Announcing the GA of N-central 2023.5

N-central 2023.5.0.12

2023.5 Release Notes (PDF)

What’s New in N-central 2023.5

Adjusted Default Branding
N-central 2023.5 has slightly adjusted the default branding colors for System, SO, Customer and Site levels to better meet accessibility standards.

Device Management for Apple
N-central 2023.5 allows a preview of additional functionality within Device Management for Apple. In this release, we’re looking for partners wanting to preview our Mac OS Update and Zero Touch Enrollment functionalities. If you’re interested, please email us at ncpreview@n-able.com.

Automation Manager 2.90
Automation Manager 2.90 is included with N-central 2023.5. In this version, we’ve updated the Office 365 objects to accomodate the changes Microsoft made to the Basic Authentication method. This did result in deprecating the Office 365 Get User Logon Statistics object , as Microsoft had deprecated the cmdlet for it some time ago.

Top Bug Fixes
N-central 2023.5 has several fixes for commonly encountered bugs, including the following, but please refer to the full-fixed issues list for further details:

NCCF-93206 OpenId Connect sign-in not working when linking a user with SSO provider for DUO credentials
NCCF-82944 Remote Control Status is Yellow instead of Grey on devices with no TC enabled
NCCF-87940 Incorrect Invalid User Check for LDAP Accounts Imported to Azure SSO
NCCF-65187 Locking SSO User Does Not Prevent User Log ins
NCCF-30940 Add Custom Device and Custom Organization Properties to Export
AM-3168 Veeam B&R v12 after upgrade Satelite processes hangs backup server by monitoring checks
AM-3288 Office 365 object updates to accommodate changes to Basic Authentication

Upgrade paths and notes

Upgrade versions

To upgrade to N-able N-central 2023.5, your N-able N-central server must be running one of the following versions:

View versions:

N-able N-central 2022.7.1.44
N-able N-central 2023.4.0.32

Notes the following when upgrading N-able N-central.

Tasks may expire if the agent on an associated device is being upgraded when the task is scheduled to be completed. Agent upgrades are normally short in duration but may be delayed if a re-start of the device is pending.

Fixed Issues in N-able N-central

Release 2023.5

2023.5 GA

Category	Description	Item
Automation Manager	Automation Manager O365 List All User Information Not Working	AM-3035
Automation Manager	SentinelOne EDR flagged N-Able agent DLL	AM-3126
Automation Manager	Veeam B&R v12 after upgrade Satelite processes hangs backup server by monitoring checks	AM-3168
Automation Manager	Automation Manager application unstable	AM-3268
Automation Manager	Office 365 object updates to accommodate changes to Basic Authentication	AM-3288
Automation Manager	Automation Manager Designer error – Copy File Issue	AM-3299
Ecosystem Framework	Fixed an issue with data cleanup after integration was disabled	INT-1214
Ecosystem Framework	Added sort to Intune Profile Description	INTUNE-316
Ecosystem Framework	Intune Integration – App Registration Token not correct	INTUNE-471
Ecosystem Framework	Customer deletion is not happening on migration, as ecosystem tries to delete “REAL” ecosystem integrations from spun up copy	KUIP-4786
Ecosystem Framework	N-Central Licensing – Unable to add DNSF devices over commitment level	KUIP-5000
Core	[Usability] Allow Users to Edit A Cloned Rule Before Saving It	NCCF-13607
Core	Serial Number Incorrect on some Lenovo Laptops	NCCF-12410
Core	WMI service returns “103 Access denied when process matrix 0”	NCCF-15636
Core	Update level selector colours due to accessibility issues	NCCF-16242
Core	WMI service monitoring not starting after reboot	NCCF-16271
Core	HTTP service template saving incorrect changes	NCCF-17315
Core	TakeControl Not Installing on Some Devices	NCCF-22469
Core	Filters & Access Groups showing for Users Without Permission	NCCF-29588
Core	Add Custom Device and Custom Organization Properties to Export	NCCF-30940
Core	N-central Agent Crashing After Agent Upgrade	NCCF-36636
Core	Analytics Dashboard – Reset Data functionality is giving 404 error	NCCF-54861
Core	Locking SSO User Does Not Prevent User Log ins	NCCF-65187
Core	Analytics Dashboard taking long to open for newly created N-central server.	NCCF-68487
Core	Provide UI for users to select preferred OS Update mode	NCCF-68738
Core	vmware services show false alarm	NCCF-76405
Core	Remove Arcserve downloads from N-central	NCCF-78784
Core	NAUpdater log does not roll over	NCCF-79633
Core	Remote Control Status is Yellow instead of Grey on devices with no TC enabled	NCCF-82944
Core	Cannot save Custom (OpenID Connect) Configurations	NCCF-83942
Core	Malformed Data being submitted By MMS related to Monitoring Services: Authentication failed for user ‘admin’.	NCCF-85382
Core	When multiple endpoints are configured the Ubuntu 16/18 agent may get caught in a SOAP error induced wait cycle	NCCF-87417
Core	System Error on “Backup Dashboard”	NCCF-87576
Core	Incorrect Invalid User Check for LDAP Accounts Imported to Azure SSO	NCCF-87940
Core	Probe Base Ubuntu 20.04 Agent Install And Uninstall – Agent service not shown in the UI with normal status	NCCF-88475
Core	Following a service restart, the Ubuntu 22 agent began reporting the wrong URL when making LoggedInUser submissions	NCCF-89304
Core	OpenId Connect sign-in not working when linking a user with SSO provider for DUO credentials	NCCF-93206
Core	System Error when Editing Filters	NCCF-109008
Core	Ignore Case Sensitivity when Capturing Username	NCCF-111726
Core	DFM files are deleted causing missed records upon Data Export	NCCF-106807
Patch Management	[NC server] Stop the UI on Auto Patch Approvals screen reporting errors during drag and drop	PMCM-4609

