Installing the macOS Endpoint Agent
The agent installer is available as a PKG file\. It can either be installed manually or unattended through existing software deployment tools\. Also, most device management solutions support the distribution of such packages natively\.
Note 1:
Securing the Configuration Directory
To protect the configuration of uberAgent, starting with version 6\.1\.2, the installer automatically sets the permissions for the agent's directory so that only
root can read or access the installation directory\.
Note 2:
Running uberAgent® after installating the Endpoint Agent
The uberAgent daemon does not start automatically upon completion of the setup process. It will initiate automatically following a system restart. Alternatively, you may start it manually using launchctl, provided you have root privileges:
launchctl bootstrap system /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vastlimits.uberAgent.plist
Requirements
uberAgent on macOS requires the entitlement for certain privacy privileges through Apple's Transparency, Consent and Control (TCC) Framework in order to run properly\. These can either be assigned manually, as described below or distributed as part of a PPPC profile\. The latter can either be created manually by following the documentation provided by Apple or make use of tools like the PPPC\-Utility\. An example profile is available at the bottom of this page\.
Full Disk Access
uberAgent makes use of Apple's EndpointSecurity (ES) framework (available since macOS 10\.15), which requires explicit user authorization\. Authorization is granted manually, by adding
/Library/uberAgent/uberAgent.app to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access\.
Note: Without this permission uberAgent won't be able to start and will terminate itself\. When this happens, you'll find an error log message indicating that the ES client could not be started due to a missing TCC approval\.
Accessibility Access
uberAgent uses the Accessibility framework on macOS to determine parts of the Session Detail metrics\. Authorization is granted manually, by adding
/Library/uberAgent/uberAgent.app to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility\.
Installation method
Interactive
-
The installation of uberAgent can be started by opening
uberAgent.pkgand following the instructions on the screen\. -
Since uberAgent is installed as a system\-wide daemon, the installer will ask for a password for elevated access rights to install it\.
Command Line
-
The Installer can also be used from the command line to install uberAgent using the command
installer -pkg uberAgent.pkg -target / -
This requires root privileges\. A command line installation can be executed locally or remotely, e\. g\., using SSH\.
License File
Note:
Starting with uberAgent 7.4.2, the agent automatically detects when it is installed on a Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA). In this case, uberAgent is automatically licensed when the VDA itself has a valid license.
If you have a license file for uberAgent, copy it to the following directory
/Library/Application Support/uberAgent\. uberAgent does not start without a license file\. Please see the uberAgent licensing guide for more details\.
Installation Through Splunk Deployment Server
Note: Deployment Server can only be used with Splunk Enterprise and requires Splunk Universal Forwarder on the endpoint as deployment client\. Please make sure that Splunk Universal Forwarder has sufficient privileges to perform system\-wide installations, e\.g\. by enabling boot\-start\.
uberAgent
Copy the directory
uberAgent_endpoint from the unzipped uberAgent download package to $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/deployment-apps on your deployment server\. Please make sure to apply the executable flag to the installation script by executing chmod +x silent-install.sh\. Besides that, the uberAgent_endpoint folder is ready to use for deployment on Windows as well as macOS operating systems\.
Note:
$SPLUNK_HOME refers to the base directory of the Splunk installation, typically /opt/splunk on Linux\.
Configuration
To deploy customized configuration files, copy them into the directory
$SPLUNK_HOME/etc/deployment-apps/uberAgent_endpoint/bin\. This overwrites existing files under /Library/Application Support/uberAgent/\.
License File
If you have a license file for uberAgent, copy it into the directory
$SPLUNK_HOME/etc/deployment-apps/uberAgent_endpoint/bin\.
Serverclass
Create a file called
serverclass.conf in $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local on your deployment server\. serverclass.conf defines what to deploy where\. For a quick start, paste the following content into serverclass.conf to deploy uberAgent to all macOS machines\. You may want to fine\-tune this to suit your needs\.
# [global]
# We cannot match by machine type here. We'll do that on the app level below.
whitelist.0 = *
# Define a serverclass
[serverClass:macOS]
# Deploy only to macOS machines
machineTypesFilter = darwin-x86_64
# Define which apps to deploy to the serverclass
[serverClass:macOS:app:uberAgent_endpoint]
stateOnClient = enabled
restartSplunkd = true
To make Splunk read the new file
serverclass.conf run the following command:
$SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk reload deploy-server
Configuration
uberAgent can be configured very flexibly\. By editing the configuration, you can switch metrics on or off, change the data collection frequency and significantly reduce the data volume\.
Example uberAgent PPPC Profile
This is an exemplary privacy preferences policy control (PPPC) profile to grant uberAgent the necessary TCC privileges\.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>PayloadContent</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>PayloadDescription</key>
<string>uberAgent</string>
<key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
<string>uberAgent</string>
<key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
<string>5FD70527-9AC3-4667-82AF-8F8F44C95C94</string>
<key>PayloadOrganization</key>
<string>vast limits GmbH</string>
<key>PayloadType</key>
<string>com.apple.TCC.configuration-profile-policy</string>
<key>PayloadUUID</key>
<string>E86AC250-6BF9-4C91-BB0A-5890F000A48C</string>
<key>PayloadVersion</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>Services</key>
<dict>
<key>Accessibility</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>Allowed</key>
<true/>
<key>CodeRequirement</key>
<string>anchor apple generic and identifier "com.vastlimits.uberAgent" and (certificate leaf[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.1.9] /* exists */ or certificate 1[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.2.6] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.1.13] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[subject.OU] = "64N35HHH3F")</string>
<key>Comment</key>
<string></string>
<key>Identifier</key>
<string>com.vastlimits.uberAgent</string>
<key>IdentifierType</key>
<string>bundleID</string>
</dict>
</array>
<key>SystemPolicyAllFiles</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>Allowed</key>
<true/>
<key>CodeRequirement</key>
<string>anchor apple generic and identifier "com.vastlimits.uberAgent" and (certificate leaf[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.1.9] /* exists */ or certificate 1[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.2.6] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.1.13] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[subject.OU] = "64N35HHH3F")</string>
<key>Comment</key>
<string></string>
<key>Identifier</key>
<string>com.vastlimits.uberAgent</string>
<key>IdentifierType</key>
<string>bundleID</string>
</dict>
</array>
</dict>
</dict>
</array>
<key>PayloadDescription</key>
<string>uberAgent</string>
<key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
<string>uberAgent</string>
<key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
<string>5FD70527-9AC3-4667-82AF-8F8F44C95C94</string>
<key>PayloadOrganization</key>
<string>vast limits GmbH</string>
<key>PayloadScope</key>
<string>System</string>
<key>PayloadType</key>
<string>Configuration</string>
<key>PayloadUUID</key>
<string>F53E14C7-D9ED-4933-8A71-87FD74C9870D</string>
<key>PayloadVersion</key>
<integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</plist>