APNS Certificate

What is an APNS Certificate?

iOS Devices support Mobile Device Management (MobiControl), providing the ability to manage deployments of iOS Devices across organizations. These Mobile Device Management capabilities are built upon existing iOS Devices technologies like Configuration Profiles, Over-the-Air Enrolment, and the Apple Push Notification Service (APNS). This gives IT departments the ability to securely enrol iOS Devices in an enterprise environment, wirelessly configure and update settings, monitor compliance with corporate policies, and even remotely wipe or lock managed iOS Devices.

Management of iOS Devices takes place via a connection from the Deployment Server to the Apple Push Notification Service. When the Deployment Server wants to communicate with iOS Devices, a silent notification is sent to the device prompting it to check in with the Apple Push Notification Service. The device communicates with the server to see if there are tasks pending and responds with the appropriate actions. These tasks include updating policies, providing requested device or network information, or removing settings and data. The Communication between the Deployment Server and Apple Push Notification Service is secured requiring the use of a Certificate installed on the Deployment Server.

The process of creating an Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) Certification is different for each operating system.

Please see the APNS Certificate Request for Windows Server 2003 page if you are running Windows Server 2003.

Please see the APNS Certificate Request for Windows Vista, Server 2008 or Windows 7 page if you are using Windows Vista, Server 2008 or 7.

Please see the APNS Certificate Request for OS X page if you are running OS X.

After completing the steps outlined above, a valid Apple Push Notification Service Certificate will exist in the Windows Certificate Store on the Deployment Server, enabling MobiControl to use the Apple Push Notification Service to communicate with iOS Devices devices.

Important:

The certificates that have been downloaded from Apple have a 1 year expiration date. To ensure that devices do not have to be reenrolled into MobiControl when a certificate expires, the certificate has to be renewed.

The process of renewing a certificate is almost the same as creating a new one. The main difference when renewing a certificate is to select Renew rather than create a certificate. Once you renewed the certificate, it will need to installed into MobiControl again. Please see the Installing the APNS Certificate page for more information on how to install the APNS certificate.

Renewing a APNS certificate