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Creating and Using a Device Template

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Overview

Device templates are a feature that allows you to efficiently and effectively update the operating systems of remote devices. You can also send over important files, software packages, and command-line commands and scripts.

The process of creating and using a device template consists of the following steps:

  1. Creating a group of devices.
  2. Creating a device template.
  3. Populating the device template with groups of devices.
  4. Adding content to the device template.
  5. Assigning and executing the roll-out of the template on the devices in the group.

Step 1: Creating a Group

Device templates are a feature that allows you to efficiently update the operating systems of remote devices.

To use a device template, we must first create a group of devices. A group can even consist of a single device.

To create a group:

1. Click on Devices to open the Devices Table in the Radix Device Management Platform.

2. Click on the Groups icon at the top of the Devices Table to open the Groups window (if it is not open already):

3. In the Groups window, click on the “Add new group” icon to create a new group.

The Create new group window opens.

4. Assign a name and description to the group.

5. Under the Tags tab, assign a descriptive tag to the group, which will serve to identify devices in the group. In the example below, we have assigned the tag “rbp” to be the identifying tag for devices in the group “rbp group”.

6. Click Save to save the group.

7. Assign the tag for that group to a device. The device will immediately be a member of the group. In our example, we assigned the tag rbp to the Windows device 64497DEFBE1A.

8. If we check our group rbp group again, we will see that device 64497DEFBE1A is a member of the group.

Adding more devices to a group

1. If you want to add more devices to the group, simply add the same identifying tag to those devices as well. For example, we would like to add a Point-of-Sale credit card reader (ID No. 64f6bb92ac7b) to our group. We type part of the Device ID in the search bar at the top of the Devices Table, and locate the desired POS device:

2. Click on the three-dot menu on the far right of the device and go to Device>Set Device Tags.

The Set Device Tags window opens.

3. Type rbp and hit Enter. This adds the tag rbp to the device.

4. Click Confirm. The device will now be a member of the group rbp group.

Step 2: Creating a New Device Template

1. In the Radix Device Management Platform, click on the Device Templates icon to open the Device Templates Console.

2. Click on the Add New Device Template icon to open the Create New Device Template window.

3. The Create New Device Template window opens.

4. Supply a name for the profile.

5. If you click on the Run with other templates checkbox, this template will appear as a “non-priority template”. You will notice in the main Device Template Console that there are two categories of device templates:

  • Priority Templates are applied to their associated group of devices according to their listed priority. If you assign two templates to a group, the template with the higher priority executes first. If you change the priority level at a later time, then the higher priority template executes.
  • Non-priority templates are not limited by their priority number. Thus, they are applied to their respective groups at all times. Thus, when we check “Run with other templates”, our new profile appears in this section of the Device Template Console:

Template "Jan 21st " appears among the "non-priority templates"

If you have several Priority Templates that you want to execute on a specific group, you can change their priority by clicking on the Set Templates Priority button in the Device Templates Console.

In this mode, your mouse pointer will appear as a hand icon, allowing you to move the profiles up and down in the listing:

Step 3: Populating the Device Profile

You assign device templates to groups of devices. After creating a device template, you then associate a group with the template. You can populate a template with several groups of devices at a time.

1. Click on the Population tab. You will receive a prompt to attach a group to the template. In our example, we will attach the group rbp group to the template.


2. The “Filters” option in the lower half of the window allows you to further refine the list of devices you want to include in the device template.

The filter options include:

  • - Tag: To filter devices by the tags that they have been assigned.
  • - App with version: To filter devices by the version they have of a specific application. You then provide the name of the application and the version number.
  • - Model: This allows you to select a specific model of a device to apply the template.
  • - Property: This allows you to apply a template to devices with a specific property, filtering them by their system-defined property key.
  • - User type: The options here can be owner/user/guest.
  • - User name: This is the user’s name as it appears in the Radix Device Management Platform.
  • - First registration process only: This applies the template to devices only at the time of their first registration in the Radix Device Management Platform. For example, that means that the content associated with the template (= executing software packages, sending files) will be applied to a device as soon as it is registered.

Step 4: Adding Content to the Device Profile

1. Click on the Content tab. The Content tab allows us several options of activities to perform on the devices in the group:   

  • Agent & SCM: These include Radix installation files and SCManager files to be applied to Android devices included in the profile.

  • - OTA management: To apply Over-the-Air updates to the device’s operating system. You can also specify a post-installation message to send to the remote devices after performing these updates.

  • Packages: Installs software packages on the devices in the group.- Packages: This installs software packages on the devices in the group.

