Using Customer-based Custom Properties in N‑central

What’s this Paul, are you banging on about Custom Properties in N‑central again? Yes I am.

For those of you familiar with my work, you’ll know I’m a big fan of Custom Properties and how they can help expand what you can do in N‑central. But I’ve been thinking about this recently and I found that when I talk about Custom Properties I tend to just focus on what you can do with device-based Custom Properties, which leaves customer-based Custom Properties out in the cold. 

So, in this blog I thought I’d focus on what customer-based Custom Properties (also often referred to as organisational Custom Properties) can do, because just like baby, no one should leave customer Custom Properties in the corner.

Before we get into some use cases for customer-based Custom Properties—and apologies for stating the obvious—let’s explain the differences between “customer” and “device” -based Custom Properties. 

• Customer-based Custom Properties: These properties are associated with customer accounts or sites within N‑central. They apply to all devices within that customer or site.
• Device-based Custom Properties: These properties are associated with device classes or operating systems within your N‑central environment, which allows for more granularity.

While device-based Custom Properties do allow for more granularity in the custom property world, you don’t always need that, especially if the value is going to be the same across the board. So, let’s look at a few scenarios where customer-based Custom Properties can add real value to your N‑central instance.

Software Deployment

Most RMM users will at one point or another have used their RMM solution to install a software application. This can be a straightforward enough process when it comes to deploying free applications, but things can get a bit trickier when there is a license key or token involved in these installations, particularly if you are—and you should be—security conscious and not wanting to hard code a license key or token into a script to deploy these types of applications. 

Not to fear though, because using a password type customer-based Custom Property was made for this scenario:

Using Automation Manager, build your policy to deploy the software application and use a password type input parameter to feed in the license key or site token to your automation policy. Then in N‑central create a password type customer-based Custom Property value for that software package. You will need to assign a value.

Note: Unless you have the same license key or token for all your customers you can enter anything here as you’ll update this value with the unique license key or token for each of your customers that require this application.

Once you have setup the customer-based Custom Property, if you’re using a unique passcode you will need to edit the value for each customer. To do this, from the Service Organization Level scroll down to Administrators and click on Customers. Select the name of the customer you want to update, then click on Custom Properties, here you will see a list of all customer-based Custom Properties assigned to that customer. Click on the pencil in the value field of the property you wish to update and add your license key or token. Repeat the process for all customers that require that application. 

Now when it comes to deploying the application, when you select your automation policy you will be able to link the password input parameter to the customer-based Custom Property you’ve created for that application. N‑central, knowing what customer a device is located in, will call the relevant license key or token to ensure the application is installed correctly.

Related Product

N‑central

Manage large networks or scale IT operations with RMM made for growing service providers.

En savoir plus

Tiered Service Level Offerings

If your business provides different tiers of service and support to your clients, customer-based Custom Properties can streamline the process of managing these levels. By utilizing service templates, scheduled task profiles, and rules, you can define distinct service offerings (such as gold, silver, and bronze) and specify the monitoring, automation, self-healing, and features for each tier.  To categorize your clients accordingly, create a customer-based Custom Property with a Dropdown Type. This will allow you to tag each client into the appropriate service level effortlessly. You can even set a default service offering and raise or lower it by changing the value as needed.

Combining the use of Customer and Device Properties

Customer-based Custom Properties are great when you have a one-size-fits-all approach for a customer, but what happens when you have outlying devices that require an exception? Do you have to revert back to using device-based Custom Properties in that case? The answer is, no you don’t. You can use customer-based Custom Properties in combination with device-based Custom Properties so that you can have different values for selected devices.

A common example here would be setting the day of the week that patch installations take place.  You might create a ‘Patch Day’ customer-based Custom Property with a value of ‘Friday’ and a ‘Patch Day Override’ device-based Custom Property with a value of ‘Use Customer Level by Default’. You can build a default filter that targets the ‘Patch Day’ customer-based Custom Property, but if you wish to override the default day, you can create another filter targeting the Patch Day Override device-based Custom Property. Changing the property value at the device level will then allow you to move that device out of the default configuration.

These are just a few examples of how you can leverage customer-based Custom Properties to enhance how you use N‑central to manage and maintain your customers. If you haven’t been using customer-based Custom Properties up to this point, hopefully this blog will inspire you to do so. If you have questions join me on the N-Central office hours or register for our N‑central Custom Properties Boot Camp, check the schedule at www.n-able.com/events. 

Paul Kelly is the Head Nerd at N‑able. You can follow him on Twitter at @HeadNerdPaul, LinkedIn and Reddit at u/Paul _Kelly. Alternatively you can email me direct.