About push notification

Push notification provides increased server responsiveness to clients and reduced server load.

Push notification lets a server notify a user of changes (for example, a new email or an event change), without the user requesting an update. A service (like Calendar or Mail) maintains a simple connection with the client, and the service informs the client that there’s new data.

This differs from previous methods (polling or pull notification), where calendar and mail apps contacted the server at regular intervals requesting data. Using the polling method of notification, the server must attend to each request, even if the user doesn’t have new data waiting.

With push notification, only users with new data are contacted, and only as needed.

For best server performance, use push notification.

OS X Server push notification provides notification for Mail, Calendar, and Contacts services hosted on OS X Server and accessed using iOS and Mac client apps (Mail, Calendar, and Contacts). OS X Server cannot host push notifications for third-party iOS apps.

Push notification uses TCP ports 2195 and 2196 to send notifications. Push notifications are received on port 5223 or 443.

Push notification is available for the following services:

• Calendar

• Contacts

• Mail

• Notification Center

• Profile Manager

For information about other apps and services that support push notification, see Push Notification Server and supported apps and Ports used by Profile Manager.

Push notification must be running on the same OS version as every service using it, even if the services aren’t running on the same server.

Clients must support push notification to make use of it. Apple’s client apps on OS X v10.6 or later and on iOS 5.0 or later support push notification. Third-party client apps may support it.

To make a secure connection between the server and the clients, you need a transport encryption certificate installed on the server and ready for use. Apple provides a transport encryption certificate when you provide an Apple ID and password in the push notification settings.