Auto Tags
Overview
Auto Tags is an advanced feature of the Autofix module that automates the application and maintenance of tags on multi-cloud resources (AWS and Azure). Based on dynamic views previously defined in Lighthouse, the system ensures that the corporate metadata standard is applied continuously, without the need for manual intervention.
Business Objective
In dynamic environments, resources are often created without mandatory tags or have their tags accidentally removed. Auto Tags addresses these governance gaps to avoid:
Unallocated costs: Difficulty in attributing expenses to specific cost centers.
Chargeback failures: Inconsistency in internal billing by product or department.
Loss of Visibility: Inaccurate data in executive reports and financial dashboards.
How It Works: The Automation Flow
The operation occurs in three main stages, integrating Lighthouse with the Autofix execution engine:
1. Scope Definition (Lighthouse)
The user must create a Workspace and a View that represent the dynamic set of resources to be monitored (e.g., all EC2 instances from a specific region or SQL databases from a Production account).
2. Automation Configuration
In the Autofix → Auto Tags module, the user configures the rule:
Selects the source Workspace and View.
Defines the resource identification column.
Establishes the Key/Value pairs of the tags to be enforced.
3. Execution and Revalidation
The system compares the resource's current tags with the desired configuration:
Non-existent tag: It is added to the resource.
Different value: The tag is updated to the configured value.
Identical value: No action is required.
Extra tags: Tags that already exist on the resource but are not in the Auto Tags configuration are preserved (the system never removes tags).
Multi-Cloud Support
Auto Tags operates natively across the main providers through official APIs:
AWS
EC2, RDS, S3, Load Balancers, etc.
Role assumed via AWS Resource Groups Tagging API.
Azure
VMs, SQL DBs, Storage Accounts, RGs, etc.
Client credentials via Azure Resource Management API.
Execution Frequency and Audit
Execution Cycles
To ensure metadata resilience, the system performs recurring checks at fixed times:
Frequency: Every 6 hours.
Windows (UTC): 00:00, 06:00, 12:00 and 18:00.
History and Audit
Each tagging operation is recorded in detail, allowing the tracking of:
Affected resource and source account.
Comparative State: Record of tags "Before" and "After" the intervention.
Status: Success or failure (including technical error messages, if any).
Impact on FinOps and Best Practices
Strategic Impact
Organizational Map: Increases the precision of allocation by business unit.
Data Reliability: Improves dataset quality for executive reports.
Continuous Governance: Ensures compliance even for resources created outside controlled workflows (e.g., via Console).
Best Practices
View Validation: Before activating the status toggle, validate if the View in Lighthouse retrieves exactly the desired resources.
Mandatory Tags: Use Auto Tags to ensure essential keys such as CostCenter, Project, or Environment.
Monitoring: Monitor the reduction of "Unallocated Cost" in the FinOps dashboard after implementation.
For use and access in the Pier platform:
Auto Tags is an Autofix functionality that automates the tagging process. Tagging is done based on the Resource ID or Resource Group ID. To do this, it is necessary to create a rule that links the view to the resources in a workspace to know which resources will be tagged.
Creating a tagging action
On the Auto Tags home screen, click the “Add” button in the top right corner.
Add a name to the tag group that will be create.
Specify a workspace and view to represent the resources that will be tagged.
Select the column of resources that will be tagged.
Select the desired period for Autofix to find information within the Autotag rules.
This feature is more effective when working with CSV files, as it allows you to select a fixed date within a 7-day window. This way, Autofix can execute the entire tagging process based on the exact desired interval, ensuring greater control and precision in tag application. For billing tagging, you can follow the D-1 standard, as billing is updated daily with the most recent information. This ensures the process uses consolidated data from the previous day, maintaining consistency and reliability in the analysis.
and click next
Inform the key and value of the tags so that your resource can be identified.
After adding the key and value, click on “Add new tag” to add new Tag fields, being possible to create multiple tags.
After creating the tag group, the group will be visible on the Auto Tags home screen.
It is possible to turn on and off the action in the status column
It is possible to execute the tagging by clicking on the Execute "
" option on the right.
In addition to editing the resource by clicking the gear "
" on the right.
And delete the tag group by clicking on the trash can "
" next to the gear.
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