Overview of the installation process

Overview

This article describes the steps needed to deploy the Nexthink solution in a corporate setup. The process depends on multiple factors, such as the number of devices, the network infrastructure, the type of licenses, and so on. The exact procedure may vary from one company to another.

From a high-level view, the deployment of the solution follows these steps:

1. Accessing your Nexthink cloud platform.

2. Deploying Nexthink Collectors.

3. Installing Nexthink Finder.

Accessing the Nexthink cloud platform

The Nexthink solution is a cloud-based platform, so Nexthink manages all the server-side components. To access the web interface, all the necessary information is communicated in an onboarding email.

Deploying Nexthink Collectors

Nexthink Collector is a lightweight software agent that gathers hardware, software and activity data from the devices within your organization. Collector also enables employee engagement through feedback retrieval, as well as remotely acting on the device when required. Deploy Collector to all corporate devices that run a supported version of either the Microsoft Windows or Apple macOS operating systems.

Instructions on enterprise deployment are available for Microsoft SCCM and Active Directory Group Policy (GPO).

Once deployed and connected, the cloud platform applies the default auto-update policy. The devices categorized as pilot will be updated as soon as a new version is available. After 2 weeks the update is automatically pushed to all devices. You can request to adjust that period by contacting Nexthink Support and choosing one of the possible values from 1 up to 8 weeks.

Installing Nexthink Finder (classic)

Nexthink Finder is a Windows-only desktop application whose functionality is now available within the Nexthink web interface. Nexthink can now be used directly from a browser and most functions no longer require an additional desktop application.

Finder is a rich-client Windows application that lets you query data in real time and visualizes the results either as lists of records or through convenient graphical views. Finder is also the tool that enables the creation of metrics, which are displayed as widgets in Portal dashboards.

The easiest method for each Nexthink user to install Finder on a Windows device is by installing it from the web interface.

Next steps

Once the installation of Nexthink is complete, these are the most common activities that usually follow:

1. Define a hierarchy

   Organize your corporate infrastructure into levels and domains to delimit the view of the different user groups over it.
   

2. Adding more users

   Because working with a single admin account is neither secure nor convenient, create the accounts required for other users to log in to Nexthink. Define profiles and roles to assign different responsibilities and separate groups of users.