Directors: Management

The Directors web interface provides comprehensive management capabilities for Director deployment, configuration, and monitoring through an intuitive graphical dashboard.

Access

Navigate to Home > Fleet Management > Directors, or use the hamburger menu and select Fleet Management > Directors.

Overview

The Directors dashboard provides centralized visibility and control over all Director instances across your infrastructure. Directors orchestrate data collection, processing, and routing, with support for distributed processing through Agent pre-processing capabilities.

Table

The table displays Name, Mode (Managed/Self-Managed), Installation Type (Standalone/Cluster), Status (Enabled/Disabled), Connection Status (Connected/Not Connected), and an Actions menu (⋮) for each Director.

For Self-Managed Directors, a warning icon appears next to the Mode when configuration has changed. The tooltip reads "Configuration has changed and the current one has to be deployed" - download the updated configuration file and deploy to Director.

warning

When the configuration change indicator appears, the Director is running with an outdated configuration. Download and deploy the updated vmetric.vmf file promptly to ensure consistent behavior.

Table Controls

Filter Directors using Search directors (by name) and Status dropdown (All, Enabled, Disabled). The Refresh button reloads table data. Click Create director to launch the creation wizard (requires DIRECTOR_CREATE permission).

Actions

Each Director row provides an Actions menu (⋮) with the following operations:

View Details:

• See details - Navigate to Director detail view

Status Management:

• Enable Director - Activate disabled Director
• Disable Director - Deactivate enabled Director

Configuration:

• Download Config - Download vmetric.vmf configuration file (Self-Managed only)

Deletion:

• Delete Director - Remove Director from platform

Create Director Wizard

The Director creation process guides you through a 3-step wizard with validation and connection verification.

info

Directors are always created as standalone instances. To create a clustered deployment for high availability, first create Directors using this wizard, then group them using the Clusters tab. See Clusters section below.

Step 1: Director Setup

Director Name:

Enter a unique identifier for the Director (3-64 characters). This name is used for identification across the platform.

Mode Selection:

Select the management approach using radio tiles:

• Managed - VirtualMetric manages Director infrastructure with automated updates, proactive monitoring, and reduced operational overhead
• Self-Managed - User controls Director deployment with manual updates, custom security configurations, and full infrastructure control

Step 2: Access Management

Configure optional access controls for the Director.

Access Tokens:

• Enable Access Tokens - Toggle to require token authentication
• Token Name - Identifier for the token
• Token Value - Auto-generated when token is created (use copy button to copy)
• Expiration - Token validity period (default: 3 months):
  • 1 month
  • 3 months
  • 1 year
  • Unlimited

Access Restriction:

Restrict which IP addresses can connect to the Director:

• Enable Access Restriction - Toggle to enable IP filtering
• Restriction Type:
  • Single Block - Single IP address
  • Range - IP address range (start-end)
  • CIDR - CIDR notation (e.g., 10.0.0.0/8)
• Sources - List of allowed IP addresses/ranges

Step 3: Connect Director

Installation Command Display:

The final step provides platform-specific installation scripts and connection verification:

Installation Scripts:

• PowerShell Script - For Windows deployments
• Bash Script - For Linux/macOS deployments
• Copy Button - One-click copy to clipboard
• API Key - Auto-generated secure authentication key included in scripts

Connection Verification:

After running the installation script, verify Director connectivity:

Connection Status Indicator:

• Connecting - Director attempting initial connection
• Success - Director successfully connected to platform
• Failed - Connection attempt unsuccessful

Progress Display:

• Real-time connection status updates
• Visual indicators for each connection state
• Error messages for failed connections

Completion Options:

Connected Successfully:

• Complete Setup - Finalize and navigate to Director detail view
• Automatic redirect to Director detail page

Not Yet Connected:

• Connect Later - Save Director configuration without connection verification
• Complete Setup - Disabled until successful connection
• Return later to verify connection and complete setup

Navigation

Progress Indicator:

The wizard displays a 3-step progress indicator (Director Setup → Access Management → Connect Director). Click completed steps to navigate back. Invalid steps are marked with an error indicator.

Navigation Buttons:

• Cancel - Exit wizard (changes to Connect Later on final step)
• Next - Advance to next step with validation
• Create Director - Submit Director configuration and proceed to connection (from Step 2)
• Complete Setup - Finalize Director creation (final step, enabled after successful connection)

Detail View

Clicking a Director from the overview table opens the detailed management interface with four tabbed panels.