Release 2023.4

2023.4 GA

Category	Description	Item
Automation Manager	Create new object Search Windows Events	AM-2926
Automation Manager	Could not load file or assembly Newtonsoft.Json	AM-3057
Automation Manager	AM Engine upgrade: add verification for the number of files in Engine folder	AM-3064
Automation Manager	Get OS Architecture appears as failed when run from designer as standard user	AM-3074
Automation Manager	AM crashes when deleting Start Date/End Date from Get Windows Event	AM-3086
Automation Manager	Automation Manager: Is Application Installed Object wildcard not working as expected.	AM-3093
Automation Manager	AutomationManager.ScriptRunner process not killed after service timeout in N-central	AM-3095
Automation Manager	Consider levels 0 and 4 to Event Type/Level: Information on Get Windows Events object	AM-3098
Automation Manager	Date fields marked as mandatory despite of input parameter on Get Windows Event	AM-3106
Automation Manager	Result code collision	AM-3113
Automation Manager	Get Windows Events object not including results with eventdate = TimeCreated	AM-3119
Automation Manager	Fix the template related to Date input parameter	AM-3131
Automation Manager	Validate TLS Certificates	AM-3137
Core	Prodadmin/Support Admin cannot edit filters	NCCF-15447
Core	Missing slash from tool tip	NCCF-16494
Core	Country field in Customer settings not saved when cleared	NCCF-16816
Core	Re-use of the remotecontroltaskid, the remotecontroltaskauditlog can record two different devices	NCCF-16920
Core	Filter by Column on the Custom Services Index Page	NCCF-17333
Core	Domain User Management – Require Password Change Greyed out	NCCF-22447
Core	ConnectWise customFields Not handled Correctly	NCCF-23387
Core	Self-Healing didn’t trigger – Windows Service – MagTAC.Service	NCCF-25719
Core	Service Template Self Healing Notifications System level PSA ticketing recipients not available as recipients	NCCF-28940
Core	SNMP Profile Names with Special Characters in Discovery Jobs Causes System Errors	NCCF-29102
Core	Mis-direct caused by additions of ‘/login’ and ‘static_index.http’	NCCF-29610
Core	DeviceModify Not Checking All Products on Device Save	NCCF-40194
Core	OAuth2 Grant Type Missing for Custom IDP configuration	NCCF-41628
Core	Using Select All Under Filters and Then Reducing Selection Keeps Items Selected	NCCF-42262
Core	DMA Command – Command History	NCCF-53891
Core	Proper path-separators need to be used in upgrademodule.dll when downloading files from server	NCCF-59749
Core	Update N-central to Add Certificate Verification	NCCF-60210
Core	In Administration Utilities – Active Sessions: Clicking in Refresh button should do the same thing as clicking in Administration Utilities – Active Sessions.	NCCF-60718
Core	Scheduled Task Profiles Not Refreshing Customer Org Properties	NCCF-67983
Core	Clean Up ConfigType Errors in Agent Logs	NCCF-68548
Core	Provide more detail about SSL SOAP ERROR in install_nagent.log for Linux agent	NCCF-70416
Core	Add Index to ‘notificationtrigger’ Table for Performance	NCCF-71649
Core	Reset Password button fails in Domain User Management UI View	NCCF-73409
Core	Check for active paths before renewing SQS credentials	NCCF-73999
Core	Clicking on Device in Device list causing System error	NCCF-74071
Core	Scheduled Task Scripting During Agent Offline: Status not Completed	NCCF-74550
Core	Take Control UI changes not implemented properly	NCCF-78780
Core	Disabling AMP-based monitoring service doesn’t stop execution of AM policies	NCCF-90163
Ecosystem Framework	Left Hand Nav bar slow or will not load when 443 traffic blocked	KUIP-3750
Patch Management	[NC Agent] Installation of Enablement Package – Handle approvals of both standard FU and EP	PMCM-2522
Patch Management	[NC Agent] agents not reading recent patches as installed when changing approval	PMCM-3234

