Workflows

Think of a workflow as the route card that travels with a device. It says which steps the device gets, in which order, and how each step is set up. You can have several: a full refurbishment line, a wipe-only rig, a test-only bench.

The steps always run in this order. A workflow can switch any of them off, except check-in and finish.

The editor also lists OS imaging. Stations can't install images yet, so its switch stays locked. You can prepare its settings now.

At the station, the step bar at the top shows the workflow's name, where it came from (for example From the batch or For this station), and a button for the next step. Processing a device walks through it.

Every organisation starts with the standard workflow. In the dashboard it is the built-in System Default: Full ITAD Triage. A technician starts each step. It has:

• Diagnostics: every automated test. The battery test warns below 80% health.
• Stress test: 10 minutes in total, on the processor and memory.
• Data wipe: method Automatic, the strongest method each drive supports.
• Manual tests and grading: every manual test, after the automatic steps, then grading.
• Quality gates: the basic gates. A failed wipe puts the device on hold. A failed test sends it to repair. Everything else is ready.
• Finish: no labels print automatically. Technicians can still print any label by hand.

1. 1In the dashboard, open Workflows (under Processing).
2. 2Click New workflow and pick a starting point: Full process (diagnostics, stress test, wipe and grading), Wiping station (wipes every drive on its own from power-on), or Test only (diagnostics, a longer stress test and grading, nothing wiped).
3. 3Give it a Name and, if you like, a Description.
4. 4Choose How it runs (see below).
5. 5Click each step in the list on the left. Switch it on or off with Run …, and set its options.
6. 6Click Create workflow. For an existing one, the button is Save changes.

Stations pick up a saved change within seconds. A device already being processed keeps the workflow it started with.

• The built-in workflows can't be changed. Click Use as a starting point to make your own copy.
• Your own workflows have Edit and Duplicate. Each card shows where it is used.
• A workflow that devices have already been processed under can't be deleted. It is kept as the record of what those devices went through.
• Use as my default makes it the workflow for every device that no batch, station or device-type rule covers.

Manual tests by kind of machine. By default a laptop gets every manual test. An all-in-one skips keyboard and trackpad. A desktop or server gets only ports, because its screen, keyboard and camera belong to the bench, not the unit. A test a machine doesn't get is recorded as "Not on this type of device", never as skipped. Tick a box in the table to change this, for example the display test on desktops that come with a monitor.

How thoroughly drives are erased is not a workflow setting. It follows your organisation's sanitization level, or the batch's. See Data wiping.

At the bottom of the editor, Coming later lists settings stations don't act on yet. They are shown read-only so nobody sets something that does nothing.

• It starts once per power-on, when a technician signs in (or the station signs them in by itself).
• While it runs, the station's own buttons are greyed out. Stop hands the station back to the technician. Run again starts over once it has ended.
• The automatic run leaves out USB sticks and drives locked with a password. A technician can wipe a USB stick by hand on the Wipe screen.
• After the run, Shut down or Restart waits for a one-minute countdown. Anyone at the bench can press Stay on. It never switches off during a test or wipe.
• If you change a station's workflow to automatic while someone is signed in, the station offers Start now instead of starting by itself.

reCore checks these in order. The first match wins. The step bar on the station shows which one matched.

1. 1Open Workflows > Where they apply.
2. 2Click Add rule. Under Devices in, pick A batch, A station or A device type, then the target and the workflow.
3. 3Click Add rule. If two rules cover the same station or device type, the newer one wins.
4. 4To check, use Which workflow will a device get? on the same tab. Pick a batch, station and device type, click Check, and it names the workflow and why.

A device type is worked out from what the machine reports about itself. The Laptop type covers machines that call themselves Laptop, Notebook, Portable or Convertible.

A failed step does not stop the device. A failed test, a failed stress test or a failed wipe is a result like any other. The device can still be finished, and the quality gates decide where it goes.

• Finishing waits for every step. The Finish device button stays disabled until each step the workflow has on is passed, failed or skipped. Hover it to see Still to do: ….
• Quality gates run when the device is finished, on the station, so they work offline. The station checks the gates from the top. The first that matches decides the outcome. A device that matches none gets the Otherwise outcome.
• Checks you can use: A wipe failed, No drive was wiped, A diagnostic test failed, A manual test failed, A manual test was skipped, The stress test failed, Battery health is below, The grade is at or below, A BIOS password is set.
• Outcomes each belong to one of five kinds: Ready, Repair, Parts, Recycle, Hold. Rename them or add your own (like "B2B resale") in the Outcomes tab.
• The outcome shows on the station, on the label and on the device in the dashboard. An admin can change it on the device page with Change outcome, giving a reason.

In an automatic run, failed tests don't stop the run: a faulty device still gets wiped. These do stop it:

• A step that can't start. The station shows the reason.
• Someone stopping the stress test.
• Any drive not wiped, including a drive locked with a password.

When the run stops, the technician takes over at the station and carries on by hand.