Synchronize Azure Tags and Commander Metadata

You can synchronize Azure tags, such as Cost Center, Business Unit, Product, Tier or Version, with Commander custom attributes and other metadata. Like Azure, Commander uses key-value pairs to allow you to assign metadata to services and cloud infrastructure. Metadata persists throughout a service's lifecycle, which enables administrators to understand the purpose of each service.

Tag synchronizing overview

You can configure tag synchronization when you add an Azure cloud account, or at a later time. You can:

• Import tags as custom attributes
• Export Commander custom attributes and metadata to Azure as tags. The metadata includes:
• Primary owner name
• Primary owner login
• Primary owner email address
• Assigned organization
• Expiry date

Also, if you don't want to sync all Azure tags, custom attributes, and other Commander metadata, you can specify which to exclude.

Commander supports synchronization of tags for Azure SQL databases, resource groups, storage accounts, VM instances, and VM images.

Tag synchronization provides:

• Better targeting of power schedule recommendations — Automatically set one power schedule for VMs with the label "dev" and another for those labeled "prod". For more information, see Configure VM Power Schedules.
• Advanced search and reporting — Report on costs by label, such as application ID or environment, so you can get a handle on costs per application, or for production compared to development environments. For more information, see Searching and Reporting.
• Workflow conditions based on label values — Automatically select the right Chef recipe or Ansible playbook to run during post-provisioning, depending on tag compliance requirements. For more information, see Make Workflow Steps Conditional.

How imported tags and custom attributes are matched

When importing Azure tags, if Commander finds an existing custom attribute with the same name, it automatically populates the value for VMs with that tag assignment. Note that a match will only be made if the existing custom attribute is configured to apply to "All Types" or "Services". In the case of a matching list-type custom attribute, for a value to be updated, the value in Azure must match one of the preconfigured values for the custom attribute.

Azure tags aren't case sensitive. When importing Azure tags and values, Commander matches Azure tag keys with custom attribute names, and tag values with configured list-type custom attribute values, regardless of case.

If an Azure tag doesn't match an existing custom attribute, the tag is imported as a free-form text-type custom attribute that applies to services. By default, Service Portal users can't set values for these custom attributes.

Tags prefixed with "Microsoft:", "Azure:", "Windows:" and "vcmdr:" are automatically excluded from import.

Commander metadata export

When you configure Commander to export custom attributes as Azure tags, information about the service's primary owner, assigned organization and expiry is also exported as Azure tags with a "vcmdr:" prefix.

If you don't want to export some or all of this metadata, you can exclude it. See Exclude specific tags and metadata from synchronization.

Form-type custom attributes are automatically excluded from export.

Export of Commander metadata to Azure tags

Synchronization timing

Tag, custom attribute, and metadata values are updated as part of the automatic Azure synchronization task, as well as when you manually synchronize the inventory. To prevent timing issues, during synchronization, tag values are imported from Azure before custom attribute values are exported to Azure. When a custom attribute value is applied, the value is exported to Azure immediately. However, new tag values are only imported during automatic or manual synchronization of the Azure cloud account.

Best practices

• If you use labels to store expiry and ownership information, exclude them from import. Commander has distinct properties to store this information. If you import a label used for expiry or ownership, Commander will create a custom attribute to store this information, and users may be confused by the duplication.
• If Commander is configured to import tags as custom attributes, but isn't configured to export Commander custom attributes as tags, clear the Edit in Service Portal option for all custom attributes created from tags. Otherwise, if a user sets an attribute value, the value will be removed during the next synchronization with Azure. By default, this option is disabled for all custom attributes created from imported tags.
• If you have an Azure tag that serves the same purpose as an existing Commander custom attribute, make sure that the tag key and the custom attribute key are identical, and make sure that tag values match the preconfigured custom attribute values.

Synchronize Azure tags and Commander metadata

This procedure assumes you're configuring synchronization for an existing Azure cloud account. The steps are similar when you add an Azure account to Commander.

1. Click the Infrastructure or Applications tab.
2. In the Infrastructure or Applications view, select an Azure cloud account in the tree.
3. Select Actions > Sync Tags and Custom Attributes.

The Synchronize Azure Tags and Commander Custom Attributes dialog appears.

4. Enable the options Import Azure Tags as Commander Custom Attributes and/or Export Commander Custom Attributes as Azure Tags as required.
5. To exclude certain Azure tags and custom attributes from synchronization, enter them as a comma-separated list in the Excluded Tags/Custom Attributes field.

   You can enter up to 5000 characters in this field. Azure tag names are not case-sensitive. Tag values are case-sensitive.

   Tags prefixed with "Microsoft:", "Azure:", "Windows:", and "vcmdr:" are automatically excluded from import. Form-type custom attributes are automatically excluded from export.

6. Click OK.

   Commander imports tag values from Azure and then exports custom attribute and metadata values to Azure.

   Once you've configured the update frequency for a cloud account, when a custom attribute value is applied, the value is exported to Azure immediately. However, new tag values are only imported during automatic or manual synchronization of the Azure cloud account.

Exclude specific tags and metadata from synchronization

If you've configured synchronization and you decide you don't want to import particular Azure tags or export particular custom attributes, you can exclude them.

Tags prefixed with "Microsoft:", "Azure:", "Windows:", and "vcmdr:" are automatically excluded from import. Form-type custom attributes are automatically excluded from export.

To exclude specific tags and metadata from synchronization:

1. Click the Infrastructure or Applications tab.
2. In the Infrastructure or Applications view, select an Azure cloud account in the tree.
3. Select Actions > Sync Tags and Custom Attributes.
4. In the Synchronize Azure Tags and Commander Custom Attributes dialog, enter tags, custom attributes and metadata labels as a comma-separated list in the Excluded Tags/Custom Attributes field.

   You can enter up to 5000 characters in this field. Azure tags are not case-sensitive. Tag values are case sensitive.

   Commander metadata labels have the following format: vcmdr:<metadata>

   For example: vcmdr:ExpiryDate

   See Commander metadata export above for the complete list of metadata labels.

5. Click OK.

   Commander will now no longer import this tag during synchronization with Azure.

   If an Azure tag was previously imported, excluding it doesn't automatically delete the custom attribute. You may want to delete the custom attribute manually. Likewise, if a custom attribute was previously exported, excluding it doesn't automatically delete the Azure tag. You may want to delete the tag manually; consult the Azure documentation to learn how.

Synchronize custom attributes or tags that had been excluded

You can synchronize a custom attribute or tag that you had previously excluded but now want to synchronize.

1. Click the Infrastructure or Applications tab.
2. In the Infrastructure or Applications view, select the Azure cloud account in the tree.
3. Select Actions > Sync Tags and Custom Attributes.
4. In the Synchronize Azure Tags and Commander Custom Attributes dialog, remove the custom attribute or tag from the list and click OK.

   Commander will now include this label or custom attribute in future synchronizations.