More Advanced Procedures > Services

What is the Provisioning Portal?

Provisioning is the process of installing the software onto the device and getting it working. mSuite includes an over the air provisioning portal that allows a supported wireless device to make a connection and automatically load a customized software build for the connecting user. To do this, the device needs to download and run the mSuite Bootloader program - see Over The Air Provisioning for more information.

The Provisioning Portal is the service within the mSuite server that provides the interface between the Bootloader program (on the device being provisioned) and other mSuite services. Users' devices connect to this service and the user is then prompted to follow simple instructions to load and configure the software on their device.

The role of the Proxy

The Provisioning Portal is published on a configurable TCP port (default, 3605). However, when a Proxy is in use (any type - Local, DMZ or Internet/CSC) the Proxy is capable of steering requests according to their nature. Provisioning traffic is steered to the Provisioning Portal server. Other traffic is steered to the either the Connection Management Server (CMS) or, in the case of Exchange ActiveSync clients (like iPhone and Palm Pre), to the Exchange Adapter.

So, to connect a device to the Provisioning Portal from outside your secure zone, you simply connect it to the Proxy on the port it listens on for TCP connections (default, 1700).

To connect a device directly to the Provisioning Portal from inside your secure zone (without going via a Proxy), use the hostname or IP address of the machine where the Provisioning Portal is running and the port that it is configured to listen on (default, 3605).

You will not normally need to reconfigure the Provisioning Portal although you can make changes to the ports used for HTTP and HTTPS connections:

1.	In the navigation tree, expand the Configuration node.

2.	Select Server and Groups, the action pane will display the group Consoles, the group Workstations and any servers that are configured. Right mouse click on the server that you want to configure and then select Properties.

3.	The server properties dialog is displayed, select the tab at the top with the name Provisioning Portal.

4.	Now press the configuration wizard button - it has a magic wand icon - to the right of the control that is set to Default Provisioning Portal Server Template.

5.	Make sure that the check box Run the Provisioning Portal is checked on the first screen and click Next.

6.	In the Listen Address panel, the IP Address should normally be set to * and the Port Number port to 3605. If you need to change them, use the Edit button, make your changes then click OK then Next.

On the completion page, you have the choice of saving the settings as a new template or updating the existing properties. You will normally update the existing properties - the default settings. Templates are advanced configuration and you should only use them if instructed by CommonTime support. Click Finish.

Page url: http://msuitehelp.commontime.com/index.html?ct_adv_services_provisioning_portal.htm