In this article:
In the process of creating cloud resources using your cloud account, CloudShell Colony automatically tags the infrastructure resources that it creates in your cloud account.
Tags can appear in the cloud provider’s monthly billing report. Using the tags in your billing report, you can to easily connect use cases with a cost. For example, measure the cost of performance testing sandboxes or sandboxes deployed by specific users.
In AWS every sandbox is deployed as a separate CloudFormation stack. CloudShell Colony tags both CloudFormation stack and the EC2 instances that are created in the stack with the same out-of-the-box tag. The tags are:
- colony_space_name
- colony_blueprint_name
- colony_sandbox_name
- colony_owner_email
CloudFormation (stack) Tags
Every sandbox deployed in AWS has a unique name composed of an indication that the sandbox was deployed by CloudShell Colony, followed by the sandbox's identifier, followed by an additional description that was provided by the sandbox owner.This allows you to search and easily find a specific sandbox stack.
Selecting a specific sandbox stack opens the Details pane displaying the tags.
EC2 Instance Tags
CloudShell Colony uses the same out-of-the-box tags for both CloudFormation and EC2 instances.
Custom Tags
You can create your own custom tags in every blueprint. When you launch a sandbox, CloudShell Colony adds both custom and out-of-the-box tags, to the CloudFormation stack and to all relevant EC2 instances.
For more information on adding custom tags to a blueprint see The Blueprints YAML file.
AWS Cost Allocation Tags
You can define which tags to include in your AWS billing report by activating the required tags in AWS's Cost Allocation Tags page.
CloudShell Colony tags will display in AWS’s Cost Allocation Tags page after you begin to launch sandboxes.
It is recommended to activate CloudShell Colony’s out-of-the-box tags and any custom tag you added to your blueprints.
For more information about AWS’s cost allocation tags see Using Cost Allocation Tags.