Up Next: What to expect in the N-central 2026.3 Release

Last updated:	11-May-2026
Expected release date:	Between first to last week of June

This is an early preview of the release notes; the features and details may change as we move closer to the final release.

Expect further updates in upcoming release notes. The final release notes, including the build number and upgrade details, will be shared as part of the actual release notes that will be published before the end of June.

We’re introducing exciting new features, enhancements, and critical fixes to improve usability, security, and performance. Here’s what’s in the 2026.3 release:

What's New in 2026.3

Modernized Filter & Rule Device Preview Experience

We’ve introduced a major modernization and performance optimization for Filter Preview and Rule Show Devices functionality. This enhancement replaces the legacy preview execution model with a faster, scalable, in-memory evaluation framework while introducing a modernized shared preview grid experience across Filters and Rules.

This approach avoids the legacy preview model, which built full device lists server-side and sent them to the browser. By evaluating matches in memory and returning a limited result set, the preview delivers faster verification of expected devices while reducing server load.

Key behaviors include:

Maximum of 50 preview rows returned
No pagination
Full match count metadata included in the response

The UI now displays messaging such as: This provides visibility into total matches without requiring additional server roundtrips: “Showing first 50 of 347 matching devices”.

The preview grid now supports backend-powered text filtering across key device attributes, including:

Customer
Site
Device Name
Network Address
Device Class

This allows administrators to quickly narrow results without loading full device datasets into the browser.

Scalable Agent Upgrade Queue & Asynchronous Asset Discovery Processing

N-central 2026.3 introduces major improvements to the Agent Upgrade experience, making large-scale upgrades faster, more reliable, and less disruptive for administrators managing thousands of devices.

Historically, N-central intentionally limited how many agents could upgrade at the same time to protect server stability during post-upgrade processing. While this helped avoid system overload, it also created unnecessary delays for customers trying to deploy important updates quickly across large environments.

What’s improved

N-central can now support significantly higher upgrade concurrency, allowing many more agents and probes to upgrade simultaneously without negatively impacting platform performance.

The primary source of upgrade-related load was not the upgrade itself, but the large burst of asset discovery data submitted by agents after restarting. To address this, N-central now processes post-upgrade asset data asynchronously using a modern queuing architecture powered by NATS JetStream. These changes are especially beneficial for larger customers and enterprise-scale environments managing tens of thousands of devices.

Additional monitoring and queue health visibility improvements help administrators and support teams better understand upgrade processing activity and platform health during large rollout operations.

Windows Agent Trust, Compatibility & Delivery Improvements

We’ve delivered a series of foundational enhancements to the N-central Windows Agent to improve trust, compatibility with security tools, and overall reliability across deployments.

These updates focus on ensuring agent binaries are securely signed, consistently trusted by antivirus and firewall solutions, and built through a more resilient and scalable delivery pipeline.

What’s new

Digitally Signed Agent Binaries

All Windows Agent artifacts are now digitally signed, allowing customers and security tools to verify authenticity, reduce “unknown publisher” warnings, and protect against tampering.
Improved Antivirus & Firewall Compatibility

We’ve worked to ensure N-central Agent binaries are recognized and allowlisted by major AV and firewall vendors, reducing installation and runtime disruptions in security-hardened environments.

N-able Login User Deletion Event Support

This enhancement ensures that when a user is deleted in N-able Login, connected products such as N-central receive and processing the deletion event consistently.

This enhancement helps improve:

Consistent user deprovisioning across products.
Reduced risk of orphaned or active accounts after SSO deletion.
Centralized identity lifecycle management.
Better auditability and access governance.

N-central now supports this event flow by:

Receiving the MSP SSO user deletion event.
Converting the affected SSO user back to a local N-central user.
Automatically lock the local account to prevent access.
If a deleted MSP SSO user attempts to authenticate N-central after deletion, the account will remain locked and inaccessible until manually addressed by an administrator.

DMS Framework Cache, Locking & Scalability Improvements

Much of the N-central service layer depends heavily on the DMS ORM caching framework particularly for core entities such as devices, appliance tasks, and business process data improvements in this area can positively impact performance across the entire platform.