  • - Files: To send files to the devices in the group. There is no limit to the number of files you can send.

  • - Remote execute: To execute scripts on the devices in the group.

  • Policy/Kiosk: The Policy/Kiosk window appears as follows: 

This allows you to either:

  • Apply a software policy to the devices using the template (= to block particular apps, or allow access to only certain websites) or
  • Put the devices in kiosk mode (=where the devices can only be used for certain apps and with access to only certain websites).

 

  • - Views: A View is a specialized type of kiosk option. It consists of allowed apps and the URL of an online video to display on remote devices.

  • - Settings: This tab allows you to adjust settings on the remote devices (Wi-Fi settings, display settings, wallpaper, and more).

2. When you have decided on the content to add to the template, click Save in the lower right corner. You will receive a pop-up notification that the template has been saved successfully.

 

Step 5: Setting the Roll-out Configuration

The final stage of creating a device template is assigning a time to execute the template on the associated group. You can choose to execute the template immediately, at a specific time, or manually.

  • Click on the Roll-out tab to set the time when to execute the profile.

You will encounter two panes:

Left Pane: Roll-out configuration

When you click on the Roll-out configuration button, you will be able to set the following parameters:

  • The number of devices per batch to apply the device profile.
  • The waiting time until applying the device profile to another batch of devices. The waiting interval can be set to hours or even days.
  • The percentage of successful deployments of the device profile, before proceeding to apply the device template to another batch of devices.

Right Pane: Execution configuration

There are three options to specify when to execute the template:

  • Immediate: To execute the software package associated with the template as soon as the device receives the template.

  • Time Frame: You should employ this option if you want to execute the software package associated with the template within a specified time frame. You supply a start and end time.

There are two possible scenarios where you may want the execution to be delayed:

  • Apply only if idle: If you specified that the software package should be executed only when the device is idle by clicking on the Apply only if idle button (so as not to disturb the remote user while using the device), it will execute the software package in the specified time frame only when the device is idle.

  • Set maximum attempts: This allows you to set the maximum number of attempts to execute the items in a profile. The default is three attempts.

     

  • On Demand: This option is available for an OTA software update only. The user will execute the OTA update when s/he initiates it.

  • Post installation message: This allows you to create notifications to the user if the template is executed successfully or fails to execute.


2. After specifying when to execute the profile, click Save. This will save the details of the profile.

There is also an option to send Advanced Messages to the remote user that the template has either succeeded or failed to execute.

We saw in Step 3 that you can populate a template by providing it with groups. You can also select a group and associate an existing template with it. You can do this with the Group Management option. We will examine this in the next section.

Alternative Method: Attaching a Template to a Group

We saw in Step 3 that you can populate a template by providing it with groups. You can also select a group and associate an existing template with it. You can do this with the Group Management option.

To attach a template to an existing group:

  1. Click on Devices in the Radix Dashboard to open the Devices Table.

2. Click on Groups to open the Groups window.


3. Search for the desired group in the Search bar.


4. Click on the three-dot menu next to the group name and select Group Management.


5. In the Edit Group window, click on the Template icon.

6. In the next window, click on Add Device Templates, to see the list of available templates.

7. Select a template from the Select Templates pane and click Apply.

8. Clicking the View icon will open up the Device Template window, allowing you to make changes to the template.

9. It is possible to select several templates by checking their checkboxes.

10. Click Save to save the templates that you have attached to the group.

11. You will receive a pop-up notification that the profile was associated with the group successfully.


Executing a Template

Once you have created a device template and entered all of the details regarding the population and contents of a template, you can start executing the template.

To roll out a template:

1. Click on the Device Templates icon in the sidebar menu to open the Device Templates Console.

2. Click on the row of the template you would like to apply.

3. In the dropdown menu in the upper left corner, select Draft version.

4. In the Draft version Overview window, click on Start roll-out.

5. A prompt appears as to whether to activate the template. Click Yes.

A pop-up notification appears, informing you that the template has been activated on the remote devices in the group.

Stopping a Template

If you wish to stop a template from being executed, you must first remove the group of devices from the template in the Population tab. When you roll out the template once again without the associated group, the device will return to normal functionality.

To stop a template:

1. Click on the template that you want to stop. In our example, it is the profile “Jan 21st”.

2. Go to Draft Version to allow you to make changes to the template.

3. Go to the Population tab and remove the group of devices from the Template.

4. Go to the Overview tab and click Start roll-out. It will now run the template again, but with no groups associated with the template.

5. Click Yes in the notification pop-up to activate the revised template:

You will receive a notification that the Device Template has been activated, without the associated group.

 

 

 

 

 

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