MAC Usage Feature On/Off Missing

[chirag_sharma2]

Why setting usage via mgsft_rollout_response file is not supported?

Why is it as per design? 

In Windows, we do have the option to Turn Usage On/Off at the time of deployment, why is it missing in MAC ?

[ChrisG]

The mgsft_rollout_response file is only used to configure a few selected/special bootstrap settings. On UNIX-like operating systems, the mgsconfig tool is typically used as part of your installation script to configure default agent settings.

For example, you could include something like the following in your agent deployment script to enable usage metering when the agent is installed:

cat <<EOF >/var/tmp/mgsconfig.$$.ini
[Usage Agent]
desc0 = Disabled
val0 = False
EOF

/opt/managesoft/bin/mgsconfig -i /var/tmp/mgsconfig.$$.ini

rm -f /var/tmp/mgsconfig.$$.ini

Here are some other posts which you may find helpful that talk about agent configuration:

• "Usage agent is configured not to run on this machine" message on Mac. 
• Question on configuring a unix mgssetup.sh file
• Application usage metering using the FlexNet inventory agent (see the question "How can the values of configuration settings be changed?")

[chirag_sharma2]

Hi @ChrisG ,

Is it okay to create 1 final Config.ini with Usage ON and replace that file on all MAC devices instead of running a script or replacing temp file?

[ChrisG]

Is the idea you're suggesting here to install/update the /var/opt/managesoft/etc/config.ini file directly?

I would suggest it is better practice to update the file by running mgsconfig than trying to make any modifications to the file directly. If you modify the file yourself (particularly if you replace the entire file) then you don't necessarily know what you will be overwriting. Running mgsconfig will take care of safely merging the settings you are trying to configure with current settings that are in the file.

[chirag_sharma2]

Yes @ChrisG , According to support Engineer - I should follow this process - 

1. Modify var/opt/managesoft/etc/config.ini and Put Disabled=False under [ManageSoft\Usage Agent\CurrentVersion]
2. Restart servcies of mgsusageag and ndtask

sudo /bin/launchctl stop com.flexerasoftware.mgsusageag
ssudo /bin/launchctl start com.flexerasoftware.mgsusageag

sudo /bin/launchctl stop com.flexerasoftware.ndtask
sudo /bin/launchctl start com.flexerasoftware.ndtask

[flexeranoob]

Hi @chirag_sharma2  This is a different question from what you've posted.  How have you rolled out agents to MAC in your environment?  We have a large MAC environment, and Flexera doesnt have a tool to roll out the agents to MAC.  Please let me know what you've done. 

[chirag_sharma2]

Hi @flexeranoob 

I am asking the same question on hw we can Enable MAC usage tracking. 

To answer your question, we are using JAMF to deploy Flexera MAC agent in our deployment. 

[flexeranoob]

@chirag_sharma2 my MAC team which also uses JAMF to manage MACs tells me that JAMF can only push .DMG file, so there is no way to push .ini file.  How are you doing that? 

[chirag_sharma2]

Hi @flexeranoob 

We are not using msi for MAC. There is an option to download PKG file for MAC in FNMS which can be deployed using JAMF.

[kclausen]

Starting with FNMS 2019 R2, the Mac Agent became 64-bit, and the Installer Package that you download is a .PKG format

https://docs.flexera.com/FlexNetManagerSuite2020R2/EN/Features/index.html#FeatureList/2019R2/RN_feat_MacAgent64BitOnly.html

[flexeranoob]

I am very confused there.  if we can push the package through JAMF, but not push mgsft_rollout_response through JAMF, how do we get the agent to point to our beacons?   Where and how is the beacon configuration pushed to every MAC?  Are there any other settings we have to modify to get the agent to work on MAC?

[kclausen]

@flexeranoob - JAMF needs to copy both the .PKG file and the pre-configured mgsft_rollout_response into \var\tmp, and then launch the .PKG file with the appropriate credentials.