> ## 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.
# Introduction to Altostrat SDX
> Understand what Altostrat SDX does, how it fits around your MikroTik fleet, and where to start in the documentation.
Altostrat SDX is the control and data platform behind Altostrat's managed networks. It manages MikroTik fleets across thousands of deployed sites — from MSPs to ISPs to enterprises — and provides the fleet foundation that [Altostrat Studio](/studio/en/welcome) operates on top of. You use SDX to onboard routers as managed sites, keep a live view of fleet health, push controlled changes, run automation, and deliver operational alerts without managing each router by hand.
The platform is built around a simple idea: routers keep an outbound management relationship with Altostrat, and SDX uses that relationship to coordinate jobs, policies, monitoring, reporting, and secure remote access.
**Where Studio fits**: SDX is the platform that manages fleet state; [Altostrat Studio](/studio/en/welcome) is the IDE engineers work in day to day. Studio handles active troubleshooting, AI-assisted operations, and team procedures — against devices SDX manages and devices it doesn't. The two complement each other and neither requires the other.
## What You Can Manage
Track managed routers as sites, review online status, inspect inventory, attach tags, and organize operational metadata.
Reach devices through the management tunnel using time-limited WinBox, SSH, or port-forwarding access instead of opening permanent inbound rules.
Build workflows, schedule scripts, require authorizations, call internal or external APIs, and respond to platform events.
Configure WAN failover, managed VPN instances, captive portal instances, DNS filtering, BGP threat feeds, and firewall policy objects.
## How SDX Operates
Most SDX changes are asynchronous. When you create a policy, run a script, request a backup, or trigger a feature deployment, SDX records the intent, delivers work to the router through the device job plane, and tracks the result. This makes changes resilient across NAT, intermittent links, and distributed sites.
For live reads, such as checking current routes or using transient remote access, SDX uses the management server connected to that site. If a site is offline or its management tunnel is not available, live operations wait or fail, while stored data such as backups and historical faults remain available.
Start with the operating model before rolling out advanced automation. It explains which actions are immediate, which actions are queued, and how SDX decides whether a site is online.
## Recommended Path
Understand sites, workspaces, policies, jobs, tags, workflows, and the management tunnel.
See how heartbeats, queued jobs, faults, notifications, and reports fit together.
Create a site, generate a bootstrap command, run it on RouterOS, and verify the site is online.
Use the checks for offline sites, failed jobs, remote access problems, and reporting gaps.