Quick start guide

This guide takes you from an empty Overseer to one computer that has been onboarded, given a deployment and verified. It covers the first steps in the order that causes the least rework.

What this guide gets you to

Overseer sets up a computer knowing only two things: which client it belongs to and who uses it. Everything else comes from what you have declared.

You do not write the steps to reach that result. You state what should be true, and Overseer detects the difference, acts and verifies. This guide walks through that loop once, on one computer, so the rest of the product makes sense when you meet it.

Before you start

You need:

• A role in Overseer that lets you create deployments and run maintenance.
• A test computer running a supported version of Windows. It can be physical or virtual, and it should be one you are free to change.
• A USB drive, if the test computer is new and still at Windows setup.

Prepare Overseer

Three pieces of groundwork save trouble later. Do them in this order.

1. 1Allow Overseer in your security software. Security tools can stop the processes the agent starts. Add the exclusions before you install the agent anywhere. Security software exclusions lists what to allow.
2. 2Create your clients. Each client is a tenant. Bring clients in from an integration with your PSA or your remote management tool, or create them by hand on the Tenants screen. Pick one of your tools as the source of truth and create clients from it, so names match everywhere.
3. 3Set your time zone. Set the default time zone in Preferences. A client in a different zone can have its own.

Connect a test computer

A computer joins Overseer when the Overseer agent is installed on it and connects.

• A computer already in use. Press Install agent, then run the installer on the computer.
• A new computer at Windows setup. Prepare a USB drive that installs the agent during setup. You prepare the drive once. It works for every client, because you choose the client after the computer has connected.

When the agent connects, the computer appears in Overseer as a new computer waiting to be onboarded.

Assign the client and the person

Open the new computer and tell Overseer the two things it needs:

• The client. The tenant that owns the computer. This is required.
• The primary user. Whoever mainly uses the computer. This is optional but recommended, because some deployments depend on it.

On a first run you may have only your own company as a tenant and yourself as a person. That is enough for a test.

Create your first deployment

A deployment is a standing declaration that an item should be in a given state on the computers it targets.

1. 1Open Deployments and press New deployment.
2. 2Choose a piece of software from the library. A web browser is a good first choice, because it installs quickly and is easy to check.
3. 3Set the desired state to Installed.
4. 4Set the enforcement to Required.
5. 5Set the target to your test computer.
6. 6Save the deployment.

Saving declares the rule. It changes nothing on the computer until a maintenance session runs.

A deployment can also carry a condition. It can apply only where the primary user holds a licence for the software, or only to clients whose PSA agreement includes it. Targets and targeting covers these.

Run a maintenance session

1. 1Open Computers and open your test computer.
2. 2Press Run maintenance.
3. 3Choose how restarts are handled, then start the session.

A session started by a person runs immediately. You can follow it as it happens on the Sessions screen.

The session checks its own work at each point:

• Before. Detection reads the computer and works out whether the browser is there and at which version. Nothing is changed.
• During. Execution installs or updates the browser, and the session records any error.
• After. Overseer reads the computer again. The item is marked Compliant only when that check passes.

For software set to Installed, this means Overseer finds the latest version available, reads the version on the computer, queues an install, an update or nothing, and then runs any configuration the software item defines.

When the session ends it reads Passed, Partial passed or Failed. Press View on the session to read each action and its log.

Make it routine

One computer and one deployment prove the loop. Three more steps turn it into a working setup:

• Add the deployments every client needs. Recommended deployments describes a sensible first set.
• Create a schedule. Open Schedules and press New schedule. Without a schedule, deployments apply only when a person runs maintenance.
• Set up email if you want it. Overseer can email the person using a computer about maintenance on it. Email notifications covers the setup.

Next steps