Discover Apple Mac with xAssets Network Discovery

Introduction

xAssets Network Discovery is able to discover Apple Mac, Linux, Unix, AIX and any other UX flavor computers through the SSH protocol. This is achieved by using SSH to connect to each Apple Mac device and extract asset data. SSH must be enabled on each Apple Mac device to allow the discovery process to work.

Enable SSH

To enable SSH on an Apple Mac, follow these steps:

• Click the Apple Icon at the top left of the screen
• Click on System Settings
• Click on Sharing (or search for "sharing")
• Tick the Remote Login checkbox so it is "On"
• Tick the Allow full disk access for remote users checkbox
• Add the necessary users to the "Allow access for" list of permitted users
• Click Done

Create a Credential Pack for SSH

Apple Mac discovery requires a Credential Pack for SSH.

Log into xAssets and click Discover > Prepare > Manage Credentials

Click "New" at the top of the screen

Name the pack "Apple", complete the credentials, and then click OK to save.

It is also possible to create a "matching" credential pack. When these packs exist, discovery will inspect the ping footprint of the asset being pinged, and use the appropriate credential pack based on the ping footprint. To save a matching credential pack, use the same instructions as above, but choose "Matching Pack" from the "Credential Type"" dropdown.

Matching credential packs do not need a "name", you simply specify the technology and if needed the Computer Name or IP range which the matching pack will match against.

Run Discovery

Click "Discover" > "Discover" > "Discover a Computer or IP Range". Enter the IP address of the Apple Mac computer, choose the credential pack name just entered, and click "OK".

If a "Matching Credential Pack" was created, the discovery process will use the matching pack without needing to specify the credential pack.

Information Collected by xAssets Network Discovery

Discovery of Apple computers typically takes 10-20 seconds per device, compared to 2-4 seconds for windows. However, in the default configuration, up to 25 devices can be discovered in parallel per subnet, with up to 3 subnets running in parallel, so the overall discovery time is not significantly impacted by the number of devices chosen. There is also a short time window to transfer the data back to the application server and load it into the Asset Management Database.

When completed, the assets will show under the appropriate category in the Asset Register:

Click the asset description to drill down into the asset

Use the tabs on the left to view more detailed information on hardware and software:

Enable SSH with a terminal command

This is an alternative to the "Enable SSH" section above, and in practical terms it is more effort than using the dialogs above, but discovery was required on a larger number of Apple Macs, this code could be scripted, although there may be some difficulty around editing the "Allow access for" list of permitted users which is stored in the "sshd_config" file.

Open a terminal window (Command (⌘) + Space, then type "Terminal" and press Enter)

AllowUsers

                    # Enable SSH
                    sudo systemsetup -setremotelogin on

                    # Grant Full Disk Access
                    sudo tccutil --insert /usr/sbin/sshd
                    sudo tccutil --insert /usr/sbin/sshd-keygen-wrapper

                    # Add Users for SSH Login
                    sudo cp /etc/ssh/sshd_config /etc/ssh/sshd_config_backup  # Backup the original configuration file
                    sudo sed -i '' '/AllowUsers/s/.*/AllowUsers user1 user2/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config  # Replace user1 and user2 with desired usernames

                    # Restart SSH
                    sudo launchctl stop com.openssh.sshd
                    sudo launchctl start com.openssh.sshd

                    echo "SSH configuration completed"