N-central Devices

N-central Devices

Devices are the unit of inventory in N-central. Every agent- or probe-discovered endpoint — server, workstation, network device — has a device record scoped to a customer or site org unit. This skill covers listing strategy (filters vs org-unit scoping), the asset/lifecycle data model, and service-monitor triage.

Tools

Tool	Use For
ncentral_list_devices	Fleet-wide listing; accepts filterId for saved filters
ncentral_list_devices_by_org_unit	Devices scoped to one customer or site
ncentral_list_device_filters	Enumerate saved device filters and their IDs
ncentral_get_device	Single device core record
ncentral_get_device_assets	Hardware/software asset detail (CPU, RAM, disks, OS, installed software)
ncentral_get_device_lifecycle	Warranty expiry, purchase date, lease/expected replacement
ncentral_update_device_lifecycle	Write lifecycle fields (warranty, cost, dates)
ncentral_get_device_service_status	Per-service monitor status on one device

Listing Strategy: Filters First

N-central admins maintain saved device filters in the UI ("Windows Servers", "Offline > 30 days", "Missing patches", …). These are the cheapest way to slice a large fleet server-side:

1. ncentral_list_device_filters — get the filter names and filterIds visible to the API user.
2. ncentral_list_devices with filterId — the server applies the filter; you page through only the matching devices.

Prefer this over pulling the whole fleet and filtering client-side — N-central deployments routinely exceed 10k devices, and pagination caps at 1000 per page. When the question is per-customer ("what does ACME have?"), use ncentral_list_devices_by_org_unit with the customer or site orgUnitId instead.

Assets and Lifecycle

Two different data sets, two different tools:

• Assets (ncentral_get_device_assets) — what the agent discovered: OS and version, CPU, memory, disks and free space, NICs, installed software. Refreshed by the agent's asset scan; can be stale if the device has been offline.
• Lifecycle (ncentral_get_device_lifecycle) — what a human recorded: warranty expiry date, purchase date, expected replacement date, cost, lease information. Empty unless someone (or an integration) populated it.

ncentral_update_device_lifecycle writes lifecycle fields — useful for bulk-stamping warranty expiry dates from a vendor export. It only touches the lifecycle record; it never modifies monitoring or the device itself. Still, confirm with the user before bulk updates: overwriting a populated warranty date loses data with no undo.

For warranty/refresh audits, the standard pass is: list devices for the org unit, pull lifecycle for servers and network devices, flag anything expired or expiring within 90 days, and separately flag devices with no lifecycle data at all (an untracked device is a hidden risk, not a healthy one).

Service-Monitor Triage

Each device runs a set of service monitors (agent status, disk, CPU, backup jobs, AV status, application-specific checks). ncentral_get_device_service_status returns the per-service state for one device — the drill-down after ncentral_list_active_issues tells you which devices are unhealthy:

1. Active issues sweep says device X has a failed service.
2. ncentral_get_device_service_status on X shows every monitor and its state (Normal / Warning / Failed / Misconfigured / Disconnected / Stale).
3. Distinguish real failures from data problems: Stale or Disconnected usually means the agent stopped reporting (device offline, agent broken) — every other monitor on that device is untrustworthy until the agent checks in. Misconfigured is a setup error, not an outage.

Best Practices

• Resolve filterId by listing filters first — filter IDs differ per server; never hardcode them.
• Asset scan timestamps matter: quote when the asset data was collected if the device looks offline.
• Lifecycle updates are writes — echo the before/after values and get confirmation before applying them in bulk.
• Device IDs are per-server. When correlating with PSA or documentation tools, match on hostname/serial, not ID.

Related Skills

• api-patterns - pagination, filters, rate limits
• organizations - org-unit scoping for device lists
• monitoring-tasks - active issues that lead into device triage