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In Part 2 of our two-part series on macOS Server 5.4, Todd Olthoff takes a look at managing your devices using Profile Manager, the device management tool that is part of Server. As we accumulate Apple devices, it can become challenging to manage each one for the various users, whether in your household or organization.

In this episode we'll talk about some of the things to consider before deploying a device management system. We'll then walk you through the various things that need to be set up in the Server application, so you can take full advantage of the Profile Manager service. This includes enrolling all of your devices and pushing profiles to those, so their various settings can be customized to fit your needs.

With macOS High Sierra came updates to the Server app, now called macOS Server and available on the App Store for USD 19.99. We covered Server extensively in the past, but that was back on OS X Mavericks (10.9). We thought it was time for an update.

This version of Server is different from the previous ones in that Apple has chosen to move three server components to High Sierra itself and make them available to all users. For some, those components might have been the reason they wanted Server in the first place, so there is no longer a need for the macOS Server app when running High Sierra. We will cover each of these services in detail and take a look at a new way to access file shares on iOS devices, due to the removal of the iOS File Sharing service and webDAV sharing from macOS Server. To achieve this, we'll set up the VPN service and use Readdle's Documents app for iOS to access those file shares both locally and remotely.