Topology Types - Please explain Extracted Id Pattern like I'm 5

[36Krazyfists]

I've read the documentation and looked at the very limited examples available in the docs, but I still just do not understand what the "Extracted ID pattern" in the Entity Extraction Rule section of configuring Topology Types is and does.

For example, the CloudFlare extension has a type called cloudflare:zone and the Extracted ID pattern for that is:

cloudflare_zone_{zone_id}

and the Instance Name pattern for that extraction rule is:

Cloudflare Zone - {zone_name}

When I look at entities created by the extension, I see the Instance Name pattern, but I don't see the Extracted ID pattern anywhere.  So, I thought, "Ok, so maybe the Extracted ID pattern comes from the metric dimensions somewhere.", so I looked at the metric dimensions that this type pulls from and nope, no dimension has any kind of key or value that looks like "cloudflare_zone_{zone_id}".  The metrics have a Zone ID dimension and a Zone dimension, but no dimension that has that pattern type as a key or value.

So, what in the world is the Extracted ID pattern used for and where can I see it?

[rastislav_danis · Accepted solution]

Instance ID pattern serves for instance unique ID generation, while instance Name stands just for displaying purposes.

There is no way to display ID pattern string, it just serves for unique ID generation purposes (i suppose).

[36Krazyfists]

Oh, ok.  So it's not looking for that id pattern in the existing record, it's for creating an ID Pattern that it can use for determining uniqueness? 

That is extremely odd that we can't see the id pattern it has created for an entity...  Obviously that ID pattern exists in some way, we should be able to see it from Dynatrace's perspective....