# Managed Object Types Overview

Strictly speaking, managed objects are objects that are cataloged. Managed objects might consist exclusively of data objects, but basic data types might be among their properties. Managed objects are used to represent and administer entities in your environment. For example, virtual machines, datastores, resource pools, and networks are all managed objects. Managed objects also serve as interfaces for accessing information about your system. For example, DiagnosticManager objects are used to access debugging and diagnostic bundles and PropertyCollector objects are used to retrieve a set of properties from one or more managed objects.

Managed objects are often used as parameters that are passed to or returned by methods. In those cases, a reference to the actual managed object is being passed back and forth. For the sake of simplicity, this document always refers to managed objects rather than managed object references. The objects themselves are never passed or returned.

Managed objects might include:

- Objects of which this object is a property.
- The parent object that this object extends.
- The child objects that extend this object.
- Description of purpose and usage.
- Properties.
- Methods.

All managed objects are listed in the pane to the left of this page. Click a name to see more information. You can also enter part of a managed object name in the Quick Index to find an entry.