---
title: "Select PDC and test connection | Grafana Labs"
description: "Learn how to select a private data source connect agent"
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

# Select PDC and test connection

The private data source connect (PDC) feature allows you to establish a secure connection between Grafana Cloud and your JSON endpoint. Watch video ->

If you don’t use PDC, your queries and data are transmitted over the public internet, exposing them to potential security risks.

If you are working with a public dataset such as ThingSpeak, you don’t need authentication and can skip this milestone. However, we recommend that you create a private connection whenever you connect Grafana Cloud to an internal, private data source.

In this milestone, you select an active PDC agent and test the connection to Grafana Cloud.

To select a PDC agent and test the connection, complete the following steps:

> **Note:** For a newly created data source, the **Private data source connect** section might not appear at first. If you don’t see it, select another data source tab and return to **Settings**.

In this section, you select a running PDC agent and test the secure connection to your JSON endpoint.

1. In the **Private data source connect** field, select the name of a PDC agent.
   
   For the test connection to be successful, you must select a PDC agent that’s running.
   
   If you’re using the public ThingSpeak endpoint, you can skip this step.
2. Click **Save & test**.

When the test succeeds, you see a `Success` message that confirms the secure connection to your endpoint.

You can now build a dashboard that visualizes the JSON data.

* * *

### More to explore (optional)

At this point in your journey, you can explore the following paths:

- [Create a private connection to a data source](/docs/learning-paths/private-data-source-connect/)

Were you successful?

![No](/media/images/svg/thumbs-up.svg) No

![Yes](/media/images/svg/thumbs-up.svg) Yes

Super! You can move to the next step.

### Troubleshooting

Explore the following troubleshooting topics if you need help:

- [Received message “There was an error when testing this data source, please check PDC agent logs”](/docs/grafana-cloud/connect-externally-hosted/private-data-source-connect/scalability-and-security/#audit-activity-and-the-pdc-agent)
- [Test failed for the Infinity data source](/docs/plugins/yesoreyeram-infinity-datasource/latest/configure/#health-check)

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