Admin Assistant for

macOS
VMware Workspace ONE UEM
Admin Assistant for macOS

You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at:

https://docs.vmware.com/

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 Contents

1 Introduction to Workspace ONE Admin Assistant for macOS 4

Admin Assistant App 4
Command-Line Interface 5

2 Download and Install the Admin Assistant 7

How to Download the Admin Assistant 7
Role-Based Access to the Admin Assistant 7
Uploading Software to Workspace ONE UEM Using the CLI 8
Uninstalling the Admin Assistant 8

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Introduction to Workspace ONE
Admin Assistant for macOS 1
The VMware Workspace ONE Admin Assistant tool helps you to manage applications through
Internal Apps (Full Software Distribution) in Workspace ONE UEM. This tool is built using
components of Munki, to aid in parsing application installers for the required metadata.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Admin Assistant App

n Command-Line Interface

Admin Assistant App

Due to limitations of the Workspace ONE UEM server to natively process the macOS software
metadata, the Admin Assistant app was created to help administrators generate the required
metadata to upload to Workspace ONE UEM. Using the makepkginfo tool from Munki, the
Admin Assistant app extracts metadata from macOS software installers into a plist file, sometimes
referred to as a metadata file or pkginfo file.

Workspace ONE UEM requires the pkginfo metadata file along with the application installer file
to manage the deployment in the UEM console. The Admin Assistant also tries to extract an icon
image file that can be optionally uploaded into the UEM console. The Admin Assistant app allows
you to easily upload the .dmg, .pkg, mpkg, and .app files.

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Admin Assistant for macOS

Figure 1-1. The Workspace ONE Admin Assistant Application allows you to
upload .pkg, .dmg, .mpkg,and .app files

Command-Line Interface
In the Admin Assistant 3.0, a command-line interface (CLI) is introduced to work alongside the
app interface. Admin Assistant CLI provides a streamlined experience where just one command
allows you upload the application and metadata straight to the console. The Admins can now use
the GUI to parse packages and use the CLI to upload packages to the console. Future versions of
Admin Assistant will add more parity between the app and the CLI functionality.

Admin Assistant CLI Usage Help

Using the CLI, there are several ways to read more about how to use the tool and the built-in
subcommands. To access the help information in the CLI, enter the following in the terminal:

n /usr/local/bin/adminassistantcli

n /usr/local/bin/adminassistantcli -h

n /usr/local/bin/adminassistantcli -help

n /usr/local/bin/adminassistantcli <subcommand> -help

The following image depicts the Admin Assistant CLI interface

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Admin Assistant for macOS

Figure 1-2. The Workspace ONE Admin Assistant CLI interface allows you to run CLI commands

The following tables lists the basic commands that are used to run the Admin Assistant in the CLI
mode.

Commands Description

adminassistantcli config –-signin –-groupID Required. Prompts interactive login terminal. Allows you to
“groupID1” --hostname “hostname1" perform a successful sign-in.

adminassistantcli config --list Allows you to list the configurations saved in the keychain.

adminassistantcli upload --installer- Allows you to upload the files and displays the URL to view in
path "/Users/example.dmg" --metadata-path console. GroupID can optionally be changed. Uploading an icon
"example.plist" --icon-path "icon.png" is optional.

adminassistantcli --signout Allows you to signout from the Admin Assistant tool.

Best Practice to Parse Arguments

Admin assistant CLI accepts information using both double quotes and single quotes. However,
the best practice is to use single quotes as it accepts all the arguments as a String. Instead of
taking the data and the special characters as commands, it is processed as just the plain text.

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Download and Install the Admin
Assistant 2
This section describes the steps to download the VMware Workspace ONE Admin Assistant and
install the software.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n How to Download the Admin Assistant

n Role-Based Access to the Admin Assistant

n Uploading Software to Workspace ONE UEM Using the CLI

n Uninstalling the Admin Assistant

How to Download the Admin Assistant

You can access and download the Admin Assistant tool in multiple ways as listed in the following
table. This table will be kept up to date.

Location Link

Release Notes VMware Workspace ONE Admin Assistant for macOS

Release Notes

Workspace ONE Console when adding a macOS Accessible after uploading a macOS application into
formatted binary (.pkg, .dmg, .mpkg, and.app) Workspace ONE

getwsone.com getwsone.com

Appcast XML URL (Auto-update URL for scripts) Auto-update Appcast XML URL for Scripts

Role-Based Access to the Admin Assistant

As a best practice, create a UEM admin role that is specifically used for the Admin Assistant CLI as
described in the following procedure:

1 Log in to the Workspace ONE UEM console and select Accounts > Administrators > Roles >
Add Role.

2 Add Name and Description based on what works for your team.

For example: Name - "AdminAssistantCLI" and Description - "Used for role based access for
Admin Assistant CLI"

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Admin Assistant for macOS

3 Navigate to Apps & Books > Name: Application and click Details.

4 To configure, choose Application Create and Application Edit.

5 Navigate to Groups > Name: Edit Type and click Details.

6 Select Organization Group Type Add and Organization Group Type Edit and Save.

The new role is displayed in the Roles list.

Uploading Software to Workspace ONE UEM Using the CLI

Administrators can use the command-line tool to parse and upload the files.

1 After you install the Intelligent Hub, in the terminal, enter adminassistantcli.

2 Sign-in to the Admin Assistant and enter the following CLI command.

adminassistantcli config

3 Upload the macOS software (pkg, mkpkg, app or dmg) and .plist files. Enter the following:

adminassistantcli upload <sub commands>

The Application ID is returned in the terminal along with the path to App Details in the
console. You can use the same path to check if the apps are uploaded.

4 Navigate to Workspace ONE UEM > Resources > Apps and refresh the page to check if the
App is uploaded.

For more information on Admin Assistant tool, see Generate Metadata Using VMware AirWatch
Admin Assistant Tool in Software Distribution Management for macOS and Win32 Applications
guide.

Uninstalling the Admin Assistant

To uninstall the Admin Assistant through the app:

1 Open Admin Assistant.

2 In the top left corner of the macOS menu bar, click Workspace ONE Admin Assistant >
Uninstall.

To uninstall Admin Assistant through Terminal, enter the following:

sudo sh /Applications/Workspace\ ONE\ Admin\ Assistant.app/Contents/Resources/

AdminAssistantUnInstall.sh

The uninstall procedure removes the Admin Assistant app, and information stored in the macOS
keychain which includes the UEM API Admin username, UEM API Admin password, UEM API key
and UEM Group ID.

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Admin Assistant for macOS

Note: The previously generated application data is retained even after you have uninstalled the
Admin Assistant. The directory ~/Documents/Workspace ONE Admin Assistant is not deleted.

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