External Data Feed (EDF) monitoring services

An External Data Feed (EDF) service is the best option for monitoring a device that does not support an N-able N-central agent installation and WMI or SNMP. EDF is a small Java Agent that can be used to return the output of a script or application to N-central. N-central then displays the output of the script as if it was a conventional service.

Each piece of data that you intend to have the Windows Agent or Windows Probe report back to N-able N-central is called a metric.

The EDF SDK (which contains both the EDF agent and sample EDF code) can be downloaded from the N-able MSP Resource Center:

https://me.n-able.com/s/article/EDF-SDK-Status

To add a metric to an EDF custom service:

  1. In the Data and Thresholds tab, click Add Metric.

  2. In the Configure Metric dialog box, type the Metric name.

  3. From the Data Type drop-down menu, select the appropriate value for the data that is being reported back by the EDF Agent.

  4. Select the Unit if the metric being measured should scale automatically based on the data being collected.

    It is critical that you select the appropriate type of data for a metric. If an inappropriate metric is selected, N-able N-central will not accept the data being reported by the EDF Agent and the service will transition to a Stale state.

  5. Click Save.

Read more about EDF and EDF troubleshooting: External Data Feed monitoring (EDF).