HOW-TO GUIDES

Onboarding a computer

Onboarding is a computer's first setup in Overseer. This page covers preparing a provisioning drive, connecting a new computer, assigning it to a client and reviewing its first maintenance session.

What onboarding does

A new computer arrives with Windows and little else. Onboarding brings it up to your standard. The computer gets the Overseer agent, is assigned to its client, and gets its first maintenance session. A maintenance session is one complete ordered pass over one computer: Overseer detects what differs from what you declared, acts on it, and checks the result.

What you declared lives in deployments. A deployment is a standing declaration that something should be true on a set of computers. Deployments with Onboarding enforcement run once, at this point. Deployments with Required enforcement run in this session and in every session after it.

During the first session Overseer:

installs and configures the software your deployments call for
runs each task's check and corrects whatever fails, which can include security settings and Windows updates
applies settings that belong to the person who is going to use the computer
updates drivers and firmware on computers from supported manufacturers

Before you start

A tenant to receive the computer. A tenant is the record for one of your clients. It helps to keep a holding tenant for new computers and move each one to its client once it connects.
Administrator access to the computer you are setting up.
A USB flash drive, if the computer is a physical one.

Preparing the drive

1Press Install agent.
2Choose the tenant, then choose the provisioning package method.
3Turn on automatic onboarding if the computer should start its first session without waiting for you.
4Set the primary user if you already know who the computer is for.
5Download the package and copy it to the root of the flash drive.

Reuse the same drive: You only need to make this drive once. It works for every client, because you choose the client after the computer connects. If you reuse it this way, leave automatic onboarding off, or point the package at a holding tenant that receives only the deployments aimed at every client.

Connecting the computer

1Unbox the computer and switch it on.
2When Windows shows its first setup screen and asks for a region, insert the drive.
3Wait while Windows detects the provisioning package, and follow any prompts to apply it.

For a virtual computer, download the package as a disc image instead and attach the image. At the same first setup screen, press the Windows key five times so that Windows looks for the package.

Assigning the computer and starting the session

If you turned on automatic onboarding, the session starts by itself. Open Sessions to watch it.

If you left it off, the computer appears in Overseer as a new computer, waiting for you.

1Open the new computer.
2Choose the client that owns it. This is required.
3Choose the primary user. This is recommended, because per-user settings depend on it.
4Save and start onboarding. Overseer creates the onboarding session.

When you are setting up several computers at once, the onboarding view shows the whole batch moving through assign, install, restart, verify and ready.

The primary user's profile

Some settings belong to a person and not to the computer. The default browser and the default PDF application are two examples. Windows stores these in the person's own profile, which normally does not exist until that person first uses the computer.

During onboarding, Overseer creates the primary user's profile ahead of time. It can then apply per-user settings without anyone needing that person's password. When the person first sits down, their settings are already in place.

After the session

Review the result. Open the finished session on Sessions and read what each action did. An item is marked Compliant only when the check that follows the action passes.
Adjust your deployments. Add deployments for anything the computer still lacks, or create an exception for a client that needs something different.
Run it again. Press Re-run to repeat the onboarding session. You can do this as many times as you need until the computer is as you want it.

If onboarding stalls

Read the session log. It records the error for the action that stopped.
Check the connection. If the computer cannot be reached, its session waits, shown as pending, and resumes when the computer reconnects. It does not fail.
Check your security software. Make sure it is not blocking the Overseer agent.

Next steps

Installing the agentFour ways to put the Overseer agent on a Windows computer. Recommended deploymentsThe kinds of deployment worth setting up first, and how to adapt them. Running a maintenance sessionStart a session by hand, on one computer or many, and read the result.

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