Automatic Onboarding

Overview

Many agent-based standard protocols used to manage networking devices recommend using unique credentials (username/password, keys, etc.) for each managed device. This recommendation enhances security and enables individual device identification during message exchanges. However, it introduces additional complexity, as each managed device must be pre-provisioned with unique credentials before deployment.

The Automatic Onboarding feature in CONTROL simplifies this pre-configuration process. It allows devices to initially connect using a common set of credentials, which are then automatically replaced with individual credentials after the first successful connection.

Accessing Automatic Onboarding Settings

Automatic Onboarding options are configured per Device Profile / Type and can be accessed through:

Inventory > Profile / type

For detailed information about accessing Device Profile / Type configuration screens, refer to the Device Profile / Type configuration section.

Configuration

Enabling Automatic Onboarding

To configure and activate Automatic Onboarding for a specific Device Profile / Type:

1. Navigate to the Device Profile / Type configuration screen
2. Locate the Automatic onboarding section
3. Enable the Automatic device onboarding checkbox
4. Populate the following required fields:
   • Username: The pre-defined username that devices will use during initial authentication
   • Password: The pre-defined password that devices will use during initial authentication

Once configured, any device connecting to the platform with these credentials will be automatically onboarded and assigned to the corresponding Device Profile / Type.

Device Identification Fields

The following optional fields provide additional validation and identification criteria for connecting devices:

• Manufacturer: Filters devices by manufacturer name
• Unique ID: Specifies a unique identifier for device matching
• Product class: Filters devices by product class designation
• Serial number prefix: Matches against the beginning characters of the device serial number

Identification Rules

• Case sensitivity: All identification field matching is case-sensitive
• Prefix matching: For Serial number prefix, the system matches the specified text against the left-most characters of the received serial number
• Protocol dependency: Identification fields are management protocol-dependent and must be provided in the first message from the managed device (e.g., the Inform message for devices managed through TR-069)

Example

If the Manufacturer field is set to Zequenze, the Automatic Onboarding process for this Device Profile / Type will only apply to devices that identify themselves with Zequenze in their manufacturer field.

Advanced Configuration

Additional Automatic Onboarding configurations can be customized through:

• Connection Profile objects for each Device Profile / Type
• Connection service objects for each Device Profile / Type

TBC