Assign Devices to a Monitoring Policy

Phase 4 — Monitoring & Policies · OpenFrame Onboarding

A policy or query only does something once it's pointed at devices. The device selector is the same on both the Add/Edit Policy and Add/Edit Query screens, so learn it once and it works everywhere. This guide covers picking devices, filtering by tag, and bulk-adding.

Before you start

• You're in the Devices section of a policy or query you're creating or editing (Monitoring → Policies/Queries → Add or Edit → scroll to Devices).
• Devices need the Fleet/osquery agent to be evaluable. The picker flags machines where the agent isn't installed.

The two targeting modes

At the top of the Devices section you'll see two options:

• Select Specific Devices — choose individual machines to include. This is the mode available today.
• Select Devices by Criteria — "automatically include all devices (current and future) that match your defined criteria." This is marked COMING SOON — when it ships, it'll let a policy auto-cover, say, "all Windows servers" without re-editing as devices come and go. For now, use specific selection.

Picking devices

The picker shows a table of Available Devices (and a Selected Devices (N) view of what you've chosen), with DEVICE, CUSTOMER, OS, and STATUS columns plus each device's last-online time.

• Tick the devices you want to include.
• Switch to the Selected Devices view to review exactly what's in scope.
• Machines that read "Fleet agent is not installed" can be selected but won't return results until the agent is healthy — so confirm agent status first for anything important.

Filtering by Device Tags

This is the fast way to target a group. Click Device Tags to filter the picker down to machines carrying the tags you choose (the tagging scheme you set in Organize Devices with Device Tags, Phase 2). Filter to, say, Type: server, then add what's shown.

Note on tag targeting: filtering by tag narrows the picker so you can add the right machines quickly — but the selection is still a snapshot of those devices. Automatic, always-on tag/criteria targeting (where new matching devices join the policy on their own) is the Coming Soon "Select Devices by Criteria" mode. Until then, if you add devices later, revisit the policy to include them.

Bulk assignment

• Add All Devices adds everything currently shown in the picker. Combine it with the Device Tags filter for a quick "all servers" or "all Windows" assignment: filter first, then Add All.
• For a fleet-wide baseline check (e.g. encryption on), filtering off and Add All Devices assigns the whole fleet at once.

Save and verify

Save the policy or query. Then confirm the assignment took:

• On a policy, the detail page's Devices table lists each assigned machine with PASSING/FAILING.
• On a query, results start flowing from the assigned devices on the next scheduled run.

If a device you expected is missing, re-open the editor — it was likely filtered out of the picker (wrong tag, or agent-not-installed) when you saved.

Quick checklist

• Used Select Specific Devices (auto criteria targeting is Coming Soon)
• Filtered by Device Tags to find the right group fast
• Used Add All Devices for bulk assignment where appropriate
• Confirmed agent-installed status for important machines
• Saved and verified the device list on the policy/query

What's next

With checks scoped to the right machines, the last piece is acting on failures — Understanding Alerts — Triage & Resolution walks the lifecycle from a device going non-compliant to getting it fixed.

Based on OpenFrame v0.9.19. "Select Devices by Criteria" is a roadmap item — re-check the console before treating tag auto-targeting as available.