As customer environments continue growing toward

40,000+ devices
100,000+ managed endpoints
High-frequency automation workflows
Large-scale business process execution

existing cache structures and locking mechanisms can become performance bottlenecks.

We are introducing architectural optimization work focused on improving cache efficiency, concurrency handling, and lock contention reduction within the DMS Framework.

This is a back end improvement so no direct user interface changes are included as part of the above change in N-central 2026.3.

Modernized Custom PSA APIs with JWT Authentication

Custom PSA integration AP previously relied on legacy REST endpoints secured through static username and password authentication. These REST endpoints are now brought into the modern API Service framework with JWT-based authentication. This initiative improves security, consistency, and developer experience while maintaining functional parity with existing Custom PSA integrations.

There is no impact to the functionality of the Custom PSA integration APIs to support critical ticket lifecycle operations, including:

Create Ticket
Update Ticket
Get Ticket
Close Ticket
Reopen Ticket

Halo PSA Integration Reliability & Workflow Improvements

This release hardens the native N-central HaloPSA integration focusing on ticketing workflows, asset export reliability, and operational resilience. Customers will see more predictable ticket reopen behavior, clearer export diagnostics, safer handling of Halo-side mandatory field policies, and an easier migration path from custom integrations via bulk asset sync.

This includes the following changes:

Asset Sync for Faster Migration:

New Sync Assets functionality allows customers to bulk match existing Halo PSA assets to N-central devices using serial number matching.
Automatically links existing Halo assets to N-central devices, simplifying migration from custom integrations to the native Halo PSA integration.

Improved Export Reliability & Troubleshooting:

Export errors are now cleared automatically after a successful retry, reducing confusion during troubleshooting.
More detailed API error information is surfaced directly in the export UI to help customers identify issues faster.
If a previously exported asset was deleted in Halo, N-central can now properly detect the condition and recreate the asset during re-export.
Last logged-in user information can now be synchronized to Halo asset records for improved technician visibility.
Improved handling of Halo mandatory field policies helps reduce export and ticket creation failures.

More Predictable Ticketing Workflows:

Ticket reopen behavior is now more consistent with standard Halo PSA workflows.
Ticket recipient configuration settings such as default assignee and ticket status are now more consistently respected.
“Do Not Reopen” preferences are now properly enforced for repeat failures.
Improved handling of multi-device notification scenarios helps ensure ticket updates and return-to-normal events behave more reliably.

Operational & Integration Improvements:

Better reconciliation of orphaned tickets and assets between N-central and Halo PSA.
Improved handling of assets previously created through older custom PSA integrations.
Continued alignment with Halo PSA best practices by avoiding direct workflow bypass behavior.

Known Limitations:

Some devices do not report a serial number. In Halo environments where serial numbers are mandatory, asset export may fail for those devices. This is expected and outside of N‑central’s control.
Upgrade Recommendations:
- After upgrading, customers are encouraged to run the new Sync Assets function before enabling ticket automations or performing large-scale exports.
- Review Halo recipient configuration settings such as ticket status, assignee behavior, and reopen preferences to ensure they align with internal workflows.
- Validate any mandatory field policies configured within Halo PSA to ensure successful ticket and asset synchronization.
N‑central does not support Halo workflows for ticket status updates, in Halo environments where workflows are required to control status changes, ticket updates initiated by N‑central may fail or be rejected.

To use workflows with N‑central, Halo must be configured to allow ticket updates using one of the following approaches:
- Allow status updates outside workflows
  - In Halo, enable status changes without a workflow action:
    - Configuration > Tickets > General Settings
  - Set "Changing of status outside of an action" to Always allowed.
- Use a dedicated ticket type for N‑central

Full End of Life: Help Desk Manager (HDM) and NetPath

Effective with N-central 2026.3, both Help Desk Manager (HDM) and NetPath have reached full End of Life and are permanently disabled for all customers, including those with existing usage or licenses. This applies to both On-Premises and Hosted (NCOD) deployments.

