> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://altostrat.io/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Fleet Management

> Manage MikroTik sites at scale with SDX sites, policies, remote access, backups, tags, notes, and operational metadata.

Fleet management is the day-to-day operating surface for SDX. It is where you create sites, check whether routers are online, review device context, apply management policies, request backups, and use secure remote access.

## What Fleet Management Covers

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Sites and Devices" icon="router" href="./managing-sites-devices">
    Create and manage the site records that represent your MikroTik routers, then use site views to inspect status, metrics, inventory, faults, and settings.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Control Plane Policies" icon="shield" href="./control-plane-policies">
    Define the management services and trusted networks that SDX should enforce for WinBox, SSH, HTTP, HTTPS, Telnet, FTP, API, and API-SSL access.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Secure Remote Access" icon="key-round" href="./secure-remote-access">
    Generate time-limited access for WinBox or SSH, or create a temporary port forward to reach a specific internal host and port.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Configuration Backups" icon="archive" href="./configuration-backups">
    Browse stored router backups, request fresh backups, inspect backup content, and compare versions before or after change windows.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Metadata and Tags" icon="tags" href="./metadata-and-tags">
    Add structured context to sites so your team can filter, report, automate, and route ownership consistently.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Inventory" icon="scan-search">
    Use live and synchronized device data to understand what is connected behind your managed sites.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## The Site Lifecycle

A site moves through a predictable lifecycle:

1. You create a logical site in the portal.
2. SDX generates onboarding material for that site.
3. The router runs the bootstrap command and begins sending heartbeats.
4. SDX enriches the site with device identity, tunnel details, metadata, and operational state.
5. Policies, backups, scripts, workflows, reports, and notifications use the site as their target.

If a site is deleted, feature services that maintain per-site projections can clean up related state. Treat deletion as permanent operational cleanup, not as a troubleshooting step.

## What to Standardize First

Before adding many sites, define:

* A naming convention for sites.
* Required tags, such as region, customer, environment, service tier, or owner.
* A default control plane policy.
* A backup and change-window practice.
* A notification group for critical site and WAN events.
* A support workflow for offline sites and failed jobs.

<Tip>
  Good fleet hygiene pays off later. Tags, clean names, and backup coverage make reports, dashboards, workflows, and incident response much easier to trust.
</Tip>

## Related Pages

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Onboard Your First Router" icon="terminal" href="../getting-started/quickstart-onboarding" arrow="true">
    Bring a router online as a managed SDX site.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Troubleshooting" icon="life-buoy" href="../resources/troubleshooting" arrow="true">
    Diagnose offline sites, failed jobs, backup issues, and remote access failures.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>