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Managing Mac Computers

Endpoint Central can be used to manage computers with macOS. It has separate agents to manage Mac computers. This document will explain you on the following:

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

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.

Configuring Mac Agent Settings

Mac agent settings need to be configured only for adding credentials that are required for remote agent installation.

           Note: This is not applicable for the cloud version of the product.

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  and click on Computer tab.
    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 Remotely

If you wanted to install agents for computers within the LAN, then you can choose the computers and invoke agent installation from the web console  Admin tab --> SoM -->Select computers and invoke agent installation. If you wanted to install agents to computers which belongs to a different remote office, then you will have to use SSH.

Installing Mac agents to remote office 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
    4. Open the terminal
    5. Navigate to the location where the agent is downloaded.
    6. Type scp DCMacAgent.zip adminusername@hostname: to copy the agent to the target computer.
      1. where adminusername - administrator user name of the remote computer
      2. hostname - local host name of the remote computer
      3. Agent is copied in the location ~/Users/adminusername in target computer

    7. Install the agent in the remote computer

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

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

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

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

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

Uninstall Mac agents

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

      1. Open the uninstaller.app under the directory/Library/DesktopCentral_Agent/uninstaller.app
      2. Enter the OTP prompted, if uninstallation restrictions are configured. To view the OTP navigate to Agent > Scope of Management > Computers (in product console) or Menu > Scope of Management > Computers > Actions (in mobile app).
      3. Enter the administrator credentials
      4.  This will uninstall the Endpoint Central Agent.

Supported Features

Endpoint Central currently supports the following features for Mac computers.

    1. Patch Management
    2. Software Deployment
    3. Managing software License
    4. Managing Software Category
    5. Hardware and software inventory reports
    6. Alerting by email for every hardware or software changes.
    7. Configurations
    8. Remote Control
    9. Remote Shutdown