Fleet Manager Overview

Fleet Manager is a secure, cloud-based service designed to monitor distributed Object First deployments, allowing CIOs and service providers to reduce complexity and focus on what matters. Fleet Manager is available to all Object First customers with valid support agreements. Fleet Manager delivers:

Cloud-based service with secure remote access to your distributed backup data, leveraging your existing authentication, at no additional cost. 
Centralized fleet dashboard to monitor utilization and health of distributed deployments.
Multi-tenant visibility and granular access controls, with cluster, systems, and billing information and alerts.

With Object First Fleet Manager, no environment is too large, too geographically dispersed, or too complex to secure backup data with absolutely immutable backup storage.

Delegation

Fleet Manager supports organizational delegation, enabling service providers to monitor Object First deployments across multiple customer environments, whether customer-owned or service provider-owned equipment, without compromising security or access control. Fleet Manager with proper delegation allows distributed IT management and service providers to deliver value-added services, such as a single dashboard view of all managed Object First appliances. This tool includes robust reporting capabilities that allow the generation of reports on usage and consumption metrics, appliance status, and other key operational data. These insights help inform operations planning, billing, and overall fleet monitoring.

With Object First Fleet Manager, customers benefit from a powerful and intuitive solution for managing Object First deployments at scale.

Use Cases

Fleet Manager accommodates various management models based on ownership and operational responsibilities:

Customer utilizes Fleet Manager for monitoring one or more clusters: A single organization (e.g., an enterprise customer) owns and manages its own Object First appliance clusters directly. Fleet Manager provides a unified view for monitoring health, performance, and generating reports across all clusters in one place.
Customer and service provider utilizing Fleet Manager: The customer owns the clusters, while a service provider (e.g., a managed service partner) is granted access to monitor and manage them on the customer's behalf. Both parties can use Fleet Manager, the customer retains full ownership and control, and the service provider gains operational visibility without compromising security.
Service provider only accessing customer-owned cluster: The service provider accesses and monitors the customer's clusters through Fleet Manager, but ownership remains with the customer. With a focus on managed services, this is ideal for outsourced IT operations where the provider handles day-to-day management.

These use cases are enabled by three core tasks: organization onboarding (one-time per organization), cluster onboarding (for each cluster), and cluster delegation (optional, for sharing access).

There are three use scenarios for fleet manager:

Use Case / Tasks	One-time organization onboarding	Each cluster is onboarded	Cluster delegated to another organization
Customer utilizes fleet manager for monitoring on or more clusters	YES	YES	NO
Customer and service provider utilizing fleet manager	YES	YES	YES
Service provider only access to customer-owned cluster	Only by service provider	YES	YES

Organization Onboarding

Organization onboarding registers an organization with the Fleet Manager platform on a one-time basis. This process establishes a dedicated organizational scope, provisions the initial administrator account, and creates the secure foundation for all subsequent cluster management activities.

Organization onboarding is essential to isolate data, users, and clusters within the multi-tenant Fleet Manager environment, ensuring robust authentication, access controls, and alignment with organizational requirements. It must be completed before any clusters can be added or managed.

The process begins with a request submitted through the Object First website.

Cluster Onboarding

Cluster onboarding connects an individual Object First appliance cluster to Fleet Manager, making it visible and manageable within the platform.

This process is required to centralize real-time monitoring of system health, performance, and reporting for the cluster. Each cluster requires individual onboarding to appear in the organization's Fleet Manager view. Cluster onboarding serves as a prerequisite for delegation.

The process is initiated from the Object First appliance cluster's web interface.

Cluster Delegation

Cluster delegation enables the owning organization to grant management access to another onboarded organization, such as a service provider, without transferring ownership.

Delegation supports secure collaboration by providing the delegate with operational visibility and management capabilities while preserving the owner's control and accountability. Access can be revoked as needed. Delegation is limited to one-to-one relationships and applies only to onboarded clusters that are not already delegated.

Delegation becomes available after both organizations and the relevant cluster have completed onboarding.

These processes combine to deliver flexible and secure management of Object First appliance fleets, accommodating internal operations as well as partnerships with service providers. For assistance, contact the Object First support team.