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Apply inventory tagging to Azure Arc-enabled servers

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This article provides guidance on how to use Azure Arc-enabled servers to provide server inventory management capabilities across hybrid multicloud and on-premises environments.

Azure Arc-enabled servers enable you to manage your Windows and Linux machines hosted outside of Azure on your corporate network or other cloud providers. This is similar to how you manage native virtual machines in Azure. When a hybrid machine is connected to Azure, it becomes a connected machine and is treated as a resource in Azure. Each connected machine has a resource ID, is managed as part of a resource group inside a subscription, and benefits from standard Azure constructs such as Azure Policy and applying tags. The ability to easily organize and manage server inventory using Azure as a management engine greatly reduces administrative complexity and provides a consistent strategy for hybrid and multicloud environments.

The following procedures use Resource Graph Explorer and Azure CLI to demonstrate how to tag and query server inventory across multiple clouds from a single pane of glass in Azure.

Important

The procedures in this article assumes you've already deployed VMs, or servers that are running on-premises or on other clouds, and you have connected them to Azure Arc. If you haven't, the following information can help you automate this.

Prerequisites

  1. Clone the Azure Arc Jumpstart repository.

    git clone https://github.com/microsoft/azure_arc

  2. Install or update Azure CLI to version 2.7 or later. Use the following command to check the current installed version.

    az --version

Verify that your Azure Arc-connected servers are ready for tagging

Use Resource Graph Explorer to query and view resources in Azure.

  1. Enter Resource Graph Explorer in the top search bar in the Azure portal and select it.

    A screenshot of the Resource Graph Explorer in the Azure portal.

  2. In the query window, enter the following query, and then select Run Query:

    Resources
| where type =~ 'Microsoft.HybridCompute/machines'

  3. If you have correctly created Azure Arc-enabled servers, they are listed in the results pane of Resource Graph Explorer. You can also view the Azure Arc-enabled serves from the Azure portal.

    A screenshot of a Resource Graph Explorer query.

    A screenshot of the details of an Azure Arc-enabled server in the Azure portal.

Create a basic Azure tag taxonomy

Open Azure CLI and run the following commands to create a basic taxonomy structure that lets you easily query and report on where your server resources are hosted (whether in Azure, AWS, GCP, or on-premises). For more information on building out a tag taxonomy, see the resource naming and tagging decision guide.

az tag create --name "Hosting Platform"
az tag add-value --name "Hosting Platform" --value "Azure"
az tag add-value --name "Hosting Platform" --value "AWS"
az tag add-value --name "Hosting Platform" --value "GCP"
az tag add-value --name "Hosting Platform" --value "On-premises"

A screenshot of an output of the az tag create command.

Tag your Azure Arc resources

After you've created a basic taxonomy structure, apply tags to the Azure Arc-enabled server resources. The following procedure demonstrates tagging resources in both AWS and GCP. If you only have resources in one of these providers, you can skip to the appropriate section for AWS or GCP.

Tag the Azure Arc-connected AWS Ubuntu EC2 instance

In CLI, run the following commands to apply the Hosting Platform : AWS tag to your AWS Azure Arc-enabled servers.

Note

If you connected your AWS EC2 instances using a method other than the one described in the Azure tutorial, then you need to adjust the values for awsResourceGroup and awsMachineName to match values specific to your environment.

export awsResourceGroup="arc-aws-demo"
export awsMachineName="arc-aws-demo"
export awsMachineResourceId="$(az resource show --resource-group $awsResourceGroup --name $awsMachineName --resource-type "Microsoft.HybridCompute/machines" --query id)"
export awsMachineResourceId="$(echo $awsMachineResourceId | tr -d "\"" | tr -d '\r')"
az resource tag --ids $awsMachineResourceId --tags "Hosting Platform"="AWS"

A screenshot of one output of the az resource tag command.

Tag Azure Arc-connected GCP Ubuntu server

In CLI, run the following commands to apply the Hosting Platform : GCP tag to your GCP Azure Arc-enabled servers.

Note

If you connected your GCP instances using a method other than the one described in the related Azure Arc Terraform tutorial, then you will need to adjust the values for gcpResourceGroup and gcpMachineName to match values specific to your environment.

export gcpResourceGroup="arc-gcp-demo"
export gcpMachineName="arc-gcp-demo"
export gcpMachineResourceId="$(az resource show --resource-group $gcpResourceGroup --name $gcpMachineName --resource-type "Microsoft.HybridCompute/machines" --query id)"
export gcpMachineResourceId="$(echo $gcpMachineResourceId | tr -d "\"" | tr -d '\r')"
az resource tag --resource-group $gcpResourceGroup --ids $gcpMachineResourceId --tags "Hosting Platform"="GCP"

A screenshot of another output of the az resource tag command.

Query resources by tag using Resource Graph Explorer

After you apply tags to the resources that are hosted in multiple clouds, use Resource Graph Explorer to query them and get insight into your multicloud landscape.

  1. In the query window, enter the following query:

    Resources
| where type =~ 'Microsoft.HybridCompute/machines'
| where isnotempty(tags['Hosting Platform'])
| project name, location, resourceGroup, tags

    A screenshot of the details of a Resource Graph Explorer query.

  2. Click Run Query and then select the Formatted Results toggle. If done correctly, you should see all Azure Arc-enabled servers and their assigned Hosting Platform tag values.

    A screenshot of the results of Resource Graph Explorer query.

    We can also view the tags on the projected servers from Azure portal.

    A screenshot of one set of tags on an Azure Arc-enabled server.

    A screenshot of another set of tags on an Azure Arc-enabled server.

Clean up your environment

Complete the following steps to clean up your environment.

  1. Remove the virtual machines from each environment by following the teardown instructions from each guide.

  2. Remove tags created as part of this guide by executing the following script in Azure CLI.

    az tag remove-value --name "Hosting Platform" --value "Azure"
az tag remove-value --name "Hosting Platform" --value "AWS"
az tag remove-value --name "Hosting Platform" --value "GCP"
az tag remove-value --name "Hosting Platform" --value "On-premises"
az tag create --name "Hosting Platform"