Known Limitations

These items for the current version of the N-able N-central software is composed of material issues significantly impacting performance whose cause has been replicated by N-able and where a fix has not yet been released. The list is not exclusive and does not contain items that are under investigation. Any known limitations set forth herein may not impact every customer environment. The N-able N-central software is being provided as it operates today. Any potential modifications, including a specific bug fix or any potential delivery of the same, are not considered part of the current N-able N-central software and are not guaranteed.

Agents and Probes

Description	Bug
New Windows Agent installations must have a valid FQDN as the first entry in the server address list in order to install successfully. Upgrades and existing agent communication should continue to work as expected.	NCCF-79152
Communication issues may be encountered for N-able N-central Probes installed on Windows servers that have multiple NICs. For more information, refer to “KBA20020: Configuring A Server With Multiple NICs” in the online Help.	67778

Automation Manager

Description	Bug
Running Automation Manager Policies created using Automation Manager 1.6 or earlier may result in Failed to create an EndDate … errors if the Policies are run on a computer using a different date format. This issue does not affect Policies created using Automation Manager 1.7 or later.	65712

Custom Services

Description	Bug
Custom services may appear as misconfigured when the system locale of the device is not set to English. For example, in Portuguese the default decimal in c#/.net is not a period, “.”, it is a comma, “,”. If you are having this issue, please contact N-able Technical Support.	65288

Core Functionality

Description	Bug
In certain situations, some logs may not roll over properly where the N-central UI port is set to something other than port 443. This could consume N-central disk space more rapidly than expected. If you are using a customized UI port, please contact Support for a finger fix.	NCCF-81833
Installing N-able N-central on Servers that have an Nvidia Video Card Due to a bug in CentOS 7 with Nvidia’s “Nouveau” driver, installing N-able N-central on servers that have an Nvidia video card may result in the N-able N-central console showing a blank screen, or displaying an Anaconda Installer screen with an error message about the video card driver.	NCCF-11842
HDM doesn’t not work with the “Last 5 Tickets” widget.	NCCF-10855
Warranty information might be inaccurate when determining the warranty expiry dates of devices that are not located in the USA.	NCCF-3649

Dashboards

Description	Bug
Modifying a Dashboard that is associated with a large number of services may cause performance issues when using the Firefox browser.	70326

