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

# Select PDC and test connection

The private data source connect (PDC) feature allows you to establish a secure connection between Grafana Cloud and your CSV endpoint.

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 the PDC 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:

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.
2. Click **Save & test**.
3. When successful, you’ll see a `Success` message.

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

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### 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/)

### 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)