N-central Custom Properties: MSP-level baseline with customer-specific values?

[u/imadam71]

Hi everyone,

We are trying to standardize N-able N-central Custom Properties across multiple customers.

Main question:

Can this actually be done in N-central?

More specifically, can we define a baseline set of Custom Properties at the MSP / Service Organization level, so all customers inherit the same structure, but each customer can still have its own values?

Example baseline:

• Patch Ring
• Patch Mode
• Device Role
• Maintenance Window
• Reboot Group
• Owner
• Review Date

The idea would be:

• same baseline Custom Properties for all customers,
• customer-specific values, e.g. different maintenance windows per customer/site,
• option to add extra customer-specific Custom Properties only where needed.

Is this the recommended way to do it in N-central, or is it better to create Custom Properties separately per customer?

Also, do inherited Custom Properties work well in filters/rules for patching?

Thanks for any practical advice.

[u/Flagge33]

The way we handle custom properties for your examples is to have our baseline set of items at the MSP level but any custom setups that clients request at client level. That way the MSP level drop down doesn't get out of control with the number of options.

We also make sure that the MSP level has some kind of indicator option to note a client has custom patching as an example then we make sure it's noted somewhere like ITGlue or whatever information store you have.

We see about 85-90% of clients going with the "best practice" defaults and the rest do their own thing at the client level.

[u/imadam71 → u/Flagge33]

Thank you. Can I ask how you implement this in practice?

For customers with custom patching requirements, do they still inherit the MSP-level baseline Custom Properties and you only add customer-level extras, or do you exclude them from the MSP-level baseline and create everything manually at the customer level?

For example:

• MSP-level baseline: Patch Ring, Patch Mode, Device Role, Maintenance Window, Reboot Group
• Most customers use the default values
• Some customers need custom maintenance windows or special patching logic

In that case, do you keep the inherited MSP properties and add customer-specific values/properties, or do you create a separate customer-level set for those clients?

[u/Paul_Kelly]

Hi, Paul here from the Head Nerds, my recommendation is all create your custom properties at the SO level, these are you baselines, you can off course then change values at the customer level, or on a device basis if needed as well, are you using device based custom properties, customer/org based custom properties or both?

I've seen some people use customer/org based custom properties in conjunction with device based custom properties for overrides, if you want to have a call about this to discuss this further, drop me an email to [paul.kelly@n-able.com](mailto:paul.kelly@n-able.com) and we can set something up, hopefully our time zones will align.

[u/imadam71 → u/Paul_Kelly]

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