PSA Integration

Description	Bug
In some instances, tickets closed in PSAs are not being cleared in N-able N-central. This is likely because the ticketing recipient profile in N-able N-central has Do not change the Ticket Status selected (in order to manually configure tickets). Then, when the ticket is removed in the PSA, N-able N-central will not be able to update/resolve the ticket’s status and new tickets cannot be created for the same issue. Until a solution is available through the UI for this situation, the work around is to set a Return to Normal status and set a non-used status in the ‘updatable statuses’ section or set the same status as the return to normal one. This will cause N-able N-central to add a note to the ticket on return to normal but will not alter the ticket’s status. This will allow the stale ticket check to remove the ticket from the system.	65620

Description

Bug

In some instances, tickets closed in PSAs are not being cleared in N-able N-central. This is likely because the ticketing recipient profile in N-able N-central has Do not change the Ticket Status selected (in order to manually configure tickets). Then, when the ticket is removed in the PSA, N-able N-central will not be able to update/resolve the ticket’s status and new tickets
cannot be created for the same issue. Until a solution is available through the UI for this situation, the work around is to set a Return to Normal status and set a non-used status in the ‘updatable statuses’ section or set the same status as the return to normal one. This will cause N-able N-central to add a note to the ticket on return to normal but will not alter the ticket’s
status. This will allow the stale ticket check to remove the ticket from the system.

65620

Description	Bug
The Remote Control icon may show yellow for devices where Take Control is not the default Remote Control method, or Take Control is not installed.	NCCF-82944
After re-naming, the Names of files or Registry entries may not be displayed properly in the File System window and the Registry window of the Tools tab when using Internet Explorer.	68149

User Access Management

Description	Bug
Login window reappears when new tab is loaded. When already logged into N-central and a user opens a new tab and browses to N-central from this new tab, the login screen reappears yet the user is already logged in. The left hand navigation is functional.	NCCF-29648

Available Ciphers for Non Agent/Probe Communication with N-central

View ciphers

TLSv1.3:

TLS_AKE_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256

TLS_AKE_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

TLS 1.2:

TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256

TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256

End of support

The following are being deprecated in a future release of N-able N-central:


Linux Agent Support	Due to declining usage in the field, the N-able N-central Linux agents will stop supporting CentOS 6, Ubuntu 14.04 and the 32- bit version of Ubuntu 16.04, in a future release.
Internet Explorer 11	Due to declining usage in the field, a future release of N-able Ncentral will drop support for the Internet Explorer 11 web browser.
AV Defender 5.x	As of next major release for those of you still utilizing the AV5 Bitdefender Antivirus be advised that monitoring from our AV5 agents will no longer continue. As a result this will leave your environments in a vulnerable state. We encourage you to review your agents to ensure you are now utilizing our latest AV6 agents. Reminder that our online help for Security Manager is available for your reference.
Windows 8.1/Windows Server 2012 R2	As older Windows Server and Desktop Operating Systems transition into Microsoft’s Extended Support Phase and beyond, they are no longer receiving OS level TLS version and cipher updates (SCHANNEL). As the .NET Framework relies on SCHANNEL for TLS based communications, and as newer vulnerabilities are discovered in the ciphers available to these older Operating Systems, the available Strong Cipher list for these devices continues to shrink. We continually review the ciphers used by N-central’s Modern Security Profile, to ensure we offer only secure ciphers. At this time, there are only two (2) secure RSA key based ciphers available to Windows Server 2012 R2/Windows 8.1 and older. N-central will endeavor to support these two ciphers in our Modern Security profile for as long as they remain secure, but there may come a time where we will need to drop Official support for these Windows versions before the end of their Extended Support Phase. If/when this does occur, they will still be able to connect if you switch to the Legacy Security Profile, but this will reduce the security of all devices connecting to your N-central server. If you monitor Windows Server 2003/2008/Windows XP/Vista devices, we would like to advise you that we will be dropping support for the “TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA” cipher in a future release. Coming changes to the web front end that will support TLS 1.3, have been identified as also disabling “TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA” due to the required version of OpenSSL. Fully patched Windows Server 2008/Vista devices should be able to connect to N-central on the Legacy Security profile, using one of the newer, but still weak ciphers. Windows Server 2003/XP will no longer be able to communicate over TLS/HTTPS at that time (using a site-to-site VPN between your firewall devices, and connecting over HTTP may still work).
32-bit versions of the Windows, Linux and macOS operating systems	The number of 32-bit Operating Systems monitored by Ncentral has continued to drop over the past few years. Windows Agents/Probes have historically been 32-bit, with some 64-bit specific components. In a future release, we intend to convert the Agent and Probe code base to be a native 64-bit application; this will mean a hard deprecation of support for 32-bit Windows versions. N-central’s Linux and macOS agents will follow a similar path.