In N-central 2026.2, a soft deprecation was introduced that hid these features from customers who were not already using or licensed for them. With 2026.3, this deprecation is now complete as these features are no longer accessible to any user.

Help Desk Manager (HDM)

Help Desk Manager was a legacy on-premises ticketing system integrated into N-central, designed to allow MSPs to create, assign, and track service tickets directly within the platform. As the industry has shifted toward dedicated PSA and ITSM tools, HDM was underutilized and no longer aligned with N-central core RMM focus.

What has changed:

PSA Integration: HDM has been removed as an option from the PSA Integrations section for all customers.
UI: All Help Desk Manager navigation menus, icons, and configuration options have been removed from the N-central UI.
Backend: HDM-related services, processes, and integrations have been fully disabled.
Billing: HDM billing ceased in February 2026. No further charges will be incurred.

Recommended action: Customers previously using HDM should transition to a dedicated PSA or ITSM solution that integrates with N-central through available APIs and connectors.

NetPath

NetPath, originally by SolarWinds, was an on-premises network monitoring add-on that provided performance metrics and a visual graph of the traversal route of a URL over the web. As part of N-able's decision to retire from low-use components that no longer align with long-term product objectives, NetPath has been fully decommissioned.

Recommended action: There is no direct migration path for an equivalent solution within N-able. Customers who relied on NetPath for network path analysis should evaluate third-party network monitoring tools.

Bug Fixes

A range of high-impact bugs have been resolved in this release. Be sure to review the full list included below for more details.

