Understanding and Creating Tags

Tags are one of the core building blocks of vScope. They store properties (attributes) about your IT assets, helping you organize, search, filter, and gain insights into your environment.

Every Tag in vScope has:

• A Name: what kind of property it is (e.g., RAM, Location, Operating System).
• A Value: the actual data for that property (e.g., 8 GBytes, Sweden, Windows Server 2022).

You’ll see Tags everywhere in vScope — in tables, dashboards, and anywhere assets are shown.
Many Tags come bundled with vScope (e.g., CPU count, Name, OS version, Email). You can also create your own to enrich your asset repository.

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Why Tags Matter

Tags aren’t just labels, they are dynamic data points that make your IT asset repository more valuable:

• Add Context: Add details that matter to your organization (e.g., Location, Service Owner, Contract Expiration).
• Better reporting: Add Tags as columns in tables.
• Smarter filtering: Quickly narrow down assets based on any Tag value.
• Automation: Keep values up to date via discovery, rules, and relationships.
• Consistency: Standardize how teams track and consume asset information.

Tip

Add Tags that make your data easier to work with and that match your actual workflows (e.g., Location, Business Owner, Criticality, AD extensionAttribute).

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Types of Tags in vScope

1. Managed by vScope: Preloaded, automatically updated Tags from discovery. These are continuously improved in new vScope versions.
2. Managed by User: Custom Tags your organization creates via any of the methods below.

Note

You need Contributor or Admin permissions to manage Tags.

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Ways to Create Tags

You can create Tags in four different ways depending on your needs:

1. Manual

For quick notes or one-off categorizations.

• In Tables: Right-click a row → Add Tag → enter name and value → Add Tag.
• In Properties: Use the manual Tag fields in the asset’s right-hand property panel.

Example: Add Location: Sweden to a single server.

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2. By Rule / Filters (Dynamic Tags)

Automatically apply or remove a Tag based on criteria.

1. Go to Tags (Tag management).
2. Create Tag → select asset type (e.g., All Machines).
3. Name the Tag (e.g., Data Center Location) and define its value (e.g., Sweden).
4. Add Filters that decide when the Tag applies (e.g., IPv4=192.168.11.0/24).
5. Save.

Tip

You can create a dynamic Tag directly from a Table by clicking Create Tag.

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3. From Discovery

Pull values from a data source that vScope scans (e.g., Active Directory/Entra ID, virtualization platforms, …).

• Great for importing existing properties such as extensionAttributes (AD/Entra ID) or Tags/Custom Fields (vCenter).
• Ideal to keep values always up to date with your source of truth.

Learn more about Tags from Discovery →

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4. From Relationships

Fetch a Tag value from a related asset by following a relationship path.

This is powerful when the data you want lives on another asset.

Examples:

• Host OS Version: Machine -[Hosted On]-> vHost -> Operating System
• Device Owner Company: Laptop -[Has Primary User]-> Company

How to create a relationship-based Tag:

1. Go to Tags (Tag management page) and select the target asset type for the Tag (e.g., All Machines).
2. Give the Tag a Name.
3. Set the Value source to From relationship.
4. Build the relationship path by choosing the Asset type (e.g., User Account) and the Relationship (e.g., Has Primary User).
5. Choose the final property (Tag) to read from the related asset (e.g., Company).
6. Click Save.

Note

A relationship can lead to multiple matches (e.g., a machine has multiple primary users). If this happens, filter the resulting assets using the Filter Asset option (list + funnel button).

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Real-world Examples

• Location: Assign Location: Sweden to servers in the Swedish data center.
• Business Owner: Import from AD extensionAttribute1.
• OS Lifecycle: Automatically tag servers with Windows Server 2012 R2 as EOL.
• Device Owner Company: Collect Company via relationship from a laptop:
  Laptop -[Has Primary User]-> Company

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Using Tags in vScope

Once created, you can:

• Add Tags as columns and filters in any table or report.
• Show aggregated values in dashboard widgets (group, count, sum where applicable).
• View Tag values in the Properties panel of each asset.

Example workflows:

• Build a dashboard widget showing all laptops grouped by Device Owner Company.
• Filter a table to list only servers with OS Lifecycle = EOL for the security team.
• Export a list of all assets in Location = Sweden for a compliance audit.

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Best Practices

• Be consistent: Standardize Tag names (e.g., Business Owner, not Owner Name in one place and Service Owner in another).
• Prefer automation: Use Discovery, Rules, or Relationships to reduce manual work.
• Avoid redundancy: Don’t duplicate built-in Tags unless you have a specific reason.
• Review regularly: Retire unused Tags and update definitions as your environment evolves.

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Troubleshooting

• Value is empty: The filter didn’t match, the relationship path finds no target, or the source system doesn’t have the property.
• Unexpected value: Check the relationship path and confirm which related asset you’re reading from.
• Can’t edit a value: Some discovery-managed Tags are read-only by design.

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With Tags, you’re not just labeling assets — you’re building a flexible, searchable, and reliable data model that makes vScope even more valuable.