Device setup & provisioning

This section takes a device from blank hardware to a managed device: creating an install image, onboarding the device so it joins your project, setting the administrator password, and confirming it is online.

Setup at a glance

  1. Create an install image for the target device type, with the defaults you want baked in (encryption, network, storage, time).
  2. Write the image to installation media and boot the device from it.
  3. Onboard the device so it obtains an identity and joins your project.
  4. Set the administrator password for local and console access.
  5. Verify the device is online on the dashboard.

The rest of this page covers each step.

Create an install image

You create install images from the SPEKTRA Edge dashboard. When you create an image you choose:

The values you embed at image creation become the device’s initial configuration. Almost all of them can be changed later from the dashboard once the device is online — the image just provides sensible starting defaults so a device is useful the moment it boots.

Write the image and boot

Write the downloaded image to your installation media, then boot the target hardware from that media. The device boots into SPEKTRA Edge OS, applies the embedded configuration, and begins onboarding.

Onboarding methods

Onboarding is how a device obtains its identity and joins your project. There are three approaches; choose based on how much you want to pre-arrange versus letting devices self-register.

Zero-touch provisioning

With zero-touch provisioning, a device that has never been configured can find the right SPEKTRA Edge deployment, prove its hardware identity, and receive its credentials automatically — no per-device setup required. This is the preferred method for large fleets and for hardware that is shipped directly to a site.

Zero-touch provisioning relies on the device’s hardware security module to establish a trustworthy identity. See TPM & device attestation for how that identity is verified.

Provisioning policy

A provisioning policy lets devices self-register into a project using a shared credential and a template that describes how each new device should be configured. Policies operate in one of two modes:

Mode Behavior
Unattended A device that presents the policy credential is registered automatically and created from the policy’s template.
Manual approval A device that presents the policy credential creates a pending request that an operator must approve before the device becomes active.

The policy template carries the desired device configuration (network, SSH, logging, and so on), so every device created through the policy starts from the same baseline.

Pre-registering hardware

You can pre-register specific hardware ahead of time and bind it to a provisioning target. A field technician can then bring the hardware online using a registration token without needing project credentials in hand. This is useful when installation is performed by someone who should not have broad access to the project.

Set the administrator password

Each device has a local administrator account used for console and SSH access. For security, devices ship without a usable default password — you set the password yourself.

You can set the administrator password:

  • at image creation, so it applies to every device built from that image, or
  • when preparing installation media, on a per-device basis.

The password must be non-empty, and it is stored only as a salted hash on the device’s configuration storage. See User accounts for details and for how to reset a lost password.

Verify the device is online

Once the device boots and onboards, it appears in the dashboard under your project. A device is Online when the platform detects it as connected.

On the device overview page you can confirm:

  • connection status (Online / Offline)
  • device information — OS version, hardware details, disks, and network interfaces
  • reported IP addresses

If a device does not come online, start with the connectivity requirements and the troubleshooting playbooks.

Next steps

With the device online, configure it for your use case: