SamuelBaughan asked a question.
The macOS agent 6.7.0 logs errors every 10 seconds
We have seen with @David Hobbs this strange behavior that the agent 6.7.0 for Mac logs the following evry 10 seconds:
12/4/2020 11:19:39 AM +00:00 ERROR snowagent macos/FirefoxInstaller.cpp; remove_native_manifest; Could not remove manifest for Firefox
12/4/2020 11:19:39 AM +00:00 ERROR snowagent macos/FirefoxInstaller.cpp; uninstall; Failed to uninstall Firefox extension.
This is weird knowing that cloud metering is not enabled for this configuration and Firefox is not installed
Not happening with 6.6.0
Any idea?
Additionally, our domain-joined Macs have the opendirectoryd log flooded with the following records:
I wonder if anybody else with Snow Agents on their Macs (
@Adam Davies, @Joseph Powell) has seen performance problems with the 6.7 agent?
For us it looks like 6.6 is fine, but things go bad if we update a Mac to 6.7. Performance of the machine degrades badly and logs fill up with errors. Is it just us?
I've not seen anything yet as all our customers have yet to upgrade to 6.7 for their MacOS estates.
I'll try do some testing to confirm what you are seeing.
Thanks @Joseph Powell it would be great to know what happens for you.
I first upgraded a few test MacBook's to 6.7.0 and got no complaints so I'm now in the midst of upgrading another 40. But quickly paused upgrading for now ;). I will request some logs and get back to you if we are experiencing the same issues.
We pushed that to a few Macs too to start with and no one reported anything wrong but actually, the Macs quickly turned very slow because opendirectoryd starts using all the CPU.
...and downgrading back to 6.6 solves the performance problems, just in case you do see any issues. Thanks @Gert-Jan Kosterman please let us know what you find.
Sorry for the tone but I am upset:
The document "CLOUD APPLICATION METERING" says (shame on whoever made that decision😡 😝 )
If the browser extensions are deployed and managed by management tools or policies,
the agent should be configured to not install the extension (saas.[browser].enable is
false)
OK, I could have read the document more thoroughly but still
❗️ ❓️ ❗️ Is there anyone else on this Community who thinks that this type of feature should not be enabled by default?
With the current arm-twisting approach of enabling the feature by default, I need to update all configs on all clients along with the updated agent itself ... just to disable a new invasive feature.
Big companies do not work like small businesses, we do not have a 2-people IT staff: The fact that I care for Snow/Licensing does not allow me to mess up with browsers and plugins.
Installing extensions and collecting personal browsing data is not something that you can just enable by default. Come on!!! If I want to install/enable something, I can decide to do so when I need!
Sorry for my rant ...
I agree - when it comes to data privacy i'd always be on the side of "Opt In" to something.
Though it could be argued that the simple fact we have placed an agent to monitor software on endpoints constitutes an "opt in" for all types of monitoring be it cloud or old fashioned installs, if made aware to end users via policies etc.
From a technical point of view I've seen the enabled by default for these extensions cause more than a few issues where things were centrally managed and this is the first document to state after a few years of these being available that they are turned on by default so "please turn them off" if you do things in a more Enterprise managed way.
Hi Samuel
I can understand your frustration and your point, but we haven't seen this causing an issue with previous versions of agents. This looks like it's v6.7 specific and Snow need to resolve it and reissue a new version of the agent quickly..... I can't reproduce this issue with my testbed Mac unfortunately so I'm no help really. Sorry!!
Adam