on payload settings
- Extensible Single Sign-on Kerberos payload settings
- Extensions payload settings
- FileVault payload settings
- Finder payload settings
- Firewall payload settings
- Fonts payload settings
- Global HTTP Proxy payload settings
- Google Accounts payload settings
- Home Screen Layout payload settings
- Identification payload settings
- Identity Preference payload settings
- Kernel Extension Policy payload settings
- LDAP payload settings
- Lights Out Management payload settings
- Lock Screen Message payload settings
- Login Window payload settings
- Managed Login Items payload settings
- Mail payload settings
- Network Usage Rules payload settings
- Notifications payload settings
- Parental Controls payload settings
- Passcode payload settings
- Printing payload settings
- Privacy Preferences Policy Control payload settings
- Relay payload settings
- SCEP payload settings
- Security payload settings
- Setup Assistant payload settings
- Single Sign-on payload settings
- Smart Card payload settings
- Subscribed Calendars payload settings
- System Extensions payload settings
- System Migration payload settings
- Time Machine payload specifics
- TV Remote payload settings
- Web Clips payload settings
- Web Content Filter payload settings
- LDAP payload settings
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- Declarative app configuration
- Authentication credentials and identity asset declaration
- Background task management declarative
- Calendar declarative configuration
- Certificates declarative configuration
- Contacts declarative configuration
- Exchange declarative configuration
- Google Accounts declarative configuration
- LDAP declarative configuration
- Legacy interactive profile declarative configuration
- Legacy profile declarative configuration
- Mail declarative configuration
- Maths and Calculator app declarative configuration
- Passcode declarative configuration
- Passkey Attestation declarative configuration
- Safari extensions management declarative configuration
- Screen Sharing declarative configuration
- Service configuration files declarative configuration
- Software Update declarative configuration
- Software Update settings declarative configuration
- Storage management declarative configuration
- Subscribed Calendars declarative configuration
- Glossary
- Document revision history
- Copyright
Intro to declarative device management and Apple devices
Declarative device management is an update to the existing protocol for device management that can be used in combination with the existing MDM protocol capabilities. It allows the device to asynchronously apply settings and report status back to the MDM solution without constant polling. This is ideal for performance and scalability.
Declarative device management gives organisations more confidence that devices are in the desired state and that essential data is kept secure, even without internet connectivity. And from a user perspective, it provides a much more responsive experience.
Status reporting allows a device to share information about its current state, and if there are any changes, these can be reported to the server proactively without having to poll the device for updates. Extensibility is built into the protocol to ensure that declarative management is designed for the present and the future.
For more information, see the WWDC24 video What’s new in device management.
Declarations
There are four types of declarations, which are payloads that the server defines, sends to devices, and represents the policy an organisation wants to enforce on devices.
Declaration type | Description | ||||||||||
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Configurations | Configurations are similar to MDM’s existing profile payloads; for example, accounts, settings and restrictions. See Declarative configurations in the MDM settings section. | ||||||||||
Assets | Assets consist of reference data that’s required by configurations for large data items and per-user data; assets have a one-to-many relationship with configurations. See Authentication credentials and identity asset settings. | ||||||||||
Activations | Activations are a set of configurations that are applied atomically to the device and can include predicates, such as “device type is iPad” or “operating system version greater than iPadOS 16.1”. There is a many-to-many relationship between activations and configurations. Activations can use an extended predicate syntax — including status items — to support complex predicate expressions. In addition, a management properties declaration allows servers to set arbitrary properties on the device, which can be directly used in activation predicates. | ||||||||||
Management | Management is used to convey overall management state to the device, describing details about the organisation and capabilities of the MDM solution. | ||||||||||
Status channel
The status channel is a new channel of communication where the device proactively updates the server with new information about itself. Updates of the device state are sent in a status report to the server. The server can subscribe to specific status items, so it receives only updates for the changes it cares about. Status items can also be used as expressions in activation predicates, allowing the device to operate independently, based on state changes. For more information, see Declarative status reports.