DEX policies for Mac

Release version: Washingtondc

Updated February 1, 2024

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Summary of DEX Policies for Mac

DEX policies for Mac establish guidelines to ensure the secure and compliant use of applications, reducing data breach risks, enhancing data quality, and optimizing performance. These policies are essential for managing macOS systems effectively.

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Key Features

Configuration for Agent Versions:
- For Agent version 3.4.0 or earlier: specific commands are added to /etc/sudoers to allow the ServiceNow agent to operate without a password prompt.
- For Agent version 3.4.1 or later: updated command paths are used for improved functionality.
Application Metrics Collection:
- Policies collect various metrics such as CPU usage, memory usage, and application uptime at specified intervals.
Device Metrics Collection:
- Metrics such as disk details, network details, and battery details are collected and sent to ServiceNow for monitoring and analysis.

Key Outcomes

Implementing these policies enables organizations to:

Maintain consistent monitoring of application and device performance.
Access historical and latest data for proactive management and compliance.
Identify and resolve potential issues quickly, enhancing overall system reliability.

For troubleshooting policy updates after a plugin upgrade, refer to the related knowledge base article for guidance.

Policies for Mac are guidelines and rules to ensure that the application is used in a consistent, secure, and compliant manner. DEX policies help organizations 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, /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, /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/Latest	Check Instance Parameters
DEX Mac Apps Metrics	This policy 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/Latest	Check Instance Parameters
DEX Mac Device Metrics	This policy collects Mac 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	This policy collects Mac 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	This policy collects data for running Mac processes and sends the data to the ServiceNow instance.	os.mac.check-process-data	24 hours	N/A	N/A
DEX Mac Device Metrics	This policy collects Mac 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	This policy collects Mac 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	This policy collects Mac 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 will get skipped.	os.mac.check-energy-consum-historical	5 minutes	Historical	energy_consumption
DEX Mac Device Metrics	This policy collects Mac device metrics and sends the metric data to the ServiceNow instance.	os.mac.check-system-metrics-historical	30 minutes	Historical	vpn_details

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.