The ION device shell allows you to create elements, visualize the network, and do simple configurations. You can now pre-stage device configurations before the ION device becomes available to accelerate deployment. This new approach is referred to as the ‘Device Shell’. If there are device-related attributes in the template, then when deploying using the site template, enter the device serial number to which site it should be attached. If you don't have a physical device serial number or if the device isn’t available at the time of deployment, a virtual configuration–element shell–is created associating a device to the site.

When deploying a site using a site template, if you input the device serial number, and if the device is available, unclaimed, and online during the site deployment, it will be provisioned as part of the deployment process. However, if the physical device's serial number is unavailable or the device is inaccessible during deployment, a virtual configuration, Device Shell, is generated to preconfigure the device within the site. When the device is available, you can attach the physical device to this device shell to finalize the deployment of the site.

When a device is allocated to the tenant and is online, it can be assigned to the device shell at the site. At this point, the configuration from the device shell is transferred to the actual device, and the device shell is deleted. Refer Associate a Device with the Shell to know more.