Installer command-line options for Mac

The Sophos Central Endpoint installer for Mac supports the following command-line options.

Mac command line options

Warning On macOS 11 Big Sur you must move the SophosInstall folder to the user's Home folder.

Option

Example usage

Description

Trailing argument

Quiet

--quiet --install

Runs the installer without displaying the user interface.

Group

--devicegroup <Central group>

Specifies the Sophos Central device group to join the endpoint to.

A group to join. If it doesn't exist, it is created.

Message relays

--messagerelays <space-separated message relay list of IPs including the port>

Specifies a list of message relays to use.

The IP address of the message relay must be specified along with the port, 8190.

Example: --messagerelays IPADDRESS:8190 IPADDRESS:8190

Proxy address

--proxyaddress <custom proxy address>

Specifies a custom proxy to use.

URL without protocol (uses HTTPS).

Proxy port

--proxyport <proxy port>

Specifies a port that the proxy uses.

Port for the proxy.

Proxy username

--proxyusername <custom proxy user name>

If a custom proxy has been specified, set the username with this option.

The username for the proxy.

Proxy password

--proxypassword <custom proxy password>

If a custom proxy and username have been specified, set the password with this option.

The password for the proxy.

Computer name override

--computernameoverride <override for computer name>

Overrides the name of the computer to be used in Sophos Central.

Custom computer name.

Don't use quotes around the computer name.

You can only use this option for a new installation.

Domain name override

--domainnameoverride <override for domain>

Overrides the domain name of the computer to be used in Sophos Central.

Custom domain name.

You can only use this option for a new installation.

Preferred domain name for usernames in Sophos Central

--mcsPreferredDomainName

Sets the client to send usernames as domain\username instead of machine\username.

You can only use this option for a new installation.

Registration server

--mgmtserver <registration server URL>

Specifies the MCS server to connect to.

MCS server URL.

Customer token

--customertoken <the customer token>

Specifies the token of the Sophos Central customer to associate the endpoint with.

A UUID which maps to a customer.

Products to install

--products <space separated list of products to install>

Specifies a list of products to install. If you specifiy a product that you don't have a license for, then it isn't installed.

A list of products to install, space-separated. Available options are:

antivirus, intercept, deviceEncryption or all.
Note The Mac installer is aware of all the message relays and update caches when the installation is downloaded. Changes to caches and relays mean that you need to download a new installation. You can specify relays using the command line as well.

Mac examples

Install Sophos Anti-Virus and Intercept X without user interaction:

sudo ./Sophos\ Installer.app/Contents/MacOS/Sophos\ Installer --products antivirus intercept --quiet

Install using a proxy:

sudo ./Sophos\ Installer.app/Contents/MacOS/Sophos\ Installer --proxyaddress <ProxyIP/FQDN> --proxyport <Port>

Install using a message relay:

sudo ./Sophos\ Installer.app/Contents/MacOS/Sophos\ Installer --messagerelays 192.168.10.100:8190

Use a file to change names

Note If you use command-line options, file-based overrides are ignored.

You can use a file to change names and descriptions for computers and domains. To do this, do as follows:

  1. Create a new file in /Library/Preferences/ called com.sophos.mcs-overrides.plist.
  2. Use the following format:
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">;
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
 <key>ComputerNameOverride</key>
 <string>OverridingComputerName</string>
 <key>DomainNameOverride</key>
 <string>OverridingDomainName</string>
 <key>ComputerDescriptionOverride</key>
 <string>OverridingComputerDescription</string>
</dict>
</plist>
  3. Copy and paste the key and string pairs so that you have as many as you need.
  4. Change the key and string pairs, as follows:
    • To change a computer name, replace the string for ComputerNameOverride.
    • To change the domain name, replace the string for DomainNameOverride.
    • To change a description for a computer, replace the string ComputerDescriptionOverride.
  5. Make sure your entries obey the following rules:
    • Length must be from 1 to 256 characters.
    • Don't use newline characters.
    • Don't use '\n' or '\r'.
    • Don't use the symbols <, >, &, ', ", /.
    • Don't use consecutive whitespace characters. They are replaced with a single space.
  6. Remove any key and string pairs that you aren't using. All entries in the file are used.
  7. Save the file in /Library/Preferences/.

    You can do this before or after installing Sophos Endpoint Protection. However if you do it after an installation a new computer may appear in Sophos Central with the new details. The old computer is also still present. If you do it before installing we remove the old computer and the new computer appears.

  8. To load this file, you can restart the computer or run the following command from Terminal:

    sudo launchctl stop com.sophos.mcs

Note If SMEPreferDomainName is turned on this also overrides the domain used for the reported user domain.