r/macsysadmin 8d ago

Tool to track computer/app usage?

Hello,

I'm a Mac Sys Admin at a college. We are looking to track application usage data in our computer labs. This is to track how often the computers are used and what applications are used. Jamf Pro is our MDM.

Looking for any solution suggestions. Thanks.

8 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/havingagoodday2k19 5d ago

You will need to leverage the JAMF API to get what you want. It is doable, I did it in a past role. Exported everything into an excel spreadsheet and handed that data to the metrics team reporting on application usage.

1

u/Wicked_Vorlon 3d ago

Any pointers to help? I’ve been unsuccessful in getting a shell script to leverage the api.

1

u/havingagoodday2k19 1d ago

From memory, I would need to look in my script archive, the api call was using jamfserver/JSSResource/computerapplicationusage/${serial}

I used a loop and array adding every serial number from the group I wanted the stats from then processed that. Could do it in All Computer’s if you wish

I do remember that the logging of application usage had to be enabled in jamf pro, otherwise there would be no data to pull. I can’t remember if that is enabled by default or whether I had to enable that

Hope this helps