Director Details Tab

View and edit Director configuration through editable tiles:

General Information:

• Director Name - Editable unique identifier
• Mode - Management type (Managed or Self-Managed)
• Status - Current operational state
• Connection Status - Real-time connectivity indicator

Edit Functionality:

• Edit icon on tiles for inline editing
• Save changes with validation
• Cancel to discard modifications
• Real-time validation feedback

Connection Details Tab

Installation Command Panel:

Access installation and reinstallation resources:

Installation Scripts:

• Platform-specific installation commands
• PowerShell script for Windows
• Bash script for Linux/macOS
• Copy button for easy clipboard access

API Key Management:

• Display current API key
• Regenerate API key when needed
• Update scripts with new key automatically

Reinstallation Process:

• Access reinstallation commands
• Use when Director needs redeployment
• Maintains configuration and settings
• Preserves Director identity and connections

Access Management Tab

View and edit access controls for the Director.

Access Tokens:

• List of configured tokens with expiration dates
• Create new tokens or revoke existing tokens
• Copy token values to clipboard

Access Restriction:

• Current restriction status and configured sources
• Edit to add, remove, or modify IP restrictions

Activity Logs Tab

Director Activity History:

Track Director operations and lifecycle events through comprehensive activity logging:

Activity Table Columns:

Column	Description
User	Email address of the user who performed the action (clickable link to user profile)
User IP	IP address from which the action was performed
Object Type	Entity type (always "Director" for this view)
Object	Name of the affected Director
Action	Operation performed (see Action Types below)
Action Description	Detailed description of the operation
Created At	Timestamp of when the action occurred

Action Types:

Action	Description
CreatedDirector	A new Director was created
UpdatedDirector	Director configuration was modified
DeletedDirector	A Director was removed

Table Features:

• Search - Filter activities by any field content
• Action Type Filter - Multi-select filter to show specific action types
• Timeframe Filter - Filter by time period (Last 24 hours, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Last 90 days, All time)
• Pagination - Navigate through large activity logs with configurable page sizes (10, 20, 30 items)

Operations

Enable / Disable

To change Director status:

1. Navigate to Director detail view or use the Actions menu from overview
2. Click Actions menu
3. Select Enable Director or Disable Director
4. Confirmation notification confirms the status change

Enabled Directors actively process data. Disabled Directors preserve configuration but stop all processing.

Download Config

For Self-Managed Directors:

Download the current Director configuration file for deployment:

1. Navigate to Director detail view
2. Click Actions menu
3. Select Download Config
4. System downloads vmetric.vmf file to browser's Downloads directory
5. Deploy file to <vm_root>/Director/config/ directory on Director server

Configuration Update Workflow:

When configuration changes occur:

• Warning icon appears next to "Self-managed" mode indicator
• Tooltip indicates deployment needed
• Download updated config file
• Replace existing config on Director server
• Restart Director service to apply changes

warning

Self-Managed Directors require a service restart after deploying configuration updates. Plan maintenance windows accordingly for production environments.

Delete

Delete Director Process:

Remove a Director from the platform with dependency checking:

1. Navigate to Director detail view (or use Actions menu from overview)
2. Click Actions menu
3. Select Delete Director
4. Deletion modal appears with confirmation

Standard Deletion:

• Confirm Director name matches
• Click Delete to proceed
• Success notification confirms deletion
• Redirect to Directors overview

Deletion with Dependencies:

If Director has active dependencies, error modal displays:

note

Directors with connected devices or agents cannot be deleted. The error modal lists all dependencies that must be reassigned or removed first.

Error Modal Contents:

• "Cannot delete Director" message
• Devices - List of devices using this Director
• Agents - List of agents connected to this Director
• Action Required - Remove or reassign dependencies before deletion

Dependency Resolution:

1. Note listed devices and agents
2. Reassign devices to different Director or delete
3. Reassign agents to different Director or delete
4. Retry Director deletion after dependencies removed

Agent Pre-Processing

Directors can configure Agents to perform pipeline-based pre-processing of logs before transmission. This distributed processing model reduces Director workload, decreases network bandwidth consumption, and enables edge-based data transformation such as compliance masking.

For complete Agent documentation including deployment, management, pipeline assignment, and troubleshooting, see Devices: Agents.

Notifications

The Directors interface provides automatic notifications for all operations:

Success

Success messages auto-dismiss after 10 seconds. These include confirmations for Director creation (connected or pending), enabling, disabling, and deletion. Hover to pause the auto-close timer, or click X to dismiss manually.

Errors

Error notifications persist until manually dismissed. These include failures for enable, disable, delete operations, and configuration download errors. Review error details and take corrective action before dismissing.