Set Up Agent for Mac Locally on an Apple Mac

The Agent for End User Devices monitors end user experience by measuring device and application performance. The Agent for Mac monitors the device's details and dynamic resource usage, and its health events, including system and application health events. It also monitors managed and discovered native desktop applications (since version 2.4) and all web applications running in Google Chrome on your Mac:

To monitor an Apple Mac, run the setup of the Agent for Mac. Start by monitoring a few select Macs to evaluate its features, then you can mass-deploy the Agent to all devices in your enterprise. It sets up as a standard macOS daemon with no visible impact on the user interface.

The setup adds the Aternity Agent for Mac for the current user only (user level, not system level), and therefore the Agent is only active when that user is signed in to the computer. It starts automatically when the setup completes or when the user logs in, and stops when the user logs out.

Note

You do not need administrator privileges to set up the Agent for Mac for the current user of the Mac.

The setup package and the extracted Agent files are secure, signed with our certificate. After you set up the Agent, it can communicate securely with the server using the HTTPS protocol on port 443. Learn more about security.

Agent for Mac setup with embedded configuration is secure

You use the same Agent for Mac setup by double-clicking for a single Mac, or by running it from the command line (Terminal window). Use the command line to test your mass-deployment of the Agent for Mac by first running it on a single Mac.

Before you begin

For devices with Agent for Mac older than 3.3, verify you have Google Chrome on your computer. Agent for Mac requires Google Chrome for the setup to succeed. If not installed, the Agent for Mac setup will fail when trying to install Chrome extensions. For devices with Agent for Mac 3.3 and later, you can set up Agent for Mac without having Google Chrome on your computer. But if you later deploy Google Chrome, then you have to reinstall the Agent for Mac to make Google Chrome reporting to Aternity.

To monitor an Apple Mac with Aternity Agent for Mac, it must have the following minimum system requirements:

Attribute Requirement
Agent for Mac

Supported versions of Agent for Mac: 2.4, 3.0, 3.1.x, 3.2.x, 3.3

Mac operating system

  • macOS 10.15 (Catalina) since Agent for Mac 3.3

  • macOS 10.14 (Mojave) since Agent for Mac 3.1

  • macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) since Agent for Mac 2.4

  • macOS 10.12 (Sierra)

  • macOS 10.11 (El Capitan)

  • macOS 10.10 (Yosemite)

Processor

Mac computer with Intel 64-bit CPU.

Resource usage

The Agent for Mac typically uses:

  • CPU: Total utilization across all cores less than 1%.

  • RAM: The Aternity Agent for Mac uses approx. 200-300MB of physical memory.

  • Storage: At least 0.5GB free disk space available.

  • Bandwidth: Network traffic load overhead increases by approx. 0.02 kilobytes per second (KBps) incoming to the device, and approx. 0.05KBps reporting data to Aternity.
Monitor web applications

Monitor any web application in any version of Google Chrome released in the past two years. For legacy Agents (on Windows until Agent 9.1.x or on Mac until Agent for Mac 2.3), you must also manually add the Aternity Extension for Chrome to monitor web page load events (WPM) and usage.

Procedure

  1. Step 1 Download and launch the Agent setup directly from Aternity.

    This Agent is already customized for your enterprise. Learn more.

    The setup package and the extracted Agent files are secure, signed with our certificate. After you set up the Agent, it can communicate securely with the server using the HTTPS protocol on port 443. Learn more about security.

    Select the type of setup to download
  2. Step 2 Set up the customized Agent for Mac by launching the .pkg file.

    The customized Agent setup pkg file has your account information. If you use a proxy server in your organization, contact Aternity SaaS Administration to add this information to the setup.

  3. Step 3 Select Change Install Location, then Install for me only and complete the setup.

    You're done!

    Important

    If you try to set up the Agent for Mac for all users, or if it asks for an administrator's username and password, the setup will fail. You can only set up for this user.

    Select to set up for this user only
  4. Step 4 To verify your setup of Aternity Agent for Mac:
    1. a Open Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor and search for the word Aternity.

      Verify it lists AternityAgent as a running process.

      See the Aternity Agent for Mac running
    2. b Open a browser and sign in to Aternity.
    3. c Select the device icon in the top bar of any dashboard to view details of your computer.
      Verify the number of monitored devices
  5. Step 5 To monitor web applications in Google Chrome, quit (cmd-Q) and reopen your browser.

    The setup automatically adds the Aternity Extension for Chrome to the local Chrome browser. Confirm you accept this change by selecting Enable Extension.

    Tip

    Setup deploys this automatically from Agent 9.2.x or Agent for Mac 2.4. However, it requires that the device is part of the enterprise's domain, and it can download from the Chrome Web store. If the device does not add it automatically, you can deploy it manually (learn more).

    Confirm monitoring web applications in Google Chrome for Mac
    Note

    Agent for Mac 3.0 uses Aternity Extension for Chrome 9.2.2. Agent for Mac 3.1-3.3 uses Aternity Extension for Chrome 9.2.5.