When you deploy 50 or 500 nodes, you do not want to manually install each one. You want to build a machine image once and clone it to every device. When that device powers on at its destination, it should just work.
Hardware-Bound Identity
ProxyPass supports this through hardware-bound node IDs. Each node generates its identity from the CPU ID of the machine it runs on. This means you can include ProxyPass in a golden image — a pre-configured operating system snapshot — and clone it to hundreds of devices. When each device boots, it registers with a unique node ID derived from its own hardware, even though every device runs the same image.
The Workflow
The deployment workflow looks like this:
- You build one machine with your software, your configuration, and a ProxyPass node pre-installed with your group's API key
- You clone that image to every device you ship
- Each device arrives at its destination, gets plugged in, connects to the internet
- It appears in your ProxyPass dashboard as a new node — with its own unique identity and its own connection to your infrastructure
No manual configuration at the remote site. No install commands to run. No technical knowledge required from whoever plugs in the device. Power on, connect to network, done.
Scenario: Shipping 200 Kiosk Terminals
You manufacture kiosk terminals for hotel lobbies. An order comes in for 200 units across 200 hotels. You build one reference terminal — your kiosk software, the operating system, and a ProxyPass node. You clone this image to all 200 devices and ship them.
Over the next few weeks, hotels receive the terminals and plug them in. Each terminal connects to the hotel's WiFi, the ProxyPass node registers with a unique ID derived from the terminal's CPU, and the node appears in your dashboard. You did not send a technician to any hotel. You did not configure anything at any site. Two hundred terminals, two hundred unique nodes, zero on-site setup.
The Lock-Down After Deployment
There is also a lock-down scenario for when all your devices are deployed. Once every node from your golden image has registered and is online, you enable Protected Group on the group and activate individual API keys. Every existing node gets its own unique key on the next reconnect, and no new nodes can join the group without a one-time install key from you. The master image's shared API key becomes useless for registration. This gives you the speed of open registration during rollout and the security of locked-down, per-device authentication in production.
This is how fleet operators scale. Build once, ship everywhere, manage centrally. ProxyPass handles the identity and connectivity layer so you can focus on what the device actually does.