N-able N-central System requirements

The following requirements are for typical usage patterns, acknowledging that some patterns may require greater system resources for a N-able N-central server than others.

If you have any questions about how your needs affect the system requirements of your N-able N-central server, contact your Channel Sales Specialist or email n-able-salesgroup@n-able.com.

Processor	Server class x86_64 CPUs manufactured by Intel or AMD (i.e. Xeon or EPYC). Please refer to the Red Hat Hardware Ecosystem for further details
Operating System	You do not need to install a separate Operating System to run N-able N-central. The N-able Ncentral ISO includes a modified version of CentOS 7, based on the upstream Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.
Physical Hardware	The physical server used to install N-able N-central in a bare metal environment must be certified to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.7 (x64) by Red Hat, or the hardware vendor, without any additional drivers. Please check the Red Hat Hardware Ecosystem for details. Server Grade hard drives connected to a RAID controller with a Battery/Capacitor Backed Cache are Required. Examples include 10K+ RPM SCSI or SAS drives, Enterprise Grade SSDs or NVMes for bare metal and virtualized hosts, or a Fibre Channel connected SAN with Enterprise Grade hard drives for virtualized hosts (Fibre Channel cards can be used for bare metal if they are configured in the pre-boot environment and do NOT require vendor-provided drivers). Although Desktop Hard Drives will work with the Operating System, they do not meet the minimum throughput required for the back-end Database of N-able N-central.

For more details, please refer to the Red Hat Hardware Ecosystem to see if your current hardware will work with our customized version of CentOS 7.

System requirements by number of devices managed

The table below lists the minimum specifications required to manage the number of devices indicated (based on average usage). Performance can be improved by exceeding these requirements. When determining your hardware requirements, consider any growth in managed device count that may occur over time.

Number of devices	CPU Cores	Memory	Storage
Up to 1,000	2	4 GB RAM	80 GB RAID
Up to 3,000	4	8 GB RAM	150 GB RAID
Up to 6,000	8	16 GB RAM	300 GB RAID
Up to 9,0000	12	24 GB RAM	450 GB RAID
Up to 12,000	16	32 GB RAM	600 GB RAID
Up to 16,000	22	48 GB RAM	800 GB RAID
Up to 20,000	28	64 GB RAM	1 TB RAID
Up to 24,000	34	80 GB RAM	1.2 TB RAID

Notes

Server Grade hard drives connected to a RAID controller with a Battery/Capacitor Backed Cache, are required to ensure performance and unexpected power-loss data protection.
In a virtualized environment, hard drives for the N-able N-central server must not be shared with any other applications or VM guests that have significant I/O workloads. For example, Report Manager, SQL Databases, E-Mail Servers, Active Directory Domain Controllers, SharePoint, or similar should not be installed on the same physical hard drive as N-able N-central.
N-able recommends two or more hard drives be placed in a redundant RAID configuration. With two drives, RAID 1 must be used. With more than two drives, RAID 1+0 or RAID 5 are recommended. RAID 6 is an option on servers with less than 1,000 devices (the additional write latency of RAID 6 becomes an issue above 1,000 devices).
N-able recommends more, smaller disks in a RAID array, as opposed to fewer larger disks. Databasebacked applications, like N-able N-central, have better write performance with an increased number of parallel writes (hard drives).
If using Solid State Drives (SSDs), N-able requires Enterprise Grade, SLC based (or better) SSDs with a SAS interface, or Enterprise Grade NVMes. SSD and NVMe drives must have an endurance rating of at least 0.2 DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day), and at least 2 physical disks in a redundant RAID array. On Bare Metal servers, the RAID array must appear to the operating system as a single Block or NVMe Device. Currently, many PCIe and NVMe drives do not meet this last requirement and would only work in a virtualized environment.
Configure the RAID controller to use the default stripe size and a Read/Write cache of 50%/50%.