Category	Updated Summary	Issue Key
Core Platform
Core	Summary: Improved server performance during security token verification.	NCCF-2078544
	Issue: Under heavy load, token verification could reduce server responsiveness.
	Fix: Updated verification handling to prevent performance degradation.
Core	Summary: Corrected invalid status reporting for Lightweight services.	NCCF-2067007
	Issue: Lightweight services could be flagged as invalid despite operating normally.
	Fix: Updated service validation to ensure status is reported correctly.
Core	Summary: Improved reliability of Report Manager exports.	NCCF-2066396
	Issue: Exports could time out before completing in larger environments.
	Fix: Updated export processing to prevent timeouts on large servers.
Core	Summary: Prevented probe installation from affecting other appliances on shared hardware.	NCCF-2047154
	Issue: Installing or reinstalling a probe could unintentionally remove authentication tokens used by other appliances.
	Fix: Updated probe installation logic to preserve existing appliance tokens.
Core	Summary: Improved handling when devices exit maintenance windows.	NCCF-2028662
	Issue: Devices leaving a maintenance window while disconnected could trigger errors.
	Fix: Updated processing to handle disconnected devices correctly when maintenance ends.
Core	Summary: Improved stability during concurrent self-healing scans.	NCCF-2027450
	Issue: Running multiple self-healing scans at the same time could cause submit queue errors.
	Fix: Resolved a database issue to prevent errors when scans overlap.
Core	Summary: Improved service status freshness during heavy processing.	NCCF-1989795
	Issue: Submit queue backlogs could delay updates and make services appear stale.
	Fix: Improved queue processing so service updates are applied reliably.
Core	Summary: Corrected administrator credential handling during server reactivation.	NCCF-1983444
	Issue: Server reactivation could update the wrong administrator account.
	Fix: Updated account selection logic to ensure the correct administrator account is updated.
Core	Summary: Improved reliability of customer creation through the API under load.	NCCF-1908560
	Issue: Creating multiple customers at the same time via API could fail under heavy usage.
	Fix: Updated API handling to better support concurrent customer creation.
Core	Summary: Prevented customer custom properties from saving incorrect values.	NCCF-1788756
	Issue: Values from a previously viewed customer could be saved to a different customer.
	Fix: Updated context handling to ensure values are saved to the correct customer.
Core	Summary: Improved export reliability for service templates with large values.	NCCF-1786040
	Issue: Templates with very large parameter values could fail to export.
	Fix: Updated export processing to support large parameter values.
Core	Summary: Corrected System Settings permission visibility.	NCCF-1767348
	Issue: The System Settings permission could be hidden when it should be available.
	Fix: Updated role handling so the permission remains visible as expected.
Core	Summary: Improved stability when opening Agent Settings.	NCCF-1048144
	Issue: The Agent Settings page could fail to load in some scenarios.
	Fix: Updated handling to ensure Agent Settings loads reliably.
Core	Summary: Reduced unnecessary internal processing during background cleanup.	NCCF-1759873
	Issue: Repeated cleanup activity could increase processing overhead and slow the server.
	Fix: Reduced redundant cleanup work to lower internal processing.
Core	Summary: Improved resilience of internal message handling.	NCCF-1759635
	Issue: Oversized internal messages could disrupt server communications.
	Fix: Added safeguards to prevent oversized messages from impacting operations.
Core	Summary: Ensured updated HP Physical Drive status mappings apply after upgrades.	NCCF-1724321
	Issue: Updated HP Physical Drive status mappings were not applied during upgrades.
	Fix: Updated service mapping metadata so changes apply correctly after upgrade.
Agents & Device Management
Agent	Summary: Improved handling of passwords in logs during probe-based remediation.	NCCF-2013728
	Issue: In some cases, passwords could be included in device history or Linux agent logs after remediation tasks were run through a probe.
	Fix: Updated logging behaviour so passwords are properly hidden in device history and Linux agent logs.
Agent	Summary: Improved syslog component updates during probe upgrades.	NCCF-1873790
	Issue: Syslog monitoring components were not updated during some probe upgrades.
	Fix: Updated the probe upgrade process to ensure syslog components are updated.
Agent	Summary: Added support for discovering Aruba network devices through SNMP.	NCCF-1815538
	Issue: Aruba network devices could not be discovered through SNMP.
	Fix: Added SNMP discovery support for Aruba devices.
Agent	Summary: Improved Remote Control session stability after tunnel switching.	NCCF-1767153
	Issue: Remote Control sessions could disconnect after switching to an HTTPS tunnel.
	Fix: Updated session handling to maintain connectivity after tunnel changes.
Agent	Summary: Improved automation policy execution on devices with older PowerShell configurations.	NCCF-1504077
	Issue: Automation policies could fail on devices with older PowerShell configurations.
	Fix: Updated execution handling to improve compatibility with older PowerShell environments.
UI & User Experience
Core	Summary: Resolved an error when adding maintenance windows using a direct URL.	NCCF-1907401
	Issue: Adding a maintenance window from a bookmarked or direct link could result in an error.
	Fix: Corrected request handling so maintenance windows can be added from direct links.
Core	Summary: Corrected sorting behaviour for the Make column in the All-Devices view.	NCCF-1896701
	Issue: Sorting by manufacturer did not order devices correctly.
