Managing the Mac agent

It's best practice to avoid backing up a device with an activated Secure Endpoint Agent. Restoring the backup may lead to unexpected outcomes, depending on the policies, actions, and rules deployed to the backed up device.

If you want to create a backup, ensure that you:

  • Exclude the following folders/files from the backup:
    • /Library/.rpcnet
    • /Library/Application Support/Absolute/
  • Reinstall the Secure Endpoint Agent after the backup is restored.

You can manage the Secure Endpoint Agent for Mac devices in the following ways:

Agent calls occur automatically every 15 minutes, but you can trigger a call if you don't want to wait for the next scheduled call.

For example, you can trigger an agent call to:

  • Activate a newly installed agent
  • Test the agent's ability to make a call
  • Upload updated device information to the Secure Endpoint Console
  • Download a new policy configuration from the console
  • Download a device action, such as a Run Script or Wipe request, submitted in the console

To initiate a call:

  1. On the Mac device, open a Terminal window.

  2. At the shell prompt, enter the following command and press Return:

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    pgrep -f "^/Library/.rpcnet/rpc.net -d$"

    This command returns the process ID associated with the rpc.net process. The presence of this process confirms that the agent was installed successfully.

  3. To force the agent call process:

    1. At the shell prompt, enter the following command where <PID> is the process ID from the previous step, and press Return:

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      sudo kill -s USR2 <PID>
    2. At the Password prompt enter the password you used to log in to the device.

The process is stopped and then restarted automatically, which triggers an agent call.

By default, your account is configured to allow automatic agent updates, meaning your managed devices are updated automatically as new agent versions become available. After a new agent is released, your devices are updated on the next agent connection to the Absolute Monitoring Center.

When a new agent version is released, Absolute may stagger the agent downloads to minimize the load on your network. In this scenario, downloads to your devices are randomly delayed and distributed over a specified period (for example, 8 hours), depending on the number of devices in your account.

To track the status of an agent update on your devices, add the Agent version The version number of the Secure Endpoint Agent installed on the device. column to a device report. Note that if a device shows the icon or icon in this column, the update may not have been successful. Learn more

An Agent version updated event is logged to Event History whenever the agent version on a device changes following a successful update.

If automatic agent updates are disabled for your account, your managed devices will not be updated until you assign a new agent version to one or more policy groups.

If automatic agent updates are disabled as per an alternate Service Agreement, contact Absolute Technical Support to request an update to the latest version of the agent.

You may want to remove the agent from a device for various reasons, such as retirement, disposal, or end-of-life/end-of-lease. Use the Unenroll Device security action to remove the agent from one or more devices.