Creating tag groups and tags

When used in policies, tags and tag groups help to determine the placement of provisioned, user-requested services within the cloud. 

This topic contains the following sections:

Overview of tags and tag groups

 Cloud administrators can specify tags for the following BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management objects:

• Network containers
• Networks
• Compute resource pools
• Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) resource pools
• Virtual disk repository pools
• Tenants
• Service blueprints

Cloud administrators associate tags with tag groups, which organize tags used in the cloud. For example, the cloud administrator might create a tag group named Location to group all of the tags that specify network locations. The cloud administrator might also create a tag group named SLA for the tags representing different service levels offered to tenants.

Any taggable object can be associated with the same tag group and tag. For example, a cloud administrator might apply the SLA tag group and the Bronze tag to a network container, and the Bronze tag to a compute resource pool, ensuring the placement of Bronze requests to the Bronze-tagged network container and compute resource pool.

Taggable objects can use more than one tag from the same or different tag groups. For example, the cloud administrator can tag a compute resource pool with Bronze and vSphere tags to ensure that only Bronze requests for vSphere hypervisors are provisioned to that compute resource pool. The cloud administrator might also specify that a request from the NYC location be deployed with resources in either a Bronze or Silver compute resource pool.

Consider creating all of the tag groups and tags you expect to need before applying tags to cloud resources. This ensures that you apply tags consistently, and helps you manage your policies more efficiently.

For a suggested tagging strategy, see Tagging recommendations and examples. To create or manage tag groups and tags from the Service Blueprint workspace, see Managing blueprint tags.

The following video (8:04) uses an analogy to explain tags and how BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management uses tags to determine placement when provisioning services.

 https://youtu.be/8DHCc5wveWQ

Before you begin

• Tag names and tag group names can only contain alphanumeric characters, spaces, underscores, and dashes.
• Before applying tags to cloud resources, consider creating all of the tag groups and tags that you expect to need. This practice ensures that you apply tags consistently, and it helps you manage your policies more efficiently.

To create a tag group and its tags

Beginning with release 4.0, BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management provides two user interfaces for creating tags and tag groups, depending on the type of taggable object you are editing. The two interfaces are described below:

• For this style of Tags option , take the following steps:

  1. When creating or editing a taggable object, click the Tag icon .
     The Tags dialog box opens
     

  2. To create a tag group:

     1. Click Manage Tags.
        The Manage Tags dialog box is displayed:
        

     2. Click Add Tag Group.
        An empty blue row for a new tag group is inserted in the Tag Groups table.
     3. Click the new row in the Tag Group column and type the name for the new tag group.
     4. Click Save Tag Group.
     5. The new tag group is saved in the Tag Groups table.

  3. To add tags to the tag group:

     1. Click the name of the tag group to which you want to add tags.
     2. In the Tags table, click Add Tag.
        An empty blue row for a new tag is inserted in the Tags for Selected Tag Group table.
     3. Click the new row in the Tag column and type the name for the new tag.
     4. Click Save Tag.
     5. Continue to add tags to the group until you are finished.

  4. Click Close.
     The following BMC Communities video (2:35) describes how to add missing tag groups and tags for pod-level networks:
      

     https://youtu.be/Tamm0CFmIDM
     

• For this style of Tags option , take the following steps:
  • To create a tag:
    1. Click  or click in the Add tag field. 
       A list of tags appears. 
       
    2. In the Add tag field, enter the name of a tag and press Enter.
       The tag is created and added to the taggable object.
  • To create a tag group:
    1. Click  or click in the Add tag field. 
    2. A list of tags appears.
    3. Scroll to the bottom of the list to find the Add tag group field.
        
    4. In the Add tag group field, enter the name of a tag group and press Enter.
       The tag group is created. You can now add tags to the tag group. 

To apply a tag to an object, see Assigning a tag to an object.

To delete tags and tag groups

Before deleting a tag, confirm that the tag is not being used in a service blueprint and the tag is not being used to identify options. Before deleting a tag group, confirm that no tags in the tag group are being used in a service blueprint or to identify options. You should also confirm that the tag group is not being used in a policy defined in the service governor.

• For this style of Tags option , take the following steps:
  1. When editing a taggable object, click the Tag icon .
     The Tags dialog box is displayed:
  2. Click Manage Tags.
     The Manage Tags dialog box is displayed.
  3. Select a tag group and click Delete Tag Group , or select a tag and click Delete Tag .
     A dialog prompts you to confirm the deletion.  
• For this style of Tags option , take the following steps:
  • To delete a tag:
    
    1. Click in the Add tags field. 
       A list of tags appears.
    2. Scroll to the tag you want to delete and click the Remove tag icon to the right of the tag name. 
       
       A dialog prompts you to confirm the deletion.
  • To delete a tag group. 
    
    1. Click in the Add tags field. 
       A list of tags appears. 
    2. Scroll to the tag group you want to delete and click the Remove tag group icon to the right of the tag group name. 
       A dialog prompts you to confirm the deletion. 

Related topics

Adding and editing policies
Assigning a tag to an object