![]() Depending on your organization, this might be an advantage or a big disadvantage. You cannot manage deployment of older or beta versions either. Once installed, Xcode should also automatically download and apply updates, at least as long as Xcode is not open. But (at least up to Ventura) installations through policies are more reliable than with volume purchasing through Apps and Books.Īnother characteristic of app deployments through Apps and Books is that you will always receive the latest, non-beta version. A large part of this is that the user is aware that an installation will be happening, and that it might take some time. In general, Mac App Store installations work more reliably when initiated by the user through Self Service. It might be some time before we can all benefit from these new features. This should speed up the download significantly.Īpple has announced changes to the MDM protocol in iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma that should improve the workflow of managed deployment of Mac App Store apps dramatically, but it will take a while for MDM developers to adopt and implement the new features and for organizations, users and developers to adopt the new versions of Xcode and the operating systems. ![]() One advantage of using App Store installation is that you can benefit from a Mac with Content Caching enabled in your network. This can happen with any installation, but given the size of Xcode, it is far more likely, especially since there is not way to inform the user of the status. The user will likely not even know that a significant download and installation is going on in the background! If the installation on the client side fails for some reason, neither the user nor the MDM server will be notified, and there are many reasons the download and installation might fail.Ī user might close or sleep a laptop or move the device out of network range during the download or installation, leading to failures. There is also no way for the local user to see the status of installation. With the current (macOS Ventura and earlier) MDM protocol, there is no feedback from the client to the server after the server sends the command to install an app. There are quite a few downsides to deploying apps this way, and they are all exacerbated by Xcode’s unusual nature and size. You can go into Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager and “purchase” a number of free licenses for Xcode and use the app deployment functionality of your management system to push those apps. ![]() For Mac admins that means we should be able to deploy Xcode through volume purchasing with Apps and Books. (We will look at why Xcode 15 is much smaller later.) Mac App StoreĪpple provides Xcode in the Mac App Store. Xcode 14 expands to ~23 GB in size and Xcode 15 to ~11.7 GB. Xcode is mostly a special challenge because of its sheer size. ![]() The first challenge is to get the Xcode app installed on the Macs. Because Xcode 15 is still in beta, there may be changes in behavior before its release in September. There were some changes relevant to managed deployment of Xcode in Xcode 14 and more in Xcode 15. Note: As I am writing this, Xcode 14.3.1 is the current release version and Xcode 15 is in beta. The most essential tool for developers on macOS is Xcode, but deploying Xcode in a managed environment poses many challenges for Mac admins. They can be the most enthusiastic and knowledgeable about macOS, but they are also very demanding regarding tooling and configuration of their Macs or rather, insist that you get out of their way to set up everything just the right way. As Mac admins, the relationship with the developers in your organization working on macOS to build apps for Apple platforms is often challenging. ![]()
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