Hardware Diagnostics and Apple Support Tools Flashcards

What is the primary use of Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) in enterprise Mac support?

Answer: Remote control, screen observation, and task automation across multiple Macs

Apple Remote Desktop enables IT administrators to remotely control screens, deploy packages, run Unix commands, and generate inventory reports across many Macs.

What does the 'spindump' diagnostic tool capture on macOS?

Answer: Stack traces of hung processes causing the spinning wait cursor

Spindump samples stack traces of unresponsive processes, helping diagnose why applications freeze and display the spinning wait cursor.

Which built-in macOS tool is used to create a bootable USB installer for macOS?

Answer: The createinstallmedia command inside the macOS Installer app

The `createinstallmedia` command-line tool, bundled inside the macOS installer application, creates a fully bootable USB installation drive.

What is Apple Configurator 2 primarily used for?

Answer: Configuring, supervising, and deploying Apple devices in bulk

Apple Configurator 2 allows IT teams to configure, supervise, and deploy apps to multiple Apple devices, and can restore iPhones/iPads in a business setting.

What does the `ioreg` Terminal command display?

Answer: The I/O Registry showing hardware components, drivers, and their properties

The `ioreg` command displays macOS's live I/O Registry, a hierarchical database of hardware components, their drivers, and associated properties.

Which macOS tool collects comprehensive diagnostics — logs, crash reports, and system state — into a single archive for Apple Support?

Answer: sysdiagnose

The `sysdiagnose` tool gathers a wide range of diagnostic data into a compressed archive that can be submitted to Apple Support for analysis.