Systems

Jamf Pro

Affected Customers

University of Illinois IT Pros leveraging Technology Services Endpoint Services Jamf Pro

Actions

• Viewing Detailed Computer History Logs
• Viewing Policy Execution Logs
• Viewing Local Client Logs on a Managed Mac
• Viewing the Log using the Console App
• Viewing the Log using Terminal

Viewing Detailed Computer History Logs

For granular, device-specific details on policy execution, IT Pros can use the computer's management history in the Jamf Pro web console.

1. Log in to the Jamf Pro console.
2. Navigate to Computers → Search Inventory.
3. Use the search function to locate the target computer. Click on the computer entry.
4. Select the appropriate tab within the computer record. Some commonly used tabs are:
   • Application Usage Logs - This view lists activity related to software and application usage by users.
   • Computer Usage Logs - This view lists activity related to user login and system startup events.
   • Policy logs - This view lists all executed policies, including the date/time of execution, status (complete/failed/pending), and associated log messages.
   • Management History - This view lists all pending and executed MDM commands. There are three buttons across the top (Completed Commands, Pending Commands, and Failed Commands) to filter the log information.
   • Operating System History - This view lists activity related to OS update commands. Please review the Endpoint Services, Jamf Pro, OS Updates for Computers and Devices KB article for additional details on logging and troubleshooting for macOS updates.
   • Managed Local Administrator Account History - This view lists activity related to managed local administrator passwords (LAPS).

Viewing Policy Execution Logs

Jamf Pro records the success or failure of every policy deployment. IT Pros can view policy execution results directly from the Jamf Pro web console.

1. Log in to the Jamf Pro console.
2. Navigate to Computers → Policies.
3. Select the desired policy from the list.
4. Click the Logs tab at the bottom of the page to display device-specific execution results.
5. Use the Status filter to view Completed, Failed, or Pending devices.
6. The View Details button beside the computer name may be clicked to view command output, success/error messages, and timestamps.

Note: The computer name listed in the policy logs reflects the computer's name at time of policy execution, which may differ from its current name.

Viewing Local Client Logs on a Managed Mac

Jamf Pro maintains a detailed log file on every managed Mac at /private/var/log/jamf.log. This file records every policy check-in, package install, and script execution performed by the Jamf binary.

This log file may be:

• Viewed with macOS' built-in log graphical log viewer, the Console application
• Observed in real-time with the command-line interface
• Opened directly with your preferred text editor

Viewing the Log using the Console App

1. Open the Console application (located in /Applications/Utilities).
2. In the sidebar or search field, enter the process name jamf.
3. The log will show detailed check-in information, policy triggers, package installation progress, and script output.

Viewing the Log using Terminal

1. Open the Terminal application.
2. Run the command: tail -f /var/log/jamf.log
3. Observe real-time log entries as policies run.
4. Press Control-C to stop the real-time feed

Contact the EPS team