Server.app and Apple ID Association

[Jason]

When I open the App Store on my Mac mini server and click on an update to Server.app it will prompt for an Apple ID. It has my Apple ID greyed out. Since I'm not the only administrator of this server, I'm curious if that means another admin would not be able to update Server.app. How are others addressing this? Are you simply packaging it with composer and then deploying it out?

[johnnasset · Accepted solution]

If I want to deploy an App Store app, I'll use the following process to strip the apple ID from the package:

http://derflounder.wordpress.com/2013/10/19/downloading-microsofts-remote-desktop-installer-package-from-the-app-store/

For apps that need updating with the greyed-out Apple ID, I've used the following to process to allow updates:

Right click on the Server.app and select Show Package Contents
Delete the receipt file in Contents-_MASReceipt
Use the following command in Terminal to create a blank receipt file:

sudo touch /Applications/Server.app/Contents/_MASReceipt/receipt

Once the blank receipt file is created, you should be able to change the apple ID associated with the downloaded app when trying to update.

[johnnasset · Accepted solution]

If I want to deploy an App Store app, I'll use the following process to strip the apple ID from the package:

http://derflounder.wordpress.com/2013/10/19/downloading-microsofts-remote-desktop-installer-package-from-the-app-store/

For apps that need updating with the greyed-out Apple ID, I've used the following to process to allow updates:

Right click on the Server.app and select Show Package Contents
Delete the receipt file in Contents-_MASReceipt
Use the following command in Terminal to create a blank receipt file:

sudo touch /Applications/Server.app/Contents/_MASReceipt/receipt

Once the blank receipt file is created, you should be able to change the apple ID associated with the downloaded app when trying to update.

[bentoms · Accepted solution]

Just to say that some App Store apps will not run with a blank or missing MAS Receipt.

FWIW, we deploy using a company ID & then update the apps via Casper.

[mking529]

bentoms, may I ask: When you say a company ID, do you mean a VPP ID, or simply an account controlled by your company/tech team? Right now we don't have any OS X App Store apps to push around as we're still mostly on Mountain Lion, but once our deployment rolls over early next year that will definitely change. Can you simply package apps and they'll deploy to machines? I'm aware they won't update without the Apple ID, but they run fine otherwise? Thanks!

[bentoms]

@mking529 sure.. i think i cover it here: https://macmule.com/2014/01/23/vpp-2-0-a-question-of-morality/

[michaelhusar]

@bentoms
I have a lot of apps checking the applied Apple ID
May I ask how you would mass-deploy the company IDs?
I have a couple of labs each with 50 macs - so I would need per lab 10 IDs (since every ID can be used on up to 5 machines?)
Is there a script how to activate a machine with an apple ID ?
Or do I have to make different "base-images" each activated with a respective ID ... and nuke and pave to get that applied?
Thank you very much for your ideas!

[bentoms]

@michaelhusar, we deploy with one ID.. even if it's over 10 licenses.. but via VPP we have the correct licenses as an org.

[michaelhusar]

@bentoms
thanx- good to hear it is doable. we also have all the required licenses, but I am stuck in the "automation".
I made a "master machine" for the labs: I assigned the App via VPP, send an invitation, downloaded the App, activated under AppStore "automatically load apps", started the App - running. On this machine it works for (all) other AD-users, who log in.
Now I need to clone and distribute this to all the other lab machines. I used composer to distribute this image to the other machines. But when you try to start the App on another machine it complains that the App was bought on a different computer and you have to log in into the Appstore...Please tell me the trick how to automate this.

[AVmcclint]

How are people purchasing Server.app to go on their Mac servers? It doesn't make sense to me to do it via VPP since we can't assign to devices yet and I'd also assume this means we'd have to have Mac servers being managed by Casper. Are you just buying it from the Mac App store using a non-VPP company account and a company credit card?

[mpermann]

We typically buy our Server.app licenses with our VPP account and just get VPP codes. Then we just redeem one of the codes to download the app with a service account AppleID. We use that same service account to re-download the app should we need to. We keep track of the number of licenses we have purchased and which server they are assigned to in a database other than Casper. We generally only redeem one VPP code though.