Onboarding is the process where a Device or Composite is connected to the network managed by an organization. When this happens the authenticity of the Device is verified via interactions with a Registrar running on the network.

Every Device has a Device Configuration Application (DCA) which interacts with the Registrar using the interactions described in PullManagement (7.2) or PushManagement (7.3). These interactions are secured with a DeviceIdentity Certificate.

After authentication completes, the DCA is issued a Certificate by the Registrar that allows the DCA to configure other Applications running on the Device. The Registrar is responsible for determining if a DCA is authorized to request Certificates on behalf a specific Application. For example, the DCA rights may be limited to Applications with the same hostname as the DCA.

During Onboarding, the Device may need to have software updated before the process can complete. The DCA uses the software update model described in OPC 10000-100 to manage the software update process.