Friday, August 7, 2015

ManageIQ Categories and Tags

In my previous post, I demonstrated how to use ManageIQ for cost transparency by using the chargeback feature. In that post, we used tags that were set on our virtual machines to define them by their service class and classify them as internal or external resources. In this follow-up post, we are going to step through the process of managing and creating ManageIQ categories and tags.

To start, we are going to open up ManageIQ and select the Configure tab. Click on the Configuration menu, highlight your Region under Settings, and then select your company Categories.



Categories are intended to group tags together that have certain characteristics. For instance, one category that is provided by default is Service Level. In that category, I have tags that include Bronze, Silver, and Gold. 

In the example below, to create a new category, I am going to click on the + sign on the first row of the table.


On the next screen, I am going to give my category a Name, which is the short name in the VMDB (Note: Once this name has been established, it cannot be modified). Additionally, I am going to create a Display Name and Description. For our example, I am creating an entry for Department Vice President; this will allow me to tag the virtual machines in my environment with the Department VP for chargeback reporting.  


  • Show in Console indicates the category is ready for use by objects in ManageIQ
  • Single Value specifies only one tag can be selected in the specific category (For instance, I can only have one service level for my virtual machines)
  • Capture C & U Data by Tag is used to group capacity and utilization data by the tag category

After you click Add, you will get a notification banner displaying the Category "Department Vice President" was added and you will be able to see it in the Category table.


Next we are going to define the tags in our new category, click on the company Tags link. Using the Category drop-down menu, I am going to select my new category of Department Vice President and then click the + sign on the top row so I can add new tags.


I have added three Department Vice Presidents tags to my category, I can edit the tags by clicking on the row, delete the tag by clicking the trash can, or add additional tags by clicking the + sign.


Now I am going to add this new tag to a virtual machine, I am going to open up Infrastructure, then Virtual Machines, and select my ManageIQ virtual machine.


Click on the Policy drop-down menu and select Edit Tags.


On the Select a customer tag to assign field, I am going to select Department Vice President and assign the value of Jason Gaudreau.


I am now tagged on the ManageIQ virtual machine as the Department Vice President. I can use this tag as a filter on my chargeback report to find out how many virtual machines are being used by my department, the utilization of the resources, and the weekly or monthly cost.


That is all there is to it! As my 8 year old would say, "Easy peasy lemon squeezy".
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