	Fix: Updated sorting logic to order devices by manufacturer name.
Core	Summary: Resolved an error when bulk editing devices from the All-Devices view.	NCCF-1830274
	Issue: Bulk edit actions could fail and display an error.
	Fix: Updated bulk edit handling to prevent errors.
Core	Summary: Corrected UI label rendering that affected reports and bulk edit workflows.	NCCF-1813407
	Issue: Some UI labels displayed incorrectly, impacting reporting and bulk edit.
	Fix: Updated UI rendering logic to display labels correctly.
Core	Summary: Improved stability of the notification profile page.	NCCF-1812787
	Issue: Certain special characters in profile names could cause the page to crash.
	Fix: Updated input handling to safely process special characters.
Notifications & Alerting
Core	Summary: Corrected formatting for specific notification variables.	NCCF-1921480
	Issue: Some notification fields displayed without the intended spacing.
	Fix: Updated variable formatting so notification content displays correctly.
Authentication & SSO
Core	Summary: Improved server stability during SSO token refresh.	NCCF-1927906
	Issue: Token refresh activity could stall and delay other server operations.
	Fix: Updated refresh handling to prevent blocking behaviour.
Core	Summary: Improved reliability of SSO login.	NCCF-1283474
	Issue: Users could experience intermittent SSO login failures.
	Fix: Updated authentication handling to ensure consistent login behaviour.
Core	Summary: Resolved a Settings page error for GSuite SSO users.	NCCF-1675717
	Issue: GSuite SSO users could encounter an error when accessing the device Settings page.
	Fix: Updated access handling to allow Settings page access.
PSA & Integrations
PSA	Summary: Improved reliability of PSA ticket creation.	NCCF-1831625
	Issue: A timing issue could prevent tickets being created when notifications triggered.
	Fix: Updated ticket creation handling to ensure notifications generate tickets reliably.
Custom PSA	Summary: Improved reliability of Custom PSA ticket creation.	NCCF-1805266
	Issue: Intermittent connectivity issues could cause Custom PSA ticket creation to fail.
	Fix: Updated connection handling to improve ticket submission reliability.
Custom PSA	Summary: Improved server stability during Custom PSA operations.	NCCF-1439680
	Issue: Custom PSA activity could consume excessive server resources and impact stability.
	Fix: Optimised processing to reduce resource usage during Custom PSA operations.
HaloPSA	Summary: Resolved HaloPSA ticket creation failures caused by mandatory field validation.	NCCF-1718037
	Issue: Ticket creation could fail when mandatory field settings were enabled in HaloPSA.
	Fix: Updated the integration so ticket creation succeeds when mandatory fields are configured.
Autotask PSA	Summary: Prevented duplicate device entries when moving devices between customers.	NCCF-1681853
	Issue: Moving devices between customers could create duplicate records in Autotask PSA.
	Fix: Updated export handling to prevent duplicate device records.
Patch
Patch	Summary: Removed old, non-applicable patches from Analytics views.	NCCF-1874139
	Issue: Some old patches could remain visible in Analytics dashboards after they were no longer relevant.
	Fix: Updated Analytics processing to remove obsolete patch entries.
Analytics
Analytics	Summary: Improved scheduling behaviour for Analytics resynchronisation.	NCCF-1785854
	Issue: Analytics resynchronisation could delay other scheduled tasks such as report generation.
	Fix: Updated scheduling logic to reduce the impact of resync tasks on other operations.
API
API	Summary: Corrected pagination links returned by the active-issues API.	NCCF-1522953
	Issue: Pagination links were missing required parameters, preventing navigation through results.
	Fix: Updated API responses to include complete pagination parameters.
Backups
Core	Summary: Resolved active exports not being detected during backup operations.	NCCF-1702570
	Issue: Backup operations could proceed while an export was already running.
	Fix: Updated backup processing to detect active exports before starting a backup.
Core	Summary: Restored secure FTP backup transfer support after upgrades.	NCCF-1300319
	Issue: SSL/TLS FTP backup transfers could stop working after upgrading the N-central server.
	Fix: Updated backup transfer handling so secure FTP transfers work as expected after upgrade.
Reporting
Core	Summary: Improved stability of the Detailed Status Report in large environments.	NCCF-1484854
	Issue: Loading large amounts of report data could cause slow performance or browser instability.
	Fix: Updated report data handling to improve performance and stability.
Performance & Stability
Core	Summary: Improved stability of warranty update processing.	NCCF-1842761
	Issue: Warranty updates could overwhelm the server and impact stability.
	Fix: Added processing limits to prevent resource exhaustion during warranty updates.
Core	Summary: Improved performance when downloading automation policy files.	NCCF-1805490
	Issue: Downloads could trigger short-term CPU and disk usage spikes on the server.
	Fix: Updated download handling to reduce resource usage spikes.
Core	Summary: Improved performance when loading Active Issues on large servers.	NCCF-1001741
	Issue: Loading the Active Issues page could be slow in large environments.
	Fix: Updated validation and processing logic to improve responsiveness.

How to Prepare for 2026.3 in Advance

If you would like to participate in the public preview to test the new 2026.3 version in a non-production environment before rolling it out fully, the Public Preview of 2026.3 will be available early June.

Stay Tuned

Be on the lookout for the official N-central – 2026.3 release in June 2026. We look forward to delivering these exciting updates - stay tuned for the full release package!