Install the Huntress Agent for macOS

Team: Huntress EDR
Product: macOS agent installation
Environment: macOS 
Summary: The macOS agent installation can be performed via the GUI (HuntressAgent.pkg), script (from terminal) or deployed via an RMM/MDM/Terminal.

We highly recommend reading this KB on Full Disk Access before getting started as TCC can be a mysterious road block (especially if you are getting generic "The Installation failed" error messages).  

In this article

1Running the Huntress macOS GUI installer (HuntressAgent.pkg)

2Running the Huntress macOS Script Installer (install script from Terminal)

3Deployment through RMM/MDM/Terminal (auto-download the latest version)

Running the Huntress macOS GUI installer

1. Login to the Huntress Dashboard
   
   
   
2. Hover over the Huntress options menu in the upper-right corner of the dashboard and select the "Download Agent" option from the menu
   
   
   
3. On the Download Agent page, scroll down to the macOS Installer section and download the .pkg installer.

   

4. Scroll back up to copy your Account Key to your clipboard.

    

5. Run the GUI pkg installer in order to manually install the Huntress macOS agent by double clicking on the downloaded pkg. Click through prompts until you reach the Account panel. 

    

6. Enter your Account key copied from step 4. NOTE: The installer expects an account key that is 32 characters long. 
7. For the Organization Key, specify a short name or phrase that uniquely identifies the client/organization this agent is associated with. Any agent installed with this same key will be grouped within the same Organization.
8. You can optionally specify Tags to group your agents within an organization.
9. Continue through the following prompts to finish your manual installation.
10. Once installed, make sure you grant Full Disk Access to Huntress.  
    1. Open up System Preferences and click on “Security & Privacy” 
    2. On the bottom left, click on “Click the lock to make changes.” Enter in your Mac password.
    3. Go into Privacy. On the left select “Full Disk Access”
    4. Look for Huntress on the right hand side and select the checkbox next it.  
       

Running the Huntress macOS Script Installer 

1. Go to the top right hamburger menu of the Huntress Portal and click on “Download Agent”
2. On the Download Agent page, scroll down to the macOS Script section and download the macOS install script.
3. Two options here
   
   1. GUI installation - Your Account key should be found on the Download Agent page and the organization key is made up by you, you'll need those shortly. Open up Terminal and type or paste in the following and then follow the prompts:

      sudo bash ~/Downloads/HuntressMacInstall.sh

   2. Automated installation - You can programmatically pass the account and org keys as parameters by replacing $acctkey and $orgkey with your specific keys:
      

      sudo bash ~/Downloads/HuntressMacInstall.sh -a $acctkey -o $orgkey

      Here's an example:
      

      sudo bash ~/Downloads/HuntressMacInstall.sh -a "6b830a2344f694b2eb7b6969" -o "Test Org"

Please note that this particular script is not well suited for hard coding your two keys. Hard coding is not recommended as it exposes your account key and can introduce errors if done incorrectly. That said, if there is a need then we suggest instead using our other macOS bash deploy from github. You can simply edit lines 44 and 48 in version 1.0 (line 62) to hardcode in your account and org-key variables. Both scripts can be run in the same way using sudo bash.

Deployment through RMM/MDM/Terminal 

Silent installation is suitable for deployments using an RMM or configuration management solution. For our partners using RMM/deployment software, we've provided the following deployment scripts also available on our Github here:

• Addigy
• Atera
• Connectwise Automate
• Datto RMM
• Kaseya VSA
• N-Able N-Central
• NinjaRMM
• Syncro
• Generic Script w/ error checking
• Simplified Generic Script w/o error checking (use if the above doesn't work)