Managing computers with Mac OS

Desktop Central can be used to manage computers with Mac operating Systems. Desktop Central has separate agents to manage Mac computers.

Supporting  Mac OS

Desktop Central currently supports the following Mac versions:

• 10.6 Snow Leopard

• 10.7 Lion

Note: Desktop Central currently supports managing Mac OS with Intel Processor

Configuring Mac Agent Settings

Desktop Central has different agents for windows and Mac computers. Mac agents will not be created by default.  You can create Mac agents by configuring the settings in the scope of management.  This will help you automatically create Mac agents for the local office and the remote offices. To Configure the Mac agent settings follow the steps mentioned below.

1. Click the Admin tab to invoke the Admin page.
2. Click the Agent Settings link available under Global Settings.
3. Select Mac Agent Settings tab
4. Click on the check box to automatically create agents for managing Mac computers. Enabling the option to create Mac agents automatically will create agents for all the existing remote offices as well the any new remote office that is created subsequently.
5. Select the domain or the workgroup to group Mac computers (this is virtual grouping and will not impact on its functions).
6. Click Save to create Mac agents.
   
   Mac agents can be download from the SoM page.

Installing Mac Agents

Mac agents can be installed manually in the computers that need to be managed.  Agents can be installed manually in every computer or through SSH. To install the agent, log-in into the computer as an administrator and follow the steps mentioned below.

1. Click the Admin tab to invoke the Admin page.
2. Click on Scope of Management  link  under Global Settings.
3. Click on Download Agent link

You will have a drop down list, from which you can choose and download the appropriate agent. If the managed computers are in the same LAN, download  Mac local agent. If the managed computers are in remote locations, download agents appropriately.  Follow the steps mentioned below to install the agents manually,

1. Login into the Mac computer as administrator and navigate to the location where the agent is downloaded.
2. Extract the zip file and  locate DesktopCentral_MacAgent.pkg and serverinfo.plist file.
3. Double click to install the agent.
4. Enter administrators password when prompted to complete installation.

Installing Mac Agents Using SSH

Installing Mac agents in computers can be done easily through SSH. Using a Mac computer you can remotely connect to other computers and install the Mac agents. To know about installing agents follow the steps mentioned below.

1. Login into the Mac computer as administrator
2. Download the Mac agent.
3. Copy the downloaded Mac agent

• Open the terminal

• Navigate to the location where the agent is downloaded.

• Type scp DCMacAgent.zip adminusername@hostname: to copy the agent to the target computer.

• Where adminusername - administrator user name of the remote computer

• hostname - local host name of the remote computer

• Agent is copied in the location ~/Users/adminusername in target computer

4. Install the agent in the remote computer

• To login into the target computer using SSH type ssh adminusername@hostname

• Navigate to the location where the agent is copied, Unzip the agent zip file by typing unzip -oq DCMacAgent.zip

• Install the agent using the command sudo installer  -pkg  DesktopCentral_MacAgent.pkg  -target  /

• Enter the administrator password when prompted to complete agent installation.
  
  Once the agents are installed successfully, the Mac computers will be listed in the SoM page in the Desktop Central web console.

Uninstall Mac agents

To uninstall the agents from the computers, follow the steps mentioned below.

1. Login into the computer as administrator and open the terminal.
2. Navigate to the directory /Library/DesktopCentral_Agent/uninstall
3. Type sudo chmod 744 uninstall.sh, and enter administrator password when prompted.
4.  Type the command sudo ./uninstall.sh, this command removes all the files except logs.

Supported Features

Desktop Central currently supports the following features for Mac computers.

Features supported in the Inventory Module

• Hardware and software inventory reports

• Managing software License

• Managing Software Category

• Alerting by email for every hardware or software changes.