The underlying customized version of CentOS 7 has certain hardware limits that are consistent with the upstream Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 distribution. Of note are the following:

Subsytem	Limit
Minimum disk space	80 GB
Maximum physical disk size (BIOS)	2 TB
Maximum physical disk size (UEFI)	50 TB
Required minimum memory	4GB for 4 or fewer logical CPUs 1GB per logical CPU for more than 4 logical CPUs
Maximum memory	12 TB
Maximum logical CPUs	768

Due to the ecosystem of different hardware, N-able does not certify specific hardware configurations. Instead we rely on the upstream Red Hat Enterprise Linux and hardware vendor testing and certification.

Examples of servers that have been Red Hat certified include HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen10 and Dell PowerEdge R620.

Please consult with your hardware vendor to ensure that any server to be used for a bare metal installation meets the above requirements, and is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.7 certified, without the need for additional
drivers.

N-able recommends that for any Bare Metal server, two or more SAS 10k or faster hard drives be placed in a RAID array to improve redundancy. RAID 1+0 or RAID 5 are supported (at the hardware RAID BIOS level). RAID 6 is an option on servers with less than 1,000 devices (the additional write latency of RAID 6 becomes an issue above 1,000 devices).

Support for virtualized environments

N-able supports VMware ESX Server 6.0 or newer and Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V or newer LTS versions. N-able recommends use of the latest stable versions of VMware or Hyper-V in order to ensure the best performance, feature set and compatibility with N-able N-central.

Hyper-V on Windows Desktop Operating Systems not Supported.

N-able N-central installed on a virtual machine running on a Desktop Operating System (such as HyperV on Windows 10, Virtual Box, Parallels, VMWare Fusion or similar) is not a supported configuration. If
you are using Windows Hyper-V, it must be installed on a supported server class Windows Operating
System.

Windows Server Semi-Annual Releases are not Supported.

Only Long-Term Support (LTS) versions of the Windows Server Operating System are supported as a
Hyper-V host for N-able N-central. Microsoft currently releases “Semi-Annual Release” versions of
Windows Server as a technology preview for the next LTS version. Due to their technology preview
status, these “Semi-Annual Release” versions of Windows Server are not supported as Hyper-V hosts
for N-able N-central.

About virtualization

Virtualization provides an abstraction layer between the hardware and the Operating System which permits the operation of multiple logical systems on one physical server unit. The table below includes considerations when using this deployment method.

System Performance	It is impossible to guarantee the scalability or performance of a N-able N-central server deployed on a Virtual Machine due to: 1. Variability in field environments resulting from host server configurations, 2. The number of virtual guests run on the host server, and 3. The performance of the underlying host hardware.
Supportability	N-able supports N-able N-central software deployed on VMWare ESX/ESXi 6.0 or newer, Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V or newer LTS releases, Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS EC2 in the same way that we support N-able N-central deployed on Bare Metal. This support is limited to the components (Software and Operating System) shipped with Nable N-central and does not include the troubleshooting of virtualization systems nor of performance issues related to environmental factors. N-able recommends reaching out to your hardware or virtualization vendor for support on the underlying virtualization and hardware components. Any assistance provided by Nable Support for virtualization or hardware issues is on a best-effort basis only. In the event of serious performance problems, we might ask you to migrate a virtualized N-able N-central system to a physical hardware deployment.
Virtual Hardware Support	In Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V or newer deployments, it is recommended to create a new Generation 2 VM. When configuring the VM virtual hardware, if you choose to enable Secure Boot, please select the Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority template. For VMWare ESX/ESXi deployments, it is recommended to select the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 guest OS template, then under the Boot Options, select the UEFI Firmware.
Network Adapters	N-able recommends using the VMXNET3 network card in VMWare. When the VM is configured as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, it will use VMXNET3 by default. Unless you are using Network Interface Bonding, N-able N-central requires only one (1) network adapter added to the VM configuration. Multiple network adapters that are not used in a bonding configuration can cause connectivity and licensing issues.
MAC Addresses	By default, most virtualization environments use a dynamically assigned MAC address for each virtual network card. As your N-able N-central license is generated in part by using the MAC address of its network card, it is required to use a statically assigned MAC address in order to avoid becoming de-licensed.

