Take command of your device fleet from anywhere.
Photon Now is remote device management for Linux, Windows and macOS fleets. Install a small agent and every device shows up in one dashboard, with no VPN and no open ports.
Free for 1 user, 3 devices and 3 GB a month. No card required.
Nightly maintenance
Run · Fleet Front-of-house kiosks · 6 devices
Devices
6
Completed
0
Offline
0
Made for hardware in the field
For the machines you can’t sit next to.
Any 64-bit Windows, macOS or Linux machine with an internet connection. Ten of them or ten thousand, in one building or across a continent.
The building blocks
Everything in Photon Now is built from five concepts.
Each one builds on the one before it.
Device
A machine you manage. Add it to the dashboard, install the agent, and it is online from wherever it is.
Action Flow
Nightly maintenance
- 1Download File
- 2Run Script
- 3Restart Device
Fleet
Checkout lanes · 4 devices
The action catalog
Everything you can run on a device.
One catalog for Windows, macOS and Linux. Files, scripts and processes work the same on all three. Services, updates and logs use each system’s own tools, and where an action exists on one system only, its badge says which.
Files
Deliver a file from your registry or any URL, unpack it, swap it in, optionally backing up the original, or change one key in a config file.
- Download File
- Unpack Archive
- Replace File
- Update Config
Scripts and processes
Run a script in bash, PowerShell or Python, start or stop a process, call an HTTP endpoint, restart the device.
- Run Script
- Start Process
- Stop Process
- HTTP Request
- Restart Device
Services
List services with their state and pid, and restart one: a Windows service, a launchd job or a systemd unit.
- Service Status
- Restart Service
Software and updates
See what is installed and which updates are pending, then install them: Windows Update, macOS software updates, apt, dnf and zypper packages.
- Installed Apps
- Windows Update StatusWindows only
- Install Windows UpdatesWindows only
- Software Update StatusmacOS only
- Install Software UpdatesmacOS only
- Package Update StatusLinux only
- Install Package UpdatesLinux only
Logs
Read recent entries, filtered by severity, from the Windows Event Log, the macOS unified log or the systemd journal.
- Event Log QueryWindows only
- Unified Log QuerymacOS only
- Journal QueryLinux only
Your app’s own Actions
This is the magic of Photon Now: your own application can expose Actions of its own, right beside its managed updates. Whatever your app can do, an operator can run on one Device or a whole Fleet, from this same catalog. Only your imagination sets the limit.
- Update App
- For example: Reload menu
- For example: Show maintenance screen
- For example: Print test receipt
Action Flows and schedules
Put Actions in order, then run the flow by hand or on a schedule.
Save the Actions you repeat, ours and your app’s own, as an Action Flow. Run it from the dashboard whenever you like, or give it a schedule and it runs with nobody at a keyboard.
- Conditions between steps
- Schedules in the site’s own timezone
- Every Run recorded step by step, scheduled ones marked as such
Action Flow
Kiosk updates
- 1
Show maintenance screenKiosk UI
Your app’s own Action
- 2
Download File
kiosk-config · latest
- 3
Install Package Updates
Every pending update
- 4
Condition
If rebootRequired is true
- 5
Restart Device
After 5 seconds
Run now
On a Device or a whole Fleet
Every day at 02:00
Europe/Oslo · Runs tonightFleets and runs
One flow, every device.
Put devices in a fleet and run a flow across all of them at once. A failed step stops that one device, not the fleet.
- Live progress for every device
- Offline devices reported, not skipped
- Full history of every run
Action Flow
Kiosk updates
SavedFleet
Warehouse kiosks
20 devices
Remote access
Reach any device as if you were there.
Open an SSH, VNC, RDP or web session to a device wherever it is, or drop into a terminal straight from the dashboard. Keep a tunnel to yourself with an IP allow-list, or a login on a web tunnel, and cap the bandwidth it may use.
- SSH, VNC, RDP, HTTP or any TCP port
- Interactive terminal in the browser
- IP allow-lists, logins and bandwidth limits
Your applications
Ship your own app to the fleet, and know it’s healthy.
Register the app you run on your devices. It reports its own health and state, and its own Actions run from the dashboard or from any Action Flow.
- Notified when it degrades
- New versions roll back if they fail
- Your app’s own Actions
Kiosk UIv2.3.1
on your device
How it works
From a fresh device to full control in three steps.
Step 1: Connect
Add the Device, run the one-line installer, and it is online in seconds.
Step 2: Operate
Run Actions and Action Flows, or open a session, on one Device or a whole Fleet.
Step 3: Automate
Schedule the Action Flow, and get notified when a Run fails.
Security and access
Nothing reaches a device unless your organization asked for it.
The agent connects out to Photon Now and never listens for connections from your network. Roles decide who may do what, and every change is written to the activity log.
Outbound only
The agent opens its own connection to Photon Now. Nothing on your network has to accept one.
Access ends with the device
Remove a device from the dashboard and its agent is cut off at once.
Encrypted connections
Every connection from a device or the dashboard to Photon Now is encrypted.
Protected with 2FA
Available on every account, at sign-in and again before changes that matter.
Roles and groups
Decide per person what they may run, change or delete, and which devices they may see.
Activity log
Who changed what, and when, in a log your administrators can read.
Get started
Add your first Device today.
Create your organization, install the agent on one machine, and run your first Action Flow on it. Free for 1 user, 3 devices and 3 GB a month. No card required.