Finally! One of the banes of running Mac OS X Server has been that there is no easy way for users to manage their own vacation messages, which creates a support request every time someone takes a day off. Until now. Mac OS X Server 10.6, “Snow Leopard Server”, includes a web-based interface for users to manage their own vacation messages.

The new feature is implemented via the wiki/blog server. Wiki Server 2 has many new features. One of them is a user-customized home page called “My Page” that displays updated wiki content that the user has access to. My Page is also where the user can enable, schedule, and edit their vacation messages.

This excerpt is from the Mail Service Administration Guide, page 61:

Vacation Notices

If you enable server-side mail rules and the Wiki Server, mail users can add vacation notices through a web interface. How a user modifies their vacation notices:

1. Log into any wiki page they have access to.
2. Select My Page.
3. Select “settings.”
4. Select Vacation Notice.
5. To enable vacation notices, for Enabled, select On; to disable vacation notices, select Off.
6. Click the date next to Vacation Begins and then select the date when notifications will
   start being sent.
7. Click the date next to Returning On and then select the date when notifications will stop being sent.
8. In the Email Subject field, enter the subject line of the mail that will be sent.
9. In the Vacation Message area, enter the body of the mail that will be sent.
10. Click Save.

This feature alone provides a big incentive for sysadmins to upgrade to Snow Leopard Server. I look forward to never using sieveshell to set user vacation messages again!