Understand Flexera Inventory Agent behavior with Apple Virtualization framework
On Mac devices that use Apple Silicon (M1 and M2 chips), the Flexera Inventory Agent may report the hardware model as VirtualMac2,1 instead of the physical model name.
This happens because Apple’s Virtualization framework presents virtual hardware identifiers to the operating system, which the agent accurately collects. Intel-based Macs continue to report their physical model identifiers as expected.
This article explains why this behavior occurs and how you can verify the hardware model that the Mac operating system provides to the inventory agent.
Why this happens
Apple’s Virtualization framework abstracts hardware details for both physical and virtual environments on Apple Silicon devices. Because of this, system calls return a virtual model identifier (for example, VirtualMac2,1), even on physical machines.
The Flexera Inventory Agent reports this information exactly as provided by the operating system.
To verify the hardware model, run the following command on the host machine or virtual machine to confirm what the operating system reports:
system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType SPHardwareDataTypeCheck the Model Identifier and Chip fields in the output.
Example on Apple Silicon (M1)
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: Apple Virtual Machine 1
Model Identifier: VirtualMac2,1
Model Number: VM0001LL/A
Chip: Apple M1 Pro (Virtual)
Total Number of Cores: 8
Memory: 4 GB
Example on Intel Mac
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro16,1
Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.6 GHz
Memory: 32 GB
When you compare the operating system output with the agent’s NDI data, you can confirm that the reported model identifier reflects Apple’s Virtualization behavior.
