The advanced features in OS X Server bring more power, control and collaboration to your organization. So everyone on your team can work more effectively together.
Now anyone in your group can share folders, exchange files and access documents on a Mac, iPad or PC. Because OS X Server supports both UNIX permissions and access control lists (ACLs), you have more control over who shares what. With file-sharing connection monitoring, you can see who’s accessing your server, who’s connected, and for how long. And intelligent Spotlight searching helps users find content on the server quickly and easily.
Profile Manager simplifies deploying, configuring and managing them all. It’s one place where you control everything: You can create profiles to set up user accounts for mail, calendar, contacts and messages; configure system settings; enforce restrictions; set PIN and password policies; and more. Because it’s integrated with the Apple Push Notification service, Profile Manager can send out updated configurations over the air, automatically. And it includes web-based administration, so you can manage your server from any modern web browser. Profile Manager even gives users access to a self-service web portal where they can download and install new configuration profiles, as well as clear passcodes and remotely lock or wipe their Mac, iPhone or iPad if it’s lost or stolen.
OS X Server can act as a designated Time Machine backup location for all the Mac computers on your network. Centralizing your backup storage helps protect valuable data and free up disk space on individual drives. And it eliminates the need for separate backup drives altogether. OS X Server also takes advantage of Time Machine to back up your server data — including shared files, calendars, mail, wikis and more — to another hard drive. And it lets you easily restore your server to an earlier configuration.
OS X Server makes it easy for groups to collaborate and communicate through their own wiki-powered website. With simple yet powerful tools, users can create and edit wikis and individual pages, tag and cross-reference material, upload files and images, and create tables and add comments. The wiki is accessible from a browser, so anyone can access it anytime. Users can easily search for new pages and content, show recent activity and view attachments with Quick Look. Whenever a page has been updated or new comments have been added, everyone receives an automatic email notification. Wiki Server is optimized for iPad. And with WebDAV support, iPad users can now open and save attachments from the wiki in Pages, Numbers and Keynote.
Calendar Server makes sure everyone knows where to be and when to be there. Everyone can share calendars, schedule meetings, book conference rooms and coordinate events. Contacts Server makes it easy to share contacts and keep them in sync on the Mac, iPad and iPhone. Mail Server in OS X Server works with email clients on the Mac, iPad, iPhone and PC. It supports push notifications for immediately notifying users when new mail messages arrive. With built-in virus detection and junk mail filtering, unwanted mail doesn’t come close.
Messages Server brings the collaborative power of instant messaging to your organization. Now workgroups can transfer files securely, share group messages, conduct audio conferences, even broadcast a presentation, movie, or photo slideshow to other Messages users running OS X.
Software Update Server allows administrators to control when and how software updates become available for users’ systems. So when there are OS X updates, such as firmware, security, printer drivers or RAW camera files, administrators can automatically download and cache them locally.
Virtual private network (VPN) access enables your offsite users to securely connect to your network and its services, while preventing access by unauthorized individuals. OS X Server includes VPN on demand, which allows every Mac to establish a secure authenticated connection automatically. VPN Server supports L2TP/IPSec and PPTP tunneling protocols to provide encryption and remote network access for your Mac computers, iOS devices and Windows PCs.
NetInstall is designed for administrators who manage operating system installations and software updates for their organizations. It’s the perfect IT assistant. It performs automated software installations — whether a new version of OS X, a specific suite of applications for a workgroup or both. It eliminates the expense of distributing software on disk. And it saves administrators from having to configure each system in person.
Xsan is a powerful and scalable solution for storage consolidation. Now everyone in your organization can have fast, concurrent access to terabytes of centralized data. Built into OS X, Xsan allows any Mac with a Thunderbolt to Fibre Channel adapter to access an Xsan volume. OS X Server includes the Xsan Admin application for hosting and configuring Xsan volumes.