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Managing Mac Computers

Endpoint Central can be used to manage computers with macOS. To get started with you'll need to configure a few pre-requisites. Once you deploy the MDM Profile, you'll be able to add your MacOS devices to your server for management.

Supported macOS

Endpoint Central currently supports the following Mac versions:

  1. 10.11 El Capitan
  2. 10.12 Sierra
  3. 10.13 High Sierra
  4. 10.14 Mojave
  5. 10.15 Catalina
  6. 11 Big Sur
  7. 12 Monterey
  8. 13 Ventura
  9. 14 Sonoma

Note: Apple Silicon processors can run apps that are compiled for the Intel chipset through a software technology known as Rosetta 2. This translation layer is automatically enabled in macOS Big Sur, and provides users with access to all features in Endpoint Central Agent. In short, Endpoint Central efficiently supports these new laptops.

Onboarding Mac devices 

To effectively manage Mac devices in your organization, it is necessary to deploy agents to them, as well as configure the MDM profile to take full advantage of the management capabilities.

Manual Mac Agent installation

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

  1. Navigate to Agent -> Computers -> Download Agent

Choose the appropriate remote office and platform - 'Mac'. 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 UEMS_MacAgent.pkg and serverinfo.plist file.
  3. Install the agent and provide admin credentials while prompted to complete installation. 

Automatic Mac Agent installation in Local Office

If you want to install agents for computers in a LAN setup, then you can choose the computers and invoke agent installation from the web console Agent tab --> SoM -->Select computers and invoke agent installation.

Automatic Mac Agent installation in Remote Offices

If you need to install agents on computers located in a different remote office, you will need to use SSH.

To install Mac agents on remote office computers using SSH, you can remotely connect to the computers using a Mac computer. Follow the steps outlined below to remotely install Mac agents:

  1. Login into the Mac computer as administrator
  2. Download the Mac agent.
  3. Copy the downloaded Mac agent
  4. Open the terminal
  5. Navigate to the location where the agent is downloaded.
      1. Type scp REMOTEOFFICENAME_UEMSMacAgent.zip eg: LocalOffice_UEMSMacAgent.zip: to copy the agent to the target computer.
      2. where adminusername - administrator user name of the remote computer
      3. hostname - local host name of the remote computer
      4. Agent is copied in the location ~/Users/adminusername in target computer
  6. Install the agent in the remote computer

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

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

  9. Install the agent using the command sudo installer  -pkg  UEMS_MacAgent.pkg  -target  /

  10. Enter the administrator password when prompted to complete agent installation.

  11. Once the agents are installed successfully, the Mac computers will be listed in the SoM page in the web console.

If you wish to install agent automatically, you may choose Apple Business Manager for onboarding.

Configuring Mac Agent Settings

  1. In the Endpoint Central web console, navigate to Agent tab--> Settings --> Agent Settings --> Mac Agent Settings.
  2. Specify the credentials to automate agent installation
  3. Click Save Changes

Note: Once the agents are deployed on the machines, the MDM profile will be installed automatically if the prerequisites are configured. To know more about configuring MDM Profile, Visit this page

Supported Features

Endpoint Central currently supports the following features for Mac computers.

    1. Patch Management
    2. Software Deployment
    3. Hardware and software inventory reports
    4. Configurations
    5. Remote Control
    6. Remote Shutdown

Uninstall Mac agents

To uninstall the agents from the computers, please follow these steps:

  • In Endpoint Central below 11.2.2309.01,open the uninstaller.app located at /Library/DesktopCentral_Agent/uninstaller.app
  • In Endpoint Central 11.2.2309.01 and above, Open the uninstaller.app located at /Library/ManageEngine/UEMS_Agent/uninstaller.app
  • If there are any uninstallation restrictions configured, enter the OTP when prompted. 
  • To view the OTP, go to Agent > Scope of Management > Computers 
  • Enter the administrator credentials when prompted.
  • The Endpoint Central Agent will be uninstalled after completing these steps.