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RightScale Cloud Management Support Portal > Guides > RightScale Methodology > Tagging

Tagging

What is a tag?

A tag or machine tag is a useful way of attaching useful metadata to an object/resource.  Tags are commonly used as an extra label or identifier.  For example, you might want to add a tag to an EBS Snapshot or AMI so that you can find it more quickly.   However, a tag's advanced functionality can be unlocked when it's comprised of three main parts: namespace, predicate and value.  Colons [:] are used to separate namespaces and predicates whereas equal signs [=] separate predicates and values. 

Example:  loadbalancer:lb=www  (a load balancer server for the 'www' vhost)

  • namespace - Namespaces must begin with any character between a-z; remaining characters may be a-z, 0-9 and underscores. Namespaces are case-insensitive. 
  • predicate - Predicates must begin with any character between a-z; remaining characters may be a-z, 0-9 and underscores. Namespaces are case-insensitive.
  • value - Values may contain most standard characters including spaces. Values do not have to be wrapped in quotes. (e.g. "rs_backup:lineage=somevalue")

 

Example Syntax:

namespace:predicate=value

 

RightScale's Tagging System

In October 2009, RightScale introduced Flickr-style machine tagging inside of the RightScale platform.  Tags are specific to a RightScale account.  They are not user-specific.  Tags are also global, so if you add tags to private AMI and later publish that image, everyone will see the tags.  In order to add/edit/delete tags, you will need 'actor' privileges for that RightScale account.

Currently, you can create tags for the following objects/resources:

  • Servers
  • Instances
  • ServerTemplates
  • Deployments*
  • EBS Spapshots
  • EBS Volumes
  • Images**
  • MultiCloud Images

* Deployments can only be tagged through the RightScale API because there is no Info tab for Deployments in the Dashboard GUI.
** Tags can only be added to an image by the owner of the image. The owner of an EC2 Image is based upon the AWS Account Number, not a RightScale account.

 

How can I use tagging inside the RightScale platform?

The support for tagging and its implementations will continue to evolve over time especially as we develop more Chef ServerTemplates.   Currently, the primary use of tags is for filtering purposes.   You can then use the Dashboard GUI or RightScale API to filter and search through tagged items. 

  • RightScale Dashboard - Add/Remove tags to RightScale objects and cloud resources under their respective show pages or Info tabs.  You can add multiple tags per object/resource.   You can then filter by 'tag' to quickly find all of your tagged resources.
  • RightScale API - Similar to the Dashboard, you can use the Rightscale API to add/remove tags to a resource.  You can also search tags for a resource and search for all resources (within a particular type) matching given tags.  See Tags.

How does RightScale intend to use tags?

We intend to use tagging in our Chef ServerTemplates by using the RightLink agent to facilitate communication between related servers.  For example, instead of using DNS lookup and SSH to establish communication between application servers and load balancers, we'll be able to use tags so that we can quickly resolve this information internally.  

For more information about how RightScale intends to use tags, check out our blog post, RightScale ServerTemplates Library and Machine Tags.

 

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