Recommended configuration for the virtualized server

Although provisioning virtual disks as “thin” or “thick” results in nearly-identical performance, thick
provisioning is recommended, particularly when more than 1,000 devices will be connected to your Nable N-central server.

Assign the highest resource access priority to N-able N-central, as compared to other guest VMs.
Do not over-provision resources (Memory, CPU, Disk) on the virtualization host. Over-provisioning these resources can causes memory swapping to disk, and other bottlenecks that can impact guest system performance.
Ensure that the system has enough RAM and hard drive space to provide permanently allocated resources to the N-able N-central guest.

Supported Software

Browsers

N-able N-central supports the latest versions of:

Microsoft Edge®
Mozilla Firefox®
Google Chrome®
Apple Safari®

Mobile phone browsers are not supported.

Remote Control

Remote control connections require the following software on the computers that initiate connections:

.NET Framework 4.5.2 on Windows devices
Oracle Java 1.8 versions that include Java Web Start

Report Manager

To use Report Manager with N-able N-central, ensure the you upgrade to the latest version of Report Manager.

Automation Manager

Automation Manager requires .NET Framework 4.5.2 and PowerShell 3.0 to run AMP-based services with N-able N-central.

SNMP Community String

On HPE ProLiant Generation 9 or older Physical Servers, when monitoring the N-able N-central server using SNMP, the community string used for SNMP queries to the server must use N-central_SNMP, not public. SNMP is only enabled on HPE ProLiant Generation 9 or older Physical Servers. All other installs do not enable SNMP on the N-able N-central server.

Supported Operating Systems

This section describes the supported operating systems for N-able N-central.

Windows Agents

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 (or later)

Windows Server 2022

Windows Server 2022 Standard
Windows Server 2022 Datacenter
Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure

Windows Server 2019

Windows Server 2019 Datacenter
Windows Server 2019 Standard

Windows Server 2016

Windows Server 2016 Datacenter
Windows Server 2016 Standard
Windows Server 2016 Essentials
Windows Storage Server 2016
Windows Server 2016 MultiPoint Premium Server
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016

Windows Server 2012

R2 Datacenter
R2 Essentials
R2 Foundation
R2 Standard
Datacenter 64-bit Edition
Essentials 64-bit Edition
Foundation 64-bit Edition
Standard 64-bit Edition
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 R2
Storage Server 2012 Enterprise 64-bit Edition
Storage Server 2012 Express 64-bit Edition
Storage Server 2012 Standard 64-bit Edition
Storage Server 2012 Workgroup 64-bit Edition

Windows 11

Microsoft Windows 11 Enterprise & Professional
Microsoft Windows 11 Education editions
Microsoft Windows 11 Pro for Workstations

Windows 10

Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise & Professional
Microsoft Windows 10 Education editions
Windows 10 Pro for Workstations

Windows 8 and 8.1

8.1 Enterprise
8.1 Professional
8 Enterprise
8 Professional

Windows 7

Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise & Professional
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate

macOS Agents

12.0 (Monterey)
11.0 (Big Sur)
10.15 (Catalina)
10.14 (Mojave)
10.13 (High Sierra)
10.12 (Sierra)

Linux Agents

Independent Agents are required for 32-bit and 64-bit Linux OS installations.

