Integration overview

An integration connects Overseer to a tool you already run, so the clients, computers and people that tool knows about arrive ready to be targeted. This page covers the kinds of integration and how setting one up goes.

What an integration is for

An MSP already keeps its records somewhere. Your remote management tool knows which computers exist. Your PSA knows who your clients are. Your identity provider knows the people. An integration brings those facts into Overseer, so nobody has to type them in a second time.

That matters because of how Overseer works. A deployment is a standing declaration that something should be true for a target: every client, one client, a tag, a single computer or a person. A target is only as good as the records behind it. When clients, computers and people come from the tools that already hold them, you can aim a deployment at them straight away.

Integrations are kept on the Integrations screen, under Show more.

Kinds of integration

Overseer groups integrations by the kind of tool they connect to. Each kind brings in something different.

• Remote management tool. Imports the computers that tool already manages, without an onboarding session being run on each one first. It matches the tool's client list to your tenants, adds what the tool knows about each computer, and lets you start remote control through it.
• PSA. Keeps client information in step between the two systems. It lets Overseer raise tickets, puts Overseer's tools in front of a technician working inside a ticket, and records the time spent on maintenance.
• Security software. Matches the clients in your security software to your tenants, and supplies what Overseer needs to install that product's agent on the right computers.
• Identity provider. Imports people and groups.

Integrations of the same kind do not all go equally deep. One may bring in computers and clients; another may add remote control as well.

Choosing where to start

You do not have to connect everything at once. Four things settle the order.

• The tools you already run. Start with the ones in daily use.
• Your main need. If the gap is knowing which computers exist, connect your remote management tool first. If the gap is client records, start with your PSA.
• How deep it goes. Check what a particular integration brings in before you count on it.
• The upkeep. Every integration is a connection somebody has to look after. Add the ones you use.

How setup goes

Most integrations follow the same sequence.

1. 1Gather what the other tool asks for. This is usually an API key or other credentials, and the address of the service.
2. 2Add the integration on the Integrations screen and enter those details.
3. 3Test the connection, so you know the two systems can reach each other.
4. 4Map the records. Match each client in the other tool to a tenant, and match people and computers where the integration brings them in.
5. 5Set any options that belong to that integration.
6. 6Test each feature you intend to use before you rely on it.

When your tool has no integration

You can write your own. A custom integration is a PowerShell script, written in the Script Editor, that supplies the same kinds of fact a built-in one does: a list of clients, a list of computers, or the token needed to install another product's agent. The article Build your own integration explains the idea.

Next steps