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  1. Updating the Audit Schedule details for Mac devices

    Hi,

     

    Does anyone use the Snow Inventory Admin Console to push out changes to Mac audit schedules ?. Is it simply a case of pushing the com.snowsoftware.Inventory.plist file out as a Support File as part of an Agent Update?.

     

    Thanks

     

    Pete

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    1 of 2
    • Hi Samuel, thanks for coming back to me. Let's say we want to move away from the default schedule (Daily, 9am) to something else (say, Daily 11am). I understand this is configured in the .plist:

       

      <dict>

      <key>Hour</key>

      <integer>9</integer>

      <key>Minute</key>

      <integer>0</integer>

      </dict>

       

      I have seen the info here: https://www.launchd.info/ but my questions is if those changes to the com.snowsoftware.Inventory.plist file could be pushed out via the SIAC ?

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  2. How to control scanning schedule of Mac agent

    Regarding scanning schedule of the Mac agent, by default this is at 9am daily.

     

    We have never requested this to be changed by Snow support when getting an agent packaged but now have a requirement to only scan certain machines once a week at a specific time.

     

    Reviewing how it is controlled , it appears that the file /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.snowsoftware.Inventory.plist defines the time and LaunchD uses to trigger the scan. It should be possible to change this by setting the relevant keys e.g. 

     

    launchd 

    Is this something we can request Snow support to do when packaging the agent installer or do we have to edit this file after installation?

     

    Thanks

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    • Those files get created when you install the package (unless you do a manual install where you copy all the files yourself), so Snow should be able to change it on Build

  3. What is the default behaviour of the Mac agent scanning schedule

    Reviewing the default schedule of the Mac OS agent I can see that this is controlled by the file /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.snowsoftware.Inventory.plist. Assuming we do not ask Snow to package this with a different scanning schedule, this will kick off at 9am. My question is what happens if the user/machine is not online/on at this time. Say they switch their machine on at 10am, will the agent retrospectively run a scan/send for that day?

     

    I ask as a number of our Mac's are not reporting in regularly and I'm trying to get to the bottom of why this is.

     

     

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    1 of 5
    • Hi Colin,

       

      please check on those Mac's if they have multiple .snowpacks stored? We have this issue going on for some time now (also on Windows) where sometimes a .snowpack can not be send to our Gateway server and this holds all next generated .snowpacks from sending too... Snow is working on this together with us but it's hard to find the root cause.

       

      For now we run a little script daily which deletes .snowpack files from C:\Program Files\Snow Software\Inventory\Agent\data (Windows) and /opt/snow/data (Mac OS) when they are there. That way a correct .snowpack can be send again next time.

       

      Regards,

      Gert-Jan.

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  4. Agent file exclusion list for Macs

    I'm wondering if any of you have recommendations for file exclusions to put in the agent config on Mac computers? We see a lot of javascript (.js) files getting reported along with some shell scripts and perl files, etc... We probably don't need to include those.

     

    Is anybody willing to share their list of file exclusions for Macs? It would be nice to get some real-world advice from you experts.

     

    UPDATE: we did a bit of digging and can see a couple of detection rules for MacOS that identify software based on the .js file extension. So perhaps we need to keep that, but it would be useful to know what exclusions people are using in their Mac agent configs.

     

    Thanks!

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    1 of 5

  5. How can I scan my Mac Book online via Terminal

    Hi everyone,

     

    At Windows systems I can go to command line and use the commands:

     

    snowagent.exe scan

    snowagent.exe send

     

    Are there some commands to scan a Mac OSX? Unfortunately the automatical scan could not find the systems for days so i want to push it by my own now.

     

    Thanks for help.

    Tobi

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    1 of 5
    • Hi Gert-Jan,

       

      I currently work with Version 6.5.2 is there a way to find out if this Version works with Mac OS X Big Sur too? Unfortnately its not that easy to get the newest version because other admins have to check the Software first before i can use it in my company. If we can't check compatibility of older Versions I will try to get the newest Version and give feedback as soon as possible.

       

      Many Thanks,

      Tobi

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  6. Community Manager (Flexera Software) asked a question.

    Correct MAC settings for agent scan

    I'm trying to get a MAC agent to scan for the Soundtoys plugins. Evidence is in the .vst or .component files being present. Ive tried the agent settings below but no joy. Did I miss something obvious?

     

    <Path recursive="true" unconditionally="false">/Applications/*</Path>

    <Path recursive="true" unconditionally="false">/Library/Audio/Plug-ins/*.component</Path>

    <Path recursive="true" unconditionally="false">/Library/Audio/Plug-ins/*.vst</Path>

    <Path recursive="true" unconditionally="false">~/Library/Audio/Plug-ins/*.component</Path>

    <Path recursive="true" unconditionally="false">~/Library/Audio/Plug-ins/*.vst</Path>

     

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    1 of 5
    • Hi,

      to my understanding, FileType is not the same thing as file extension. According to several document I read, you can exclude file extension in section:

      <Software>

      <Exclude>

      <Path>...</Path>

       

      for instance:

      <Exclude>

      <Path>*.vst</Path>

       

      For FileType, documentation says:

      "If software is to be included it must match one of the file types specified.

      Uses wildcard matching.

      Example for Linux, OSX & Unix systems: ELF*executable* Example for Windows systems: sys2."

       

      I do not know for MACOS, but in Linux/Unix word one can use a command like /usr/bin/file <your sample file> on the host where your agent is installed to find the corresponding file type

      For instance:

      $ /usr/bin/file vi

      vi: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs) ...

       

      Hope it helps.

       

      Christophe

      Expand Post

    • As far as I know, this is how we are doing ... it is basically (almost) the same as for a Windows client: Open a Terminal window (command prompt) on the Mac/Linux computer Enter this command: cd /opt/snow (and press enter) Next, enter the following command: sudo ./snowagent scan (and press enter) You might be prompted for a password, if so enter it Once the Agent completes scanning, some files should be created in this folder: /opt/snow/data The snowpack file should be in the above folder, it should be named like: result-xyz.snowpack Running the agent should trigger the update. Also, there would probably be the following switch available: sudo ./snowagent update I do not have any computer to test on, sorry. I then assume that running  sudo ./snowagent send would send the snowpack file to the Inventory Server. We heard reports of instances when it was necessary to change the permission of the folder /opt/snow/data to everyone read & write.
      Expand Post

  7. MacOS Snow Agent Cloud metering
    Does anyone have Cloud Metering for macOS enabled and working across their MacOS estate.and how much benefit they are seeing with it? I ask as when referring to the release notes and user guide  it states the following limitations... So the workaround is basically to disable it and distribute it via the Google Chrome Admin console?? Is this saying that Chrome is not currently supported by deployment via the Agent? And then referring to v.6.2 agent release notes, it states the following... So it also looks as if Safari is not currently supported as the Safari browser extension (as far as I can tell) has not been released?   Given that Chrome and Safari are effectively out, that would leave possible supported browser extensions for collecting Cloud metering data to be Firebox and IE which I can imagine have very minimal footprints across most MacOS estates (in comparison to Chrome and Firefox)?
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Macos Agent | Flexera