Why do you need to scan Mac computers on the network?

Maintaining the working state of equipment is one of the reasons to scan network devices. Data on hardware and software will help an IT specialist or network administrator to better navigate technical processes, and most importantly quickly fix any problems with computers on the network if necessary.

Also, by scanning computers running macOS on your network using Total Network Inventory, you can inventory equipment for corporate networks of various sizes.

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How to scan Apple macOS computers on a local network?

To scan a macOS device on the network simply launch TNI, specify the range of IP addresses to scan, and enter the Administrator password. The process of scanning a Mac computer is carried out using an agent (using the SSH, and SCP/SFTP protocols) that is installed on a remote computer and collects information, which includes detailed data about the hardware and software of each Apple PC or MacBook. It is also worth noting that TNI supports scanning 64-bit macOS versions.

When it comes to security scanning of Apple macOS computers, there is nothing to worry about. Thanks to the SSH-2 protocol, a secure channel is created during the scanning process between the computer and the server on which TNI is installed. In addition, the app supports modern SCP and SFTP protocols for transmitting equipment scan results.

You can also inventory Apple computers entered into an Active Directory domain.

What information can you get after scanning devices running macOS?

Total Network Inventory collects a variety of information about your Apple computers on the network.

• System: computer and system unit settings, memory slots, power settings.
• CPU: clock speed, number of cores, etc.
• RAM: physical memory size, installed memory modules, size and manufacturer, type, frequency, etc.
• Graphics: name, video memory.
• Monitors: name and manufacturer, dimensions and diagonal.
• Hard drives and removable storage: model and manufacturer, etc.
• Logical partitions: label, file system, volume, free space, etc.
• Network adapters: name and manufacturer, MAC address, IP address/subnet/gateway, BSD device name, type.
• USB devices: manufacturer, version, speed.
• Printers: manufacturer, driver, status, fax and more.
• Software: OS, firewall, installed software information (date, version, manufacturer).

Scheduled scans for Apple macOS computers.

The Total Network Inventory network device scan scheduler allows you to flexibly schedule various scanning tasks for computers and laptops running macOS, just like any other.

You can configure the scheduler to automatically scan network devices once and regularly, by day, week, month, and so on. More details about the scheduler settings can be found in the user manual.

Types of scanning the local network for Apple Mac devices.

Total Network Inventory supports 2 types of network device scanning: remote and manual.

Before starting a Remote scanning process of macOS devices using the SSH protocol you should make sure that an SSH-2 server with SFTP or SCP support is running on the remote equipment, and the firewall should provide access to them. Also, the user on whose behalf the scanning is performed is allowed access to the SSH server (the AllowUsers option).

How it works:

• TNI connects to a remote machine via SSH.
• A temporary folder is created in the home directory on behalf of the user who scans computers with macOS, into which, according to the above protocols, the scanning agent is transferred.
• The latter automatically starts and, upon completion, creates a report with all the information collected.
• The generated file with the scan results is transferred back to TNI which in turn, places them in the storage.

It should be noted that for the correct operation of the scanning agent, the standard C++ library libstdc++.so.6 must be installed on the system.

Manual network scanning for Apple devices: In this case, the user manually copies the agent executable file to the computer and starts it. After the scanning process, the program creates a file with the collected data, which is manually moved to the Total Network Inventory storage.

Using TNI will significantly reduce the time for scanning Apple macOS computers on a local network, make it fast, safe, and most importantly it will provide comprehensive information about each device and help you build any necessary summary reports.