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Mac Agent

Troy Anderson
  • Updated

Table of Contents

Overview
Feature Matrix against the Windows Agent
Installation
Silent Installation
Configure macOS Catalina to start the Mac Agent when a user logs in
ScreenConnect
BitDefender
Troubleshooting

 

Overview

First rule of beta club. It's a real beta—currently version 2 (see our FAQs article). Also, there's no timeline on when the Mac Agent will leave beta at the moment. Rest assured, we will announce when a date is available to keep everyone up to date.

Our Remote Machine Management (RMM) system is agent-based meaning you install a management agent (application) on every computer you manage and that is how you get the control to do your job. Our Mac agent can't have direct parity because of operating system differences but it is our goal to support as much as possible on both platforms.

The most recent Mac agent update should allow installation on Mac OS 11 Big Sur.

Feature Matrix against the Windows Agent

  Windows Mac
 Native Checks - Blue Screen  X  
 Native Checks - Antivirus Installed  X X
 Native Checks - Application Crashes  X  
 Native Checks - SMART Failure X X
 Native Checks - Low Disk Space X X
 Native Checks - Firewall Enabled X X
 Native Checks - HDD Fragmentation X X
 Native Checks - Device Manager Issues X  
 Event Log Monitoring X  
 Resource Monitoring (CPU/Memory) X X
 Agent Status (Online/Offline) X X
 Patch Management (Operating System) X  
 Application Management (Third Party) X  
 Managed AV - Bitdefender X X
 Managed AV - Emsisoft X  
 Syncro Live - Remote Control (native) X  
 Syncro Live - Task Manager X  
 Syncro Live - Terminal (command prompt) X  
 Agent Icon with Menu - Customizable icon/menu X X
 Scripting Engine - Powershell X  
 Scripting Engine - vbscripts X  
 Scripting Engine - batch files X  
 Scripting Engine - Bash (mac)   X
 Scheduled Scripts (on Policy or manual schedule)  X X
 System Checks - External Monitoring (ping/http) X X
 Remote Control - "bring your own" TeamViewer X *
 Remote Control - "bring your own" ScreenConnect X **
 Agent Silent Install (CustomerID, PolicyID, ComputerName,...) X X
 Agent Auto Updating  X X
 Service & Process Monitors X  
 Device System Tray Menu x ***
     
 * Planned    
 ** Additional information below    
 *** All tray menu functions work except for the agent contact form and live chat    

 

Installation

  1. Navigate to the Customers tab.
  2. Search for a customer and click their name.
  3. In the upper right, click New > RMM Agent Installer.
  4. Click one of the policies to install, then click Mac V2 Beta (PKG).
  5. When it finishes downloading, double click the SyncroDesktop-[[XXXXX]].pkg file to launch it. You might have to open Gatekeeper (System Preferences > Security) to allow it to run because it's not coming from the Mac App Store.
  6. Follow the installation prompts.
  7. During the installation, you will likely be prompted to enable screen recording permissions.
    Provide permissions
  8. If it does not automatically open the Security & Privacy settings, click Provide permissions.
  9. In the Security & Privacy settings, you will see either a SyncroMSP or dotnet setting. Click the checkbox to its left to enable it.
    Check dotnet box
  10. Back on the Provide permissions dialog, click Continue.
  11. Once the installation finishes, click its Close button.

All done!

Silent installation

To install the agent silently and bypass the 'Screen Recording' permission, you may use the Terminal command:

touch /tmp/syncro-noui && sudo installer -target / -pkg /path/to/installer.pkg

Or, you can add the suffix .noui. to the PKG file name before running the installer (Example: SyncroDesktop-[[...]].noui.pkg).

Should the customer attempt include an image of their screen from the Agent Contact Form with the 'Screen Recording' permission disabled, they'll be prompted to enable it in the 'Security & Privacy' settings prior to submitting the form. The Asset Screenshot Thumbnail will not be displayed on the Asset Detail page for any agent with the 'Screen Recording' permission disabled.

 

Configure macOS Catalina to start the Mac Agent when a user logs in

Starting with Catalina, security standards have been added to macOS that make it harder for certain programs to start automatically. If you are noticing the Mac Agent isn't starting automatically, please follow these steps:

  1. On your Mac, click the Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Users & Groups.
  2. Select your user account, then click Login Items at the top of the window.
  3. Click the Add button below the list of items.
  4. Select the SyncroAgent app, then click add.

 

ScreenConnect

ScreenConnect managed installation is not officially supported on Macs at this current time. Please install ScreenConnect outside of Syncro until further notice.

 

BitDefender

In order for Bitdefender to function correctly on a mac machine, you may have to give the application full disk access. The BitDefender below will walk you through all of the necessary steps. 

https://www.bitdefender.com/support/how-to-allow-full-disk-access-to-bitdefender-endpoint-security-for-mac-in-macos-mojave-(10-14)-and-later-2273.html

 

Troubleshooting

  • Please make sure to whitelist the agent with any AV on the asset
  • For v1 users, the Mac Agent Uninstaller is at the bottom of this page. Follow the instructions in the .txt file. Make sure you have the SUDO Password for the uninstaller to work properly.
  • For v2 users, you can run the following command to uninstall the agent.
    $ sudo syncro uninstall
  • Logs can be found here: /tmp/syncroMSP.zip or you can open the Mac Console, go to "Log Reports" and search for "Syncro:"
    mceclip0.png

 

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