Onboard an Android device to a Wi-Fi network with certificates

In this topic, you will learn how to onboard using certificates, the self-onboarding portal, an Android phone, and a Wi-Fi network managed by Portnox™ Cloud.

To onboard to a network using a certificate, you need to generate, download, and install the user certificate, and then configure your operating system to connect to the network using this certificate.

If you already downloaded and installed the certificate for the same user/device, for example, to authenticate with another network, you don’t need to install the certificate again and you should skip the relevant steps.

Note: The user interface and the names of options may differ slightly for other Android versions and different phone brands.

Download and install the certificate

In this section, you will generate, download, and install the certificate on your device.

Note: We recommend that you use the Chrome browser in the following steps. Other browsers may cause issues with downloading profiles for your device.
  1. Enter the URL of the self-onboarding portal in your browser.

    To learn how to set up the self-onboarding portal and obtain the URL, see the following topic: Set up the self-onboarding portal.

  2. In Step 1, select the third option: CLEAR account certificate management and press the Next button.

  3. In Step 2, you can select the Corporate email address option or the Corporate username and password option. Select the Corporate email address option if Portnox Cloud manages your user repository. Select the Corporate username and password option if you have integrated Cloud with an external repository. Proceed with the following steps depending on your choice.
  4. If you have chosen Corporate email address:
    Important: Only choose the Corporate email address option if Portnox Cloud manages your user repository. Cloud manages the user repository if it’s not integrated with any external repositories such as Microsoft Azure (Entra ID), Google Workspace, or Okta Workforce Identity.
    1. In the Email field, enter your corporate email address and press the SIGN IN button.

      If you activate the Automatically generate secure password and send me by email checkbox, you will receive a separate email with a Portnox Cloud password. If so, you should use this password in the next steps.

    2. Open your email client and find the email received from Portnox Cloud containing a one-time activation code. Copy this code to the clipboard.

      If you activated the Automatically generate secure password and send me by email checkbox in the previous step, do not confuse the password email with the code email. They are two separate emails.

    3. In the self-onboarding portal, paste the code in the Activation code field and press the CONFIRM button.

  5. If you have chosen Corporate username and password:
    1. Press the tile that represents the authentication repository you want to use to sign in. If you want to use Okta Workforce Identity, enter your Okta login and password and press the SIGN IN button.

      Note: Options depend on the repositories integrated with Portnox Cloud: Microsoft Azure (Entra ID), Google Workspace, and/or Okta Workforce Identity.
    2. Complete the sign in steps depending on the chosen authentication repository.
  6. Press the OBTAIN CERTIFICATE button to download the certificate generated for your device.

    Note: If you want to replace a certificate you created earlier, for example, because the old one expires soon, press the REISSUE CERTIFICATE button instead.
  7. In the Name the certificate pop-up, enter a readable name for the certificate. In the Credential use field, select the Wi-Fi option, and press the OK button to install the certificate.

Result: You downloaded and installed the certificate.

Configure the connection

In this section, you will configure your network to use the installed certificate.

  1. Long-press the Wi-Fi network icon in the top area of your phone to show the list of available Wi-Fi networks. Then, press the name of the network that is managed by Portnox Cloud to connect to it.

  2. In the EAP method field, select the TLS option.

  3. In the CA certificate field, select the Use system certificates option.

  4. In the Domain field, enter clear-rad.portnox.com.

    Note: To learn more about this option, read the following topic: Trusted certificate server names.
  5. In the User certificate field, select the certificate saved earlier.

  6. In the Identity field, enter your corporate email address and press CONNECT.

Result: Your Android phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network managed by Portnox Cloud.

Troubleshooting information: See the following topic: How to troubleshoot typical device onboarding issues.