DEX policies for macOS

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of DEX policies for macOS

    DEX policies for macOS define guidelines and rules to ensure consistent, secure, and compliant use of the ServiceNow application on macOS devices. These policies help organizations reduce data breach risks, enhance data quality, and optimize application performance and availability. For full data retrieval on macOS systems, specific sudoers file entries are required depending on the agent version used.

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    Key Configuration for macOS

    • For Agent versions 3.4.0 or earlier, include commands referencing /Library/Caches/servicenow/agent-client-collector/osquery/bin/osqueryi and other system utilities in /etc/sudoers with no password required.
    • For Agent versions 3.4.1 or later, update paths to /Library/Application Support/servicenow/agent-client-collector/cache/osquery/bin/osqueryi accordingly in /etc/sudoers.
    • Both configurations set Defaults:servicenow !requiretty to avoid TTY requirements.

    Application Policies

    DEX provides policies to collect and send application metrics from macOS devices to MetricBase:

    • DEX Mac Apps Metrics: Runs every 5 minutes to collect historical data such as CPU usage, memory usage, uptime, I/O stats, running status, last access time, and crash counts.

    Device Policies

    Multiple device-focused policies collect macOS system metrics and process data, reporting either historical or latest data to ServiceNow or MetricBase:

    • DEX Mac Device Metrics (Latest): Runs every 24 hours collecting current details including uptime, user sessions, firewall status, disk and CPU details, battery, network, pending updates, and reboot info.
    • DEX Mac Device Metrics (Historical): Runs every 5 minutes gathering historical data such as disk usage, I/O rates, memory and CPU usage, crashes, battery charge, and Wi-Fi metrics.
    • Process Data Collection: Collects running process data every 24 hours.
    • System Compliance Checks: Historical (5 mins) and latest (24 hours) compliance data collection.
    • Energy Consumption: Historical data collected every 5 minutes, with a safeguard to skip checks if a previous run exceeds five minutes.
    • VPN Details: Collected every 30 minutes.
    • Online User and Device Configuration Changes: Near real-time (every 60 seconds) checks trigger on logged-in user or device configuration changes.

    Important Notes

    • If upgrading the Content Playbook plugin causes unexpected policy update issues, consult the Now Support knowledge base article KB1586917 for troubleshooting guidance.

    Policies for macOS are guidelines and rules to promote that the application is used in a consistent, secure, and conforming manner. DEX policies your organization to reduce the risk of data breaches, improve data quality and accuracy, and optimize application performance and availability.

    For macOS systems, to retrieve the entire data, include the subsequent content to /etc/sudoers.

    For Agent version 3.4.0 or earlier:
    _servicenow ALL=NOPASSWD: SETENV: /Library/Caches/servicenow/agent-client-collector/osquery/bin/osqueryi *, /usr/bin/mdls, /usr/bin/log, /usr/local/bin/jamf, /bin/kill, /bin/launchctl
Defaults:_servicenow !requiretty
    For Agent version 3.4.1 or later:
    _servicenow ALL=NOPASSWD: SETENV: /Library/Application\ Support/servicenow/agent-client-collector/cache/osquery/bin/osqueryi *, /usr/bin/mdls, /usr/bin/log, /usr/local/bin/jamf, /bin/kill, /bin/launchctl
Defaults:_servicenow !requiretty
    Note:
    The historical data for an application or device is the information that is kept in the MetricBase database for the past 7 days, while the latest data pertains to the most recent information available.

    Policies for Mac — Application

    DEX provides the following policies for applications.
    Policy name Description Check instances Frequency Historical or latest Check instance parameters
    DEX Mac Apps Metrics Collects the application metrics in the Mac device and sends metric data to Metric Base. os.mac.check-app-historical 5 mins Historical cpu_usage, memory_usage, uptime, io_usage_read, io_usage_write, is_running, last_access_time, crashes

    Policies for Mac — Device

    DEX provides the following policies for devices.
    Policy name Description Check instances Frequency Historical or latest Check instance parameters
    DEX Mac Device Metrics Collects macOS device metrics and sends the metric data to the ServiceNow instance. os.mac.check-system-metrics-latest 24 hours Latest uptime, logged_in, firewall_enabled, session_details, disk_details, os_details, cpu_details, battery_details, device_details, network_details, pending_updates, device_events, cpu_usage, memory_details, os_setup_details, last_access_time, reboot_details
    DEX Mac Device Metrics Collects macOS device metrics and sends the metric data to MetricBase. os.mac.check-system-metrics-historical 5 mins Historical disk_usage, io_usage_write, io_usage_read, memory_usage, cpu_usage, memory_details, uptime, crashes, battery_charge_percentage, wifi_transmit_rate, wifi_rssi
    DEX Mac Device Metrics Collects data for running macOS processes and sends the data to the ServiceNow instance. os.mac.check-process-data 24 hours N/A N/A
    DEX Mac Device Metrics Collects macOS device metrics and sends the metric data to the ServiceNow instance.

    os.mac.check-sys-compliance-historical

    		 5 minutes Historical N/A
    DEX Mac Device Metrics Collects macOS device metrics and sends the metric data to the ServiceNow instance.

    os.mac.check-sys-compliance-latest

    		 24 Hours Latest N/A
    DEX Mac Device Metrics
    Collects macOS device metrics and sends the metric data to the ServiceNow instance.
    Note:
    If the previous check runs for more than five minutes, the current check gets skipped.

    os.mac.check-energy-consum-historical

    		 5 minutes Historical energy_consumption
    DEX Mac Device Metrics

    Collects macOS device metrics and sends the metric data to the ServiceNow instance.

    		 os.mac.check-system-metrics-historical 30 minutes Historical vpn_details
    DEX Get online macOS user on change Gets a logged-in user's data on a macOS device whenever there’s a change. os.mac.check-system-custom-query-on-chan 60 secs Latest query,query_sys_id, query_type
    DEX Get device configuration on change Gets a logged-in user's device configuration whenever there’s a change. os.all.check.internal.get-device-configu 60 secs Latest N/A
    Note:
    If you upgrade the Content Playbook plugin on an instance and encounter unexpected policy update issues, see the Troubleshooting: Policy update issues post DEX plugin upgrade [KB1586917] article in the Now Support knowledge base.