Install the Zonitix Agent on your Mac

Before you start

• An email from your company titled “Install the Zonitix Agent on your Mac”. Your IT team sent it; you do not need to sign in to Zonitix for any step on this page.
• The Mac the email is about, and its login password: the one you type to unlock the Mac.
• The email says installing takes about a minute.

Install it

1. 1

   Step 1: Download the installer

   In the email, click “Download the installer”. A file named “ZonitixAgent.pkg” is saved to your Downloads folder.

2. 2

   Step 2: Open the file

   Double-click “ZonitixAgent.pkg” in Downloads. The macOS installer opens.

3. 3

   Step 3: Follow the installer

   Click through the installer’s steps. When macOS asks for a password, type your Mac login password. It is macOS asking, to allow the install; the password is not your Zonitix password.

4. 4

   Step 4: Look for the shield in the menu bar

   When the installer finishes, a small shield icon appears in the menu bar at the top right of your screen. The agent has started. You have nothing to switch on.

See what it shows

1. 5

   Step 5: Click the shield

   A small window headed “Zonitix Agent” opens, with a status at the top right: “Healthy”, “Attention”, “Error” or, before the first report, “Waiting”. Below it are three parts:

   • “THIS MAC”: the model, chip, macOS version, serial number, memory and free disk space.
   • “SOFTWARE UPDATES”: “Up to date”, or how many updates are waiting. “Install” opens Software Update in System Settings, where you install them yourself.
   • “FLEET & ENROLLMENT”: the agent’s version, the address it reports to, and “Last check-in”.

   “Check now” at the bottom makes the agent report straight away instead of waiting for its next turn.

2. 6

   Step 6: Know what it reports

   Each check-in sends your IT team facts about the Mac. The main ones are:

   • The Mac itself: its name, model, serial number, macOS version, memory and disk space, when it was last restarted, and the name of the account signed in to it.
   • The accounts on it: the names of the accounts that are administrators of this Mac, and the names of the accounts that can unlock its encrypted disk. These can include accounts other than yours.
   • Its security settings: whether the disk is encrypted, the firewall is on, and remote login, screen sharing or remote management is switched on; whether the Mac logs in without a password, and under which account; whether it has a guest account; and whether macOS’s own protections against untrusted software are on.
   • How it is managed: whether it is enrolled in device management, and the identifiers of the configuration profiles installed on it.
   • The applications in its Applications folder, with their versions, the software updates that are waiting, and its automatic-update settings.
   • Its network addresses, whether Time Machine backups are on, and the battery’s condition.

   Your IT team can also use the agent to apply security settings your company has chosen, such as keeping the firewall on, and to ask this Mac to restart, install macOS updates, change its name or remove the agent. If you have a question about any of this, ask your IT team: they decide how the agent is used.

What you should see

If something goes wrong

The button in the email does nothing, or the download fails

Tell your IT team. The email’s last line says you can also reply to it if you run into trouble.

macOS will not accept my password

It wants the password you use to unlock this Mac, not your Zonitix password. If macOS still refuses, tell your IT team.

There is no shield in the menu bar after installing

Tell your IT team, so they can check the Mac.

The window says “Waiting for the agent to report…” or the status reads “Error”

Check that the Mac is online, then click “Check now”. If a red line of text stays under “FLEET & ENROLLMENT”, send that text to your IT team. If it keeps waiting, tell your IT team: the agent may not have been given your company’s Zonitix address yet.

There is no “Quit” button in the window

Your company has set the agent so that it cannot be quit. That is a setting your IT team chose.

Still stuck? See When something goes wrong, or Contact Zonitix support.

Where next

• Find your way around Zonitix
• Enroll a device (for IT)
• All guides