Introduction to resource tags
Abiquo multicloud resource tags enable you to create groups of related resources, for example, you can tag all the resources in a project. You can use tags to manage, identify, organize, search for, and filter resources.
Your tags will be local in the platform when Abiquo cannot create tags in the provider. This may be because you created an invalid tag, you created a tag on a resource that is in Abiquo only, or because Abiquo and/or the provider does not support tags for your resource.
Abiquo onboards and synchronizes tags from public cloud providers. Your provider may limit the number of tags and the format, for example, no uppercase letters.
A tag consists of a key and a value that are case sensitive and have a maximum length of 512 characters each. You can only use a key once on each resource, and a key can only have one value.
You can search for resources by tags and filter lists of resources by tags.
The multicloud tag feature enables you to tag resources in projects that use more than one cloud provider and also in private cloud, which makes it easier for you to inventory your resources. You can also display tags in the console of the public cloud provider, and use public cloud tagging features. These features may include the option to display tags on public cloud provider invoices (when Abiquo tags correspond to provider tags with a tag invoice feature).
Tags are only for read-only operations on resources, and you cannot perform modify operations with tags, e.g. you cannot deploy a VM using a tag. But in Control view, when you create automation with action plans, you can select a tag filter to dynamically select a group of VM or scaling group resources by tag to perform actions on them. And administrators can create tag policies to specify allowed or denied tags for resources, and they can check compliance on a report.
Warning: Do not use tags to store sensitive or confidential data. Check provider documentation about tag security
Tag concepts
The following table describes the concepts used in the tagging feature to manage tags in the supported providers.
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Resource | An Abiquo entity that may have a corresponding resource in a provider (e.g. VM) or not (e.g. virtual appliance, scaling group) |
Materialized tag | A tag that is assigned to a resource that exists in the provider and the tag exists in the platform and in the provider. |
Local tag | A tag that is in the platform but does not exist in the provider. For example, tags that are:
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Protected tag key | If a tag has a protected tag key, the platform cannot update this tag |
Tag validation
Tags maybe be invalid in the provider if they:
are too short or too long
contain invalid characters
exceed the maximum provider limit on the number of tags
When you create tags, you can select the option to save invalid tags as local tags (not materialized tags).
Provider tag support
Abiquo supports local tags for all providers, including private cloud, and provider tags in public cloud.
Provider or hypervisor | Local tags | Provider tags | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Amazon Web Services |
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Google Cloud Platform |
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Microsoft Azure |
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Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) |
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vCloud Director |
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vCenter |
| - |
Resource tag support
Abiquo supports tags on the following resources.
Resource | Local tags in the platform | Provider tags in one or more |
|---|---|---|
Virtual machines |
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Virtual appliances |
| - |
Virtual datacenters |
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VM templates |
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Disks | planned | - |
Firewalls |
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Target groups |
| - |
Load balancers |
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IP addresses | planned | - |
Networks | planned | - |
Scaling groups |
| - |
Support for tags on resources in providers
You can user Abiquo provider tags on the following resources in these cloud providers.
Resource | AWS | Azure | GCP | OCI | VCD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Virtual machines |
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Virtual datacenters |
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VM templates |
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Firewalls |
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Target groups |
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Load balancers |
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Display tags on all resources
To display tags on all resources:
Go to Control → Tag management → Search.
Display tags on a resource with a details panel
To display tags on a resource with a details panel, such as a VM or a load balancer:
Select the resource
On the details panel, go to Tags
Screenshot: Load balancer details view of Tags
Display tags on a resource without a details panel
To display tabs for a resource without a details panel, such as a firewall or a virtual appliance:
Edit the entity
Go to Tags
Screenshot: Edit firewall to display Tags
Edit tags
To manage tags for resources that exist in the platform and the provider:
For VMs, on the VM icon, from the options menu, select Tags or
for other resources, edit the resource and go to TagsEdit tags
To add a tag, enter the Key and Value, then click Add.
If the provider supports tags:
If you have invalid tags, you can select the checkbox to Create local tags if tags are invalid in the provider
To onboard or update tags with changes from the provider, click the round arrow Synchronize button.
To delete a tag, select the tag, then click the Delete button.
To save your changes, click Save.