A join token is a special-purpose, system-generated alphanumeric string used to authenticate a virtual on-prem host, which can then automatically associate itself with its user account and establish a connection to the BloxOne services. To deploy a virtual appliance, create a join token and then issue it to the corresponding on-prem host when you set up your machine.
Note: A join token is required for deploying a virtual appliance and bare-metal deployment, but is not required for deploying a physical BloxOne appliance.
Create as many join tokens as you need, and use them for different purposes, such as the following:
Use the same join token to deploy multiple virtual appliances.
Create a join token to provision a set of remote devices, and assign them to your Cloud Services Portal account.
Create a short-lived join token for an admin who wants to join on-prem hosts. When the admin finishes the task, revoke the join token and thus prevent the admin from provisioning new hosts.
Revoke a join token if it has been compromised, to prevent its use in provisioning of new on-prem hosts. If you use a revoked token, a host cannot establish a new connection to the cloud; however, it will keep an existing connection. Note that join tokens are valid until you revoke them through the Cloud Services Portal.
The Manage > Infrastructure > Join Tokens page displays the following information for each join token you have created:
TOKEN NAME: The token’s name.
STATUS: The token’s current status: Active or Revoked.
COUNT: The number of times you have used the token to set up your virtual appliances. You can reuse a token for various virtual appliances.
This number is useful for security purposes. For example, if you have used a join token to connect a certain number of appliances, and if that number does not match the value of COUNT, then you might want to review the appliances that have joined your network.
LAST USED: The timestamp of the token’s last use, formatted as mm/dd/yy hh:mm:ss time zone.
DESCRIPTION: Information about the join token.
For more information about join tokens, see the following: