Onboard a macOS device to a Wi-Fi network with credentials through self-onboarding

In this topic, you will learn how to onboard using credentials, the self-onboarding portal, a macOS computer, and a Wi-Fi network managed by Portnox™ Cloud.

Note: The screenshots in this topic were made using macOS 12 Monterey. The user interface may differ slightly for other macOS versions. We support macOS 10.9 (Mavericks) and up.
  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 second option: CLEAR account activation and Device provisioning and click on 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 click on 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 click on the CONFIRM button.

  5. If you have chosen Corporate username and password:
    1. Click on 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 click on 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 steps needed to sign in. These steps depend on the chosen authentication repository.
  6. Click on the tile in the Wireless Enrollment Profile section that represents the macOS operating system to download the configuration profile.

  7. Install the downloaded configuration profile.
    1. Open the macOS System Preferences application.

    2. In the System Preferences window, click on the Profiles icon.

    3. In the Profiles window, click on the Install button.

    macOS configures the network settings for the Wi-Fi network configured in your Portnox Cloud group.

  8. In the status menu bar, click on the Wi-Fi icon to open the list of available Wi-Fi networks, and select the network configured in previous steps.

  9. Optional: If your group is configured for credential-based authentication, macOS shows a pop-up asking you to enter credentials. Enter your credentials, and click on the OK button.

    You can also enter your identity in the down-level logon name format: domain\user, for example, vorlon.com\kosh.

    If your group is configured for certificate-based authentication, the pop-up is not displayed because it is not necessary.

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

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