The probe performs an SSH connection a Linux device. To discover a Ubuntu/Debian OS device, the
device must have openssh installed.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 8 (64-bit)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 7 (x86_64 and i686)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 6 (x86_64 and i686)
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (64-bit)
Ubuntu 18.04 “Bionic Beaver” (x86_64)
Ubuntu 16.04 “Xenial Xerus” (x86_64 and i686)
Debian 8.7/Ubuntu 14.04 “Trusty Tahr” (x86_64 and i686)

AV Defender

Workstation Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows 11
Microsoft Windows 10
Microsoft Windows 8, 8.1

Tablet And Embedded Operating Systems

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise
Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry
Windows Embedded 8 Standard
Windows Embedded Enterprise 7
Windows Embedded POSReady 7
Windows Embedded Standard 7
Windows Embedded Compact 7

Server Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows Server 2022
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Core
Microsoft Windows Server 2019
Microsoft Windows Server 2016
Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Core
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
Microsoft Windows Server 2012

For Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 7, TCP/IP, Filter Manager, and Windows Installer must all be
enabled.

Patch Manager

Workstation Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows 11
Microsoft Windows 10 version 1607 and later
Microsoft Windows 8.1
Microsoft Windows 8
Microsoft Windows 7

Server Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows Server 2022
Microsoft Windows Server 2012
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
Microsoft Windows Server 2016
Microsoft Windows Server 2019

The following operating systems are not supported with N-able N-central patch manager:

Microsoft Windows XP
Microsoft Windows Vista
Microsoft Windows 10 Home Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Microsoft Windows Server 2008
Microsoft Windows 11 Home Edition (Monitoring status is supported)

Windows Update Agent

The minimum version of the Windows Update Agent (WUA) needs to be greater than 7.6.7600.320. The base NT build version of Windows should be 6.1 or later. Older versions of the base NT build cannot upgrade past version 7.6.7600.256 of the Windows Update Agent.

Automation Manager

Workstation Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows 11
Microsoft Windows 10 (32/64-bit)
Microsoft Windows 8.1 (32/64-bit)
Microsoft Windows 8 (32/64-bit)
Microsoft Windows 7 (32/64-bit)

Server Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows Server 2022
Microsoft Windows Server 2019
Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (32/64-bit)
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (32/64-bit)
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (32/64-bit)

Disk Encryption Manager

Hyper-V Server 2012 R2	Hyper-V Server 2016
Windows 7 Enterprise	Windows 7 Home Premium
Windows 7 Professional	Windows 7 Ultimate
Windows 8 Enterprise	Windows 8 Pro
Windows 8 Pro with Media Center	Windows 8.1 Enterprise
Windows 8.1 Pro	Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
Windows 10 Education	Windows 10 Enterprise
Windows 10 Enterprise 2015 LTSB	Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB
Windows 10 Enterprise for Virtual Desktops	Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019
Windows 10 Pro	Windows 10 Pro Education
Windows 10 Pro for Workstations

Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise	Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard	Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation
Windows Server 2012 Datacenter	Windows Server 2012 Essentials

Windows Server 2012 Foundation	Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter
Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials	Windows Server 2012 R2 Foundation
Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard	Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Evaluation
Windows Server 2012 Standard

Windows Server 2016 Datacenter	Windows Server 2016 Datacenter Evaluation
Windows Server 2016 Essentials	Windows Server 2016 Standard
Windows Server 2016 Standard Evaluation

Windows Server 2019 Datacenter	Windows Server 2019 Essentials
Windows Server 2019 Standard	Windows Server 2019 Standard Evaluation

Windows Server Datacenter
Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials	Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard

Port access requirement

N-central Server

Access must be permitted to the following ports:

Supported operating systems for remote control

The availability of remote control connections will vary depending on the operating systems of both the client and target devices. The table below outlines the operating systems and their compatibility with various remote control types.

Licensing and Customer Support

Agent/Probe Installation Software

N-able N-central 2023.5 uses the 7-Zip file archiver for installing agents and probes. 7-Zip is free software redistributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. For more information, see http://www.7-zip.org.

Customer Support

Contact N-able to activate your N-able N-central server.

Web Page:	http://www.n-able.com
Technical Support SelfService Portal:	https://success.n-able.com/
Phone:	Toll Free (U.S./CAN): 1-866-302-4689 International: +800-6225-3000 Local: (613) 592-6676, select option 2 for support

Download release notes

For a PDF version of the latest release notes, or to view historical release notes, please use the following link:

Click to access N-central_release_notes_summary.pdf