Need Guidance on Tagging “Critical” Hosts in Dynatrace Managed (Multiple Management Zones)

[Sohel_Rashid]

Hi all,

We are using a Dynatrace Managed environment, and our bank has requested to apply a “Critical” tag to around 400 servers.

These hosts belong to multiple management zones such as:

• UPI,Mobile Banking,CBS,TAB,DMS

We would like to understand the best and most efficient way to implement this tagging at scale.

Our queries:

• What is the recommended approach to tag a large number of hosts as “Critical” in Managed?

• Can this be done using auto-tagging rules based on management zones, host groups, or metadata?

• Is there any API-based or bulk method to apply tags across multiple hosts?

Any guidance or best practices would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance!

[t_pawlak · Accepted solution]

Hi

Best practice: auto-tag from a stable source-of-truth attribute

The most efficient option is to make “Critical” derived from something maintained outside Dynatrace (CMDB / inventory / automation / cloud tags or you can use custom metadata). 
Tags versus metadata --> so you can try this 

inject metadata/property → auto-tag rule

• Cloud: use native cloud tags (e.g., critical=true) and create an auto-tag rule based on that tag
• On-prem: push a custom host property/metadata (e.g., critical=true, business.criticality=critical) via your host management tooling, then auto-tag hosts based on that property.

This scales and stays correct over time (new hosts get tagged automatically).

2) Auto-tag “based on Management Zones” — usually not recommended

It’s often circular because Management Zones are typically defined using tags and relationships.
Better: tag using host groups / metadata / naming / cloud tags, then build MZs from those tags.
So the best practise ist 
Metadata --> Tags --> MZ

3) Use Host group. I mean if the 400 hosts map neatly to host groups (UPI, Mobile Banking, CBS, …), create an auto-tag rule:

• If host group IN ... → apply tag Critical.

So IMO best practise:
implement metadata/custom property + auto-tag rule so the tag remains correct as hosts change, and then management zones

[Maheedhar_T]

Hi @Sohel_Rashid ,
Assuming you have hosts spanning across multiple management zones and not all hosts in the management zone need tagging,
You might want to have a look at this API
Custom tags API - POST tags — Dynatrace Docs

Regards,
@Maheedhar_T 

[Sohel_Rashid]

We did it through API and Python, Working fine.