Managing tags with Tag Editor - Tagging AWS Resources

Managing tags with Tag Editor

After you find resources that you want to tag, you can add, remove, and edit the tags for some or all of your search results. Tag Editor shows you any tags that are attached to resources. It also shows you whether those tags were added in Tag Editor, by the resource's service console, or by using the API.

Important

Do not store personally identifiable information (PII) or other confidential or sensitive information in tags. We use tags to provide you with billing and administration services. Tags are not intended to be used for private or sensitive data.

Other ways to manage your tags

This topic discusses tagging resources by using Tag Editor in the AWS Management Console. However, you can also manage the tags on your AWS resources by using the following tools:

When you add, remove, or edit existing tags, you're changing tags only on those resources that you select in the results of your Find resources to tag query. You can select up to 500 resources on which to manage tags.

Add tags to selected resources

You can use Tag Editor to add tags to selected resources that are in the results of your Find resources to tag query.

Note

This topic describes how to bulk edit the tags for multiple resources. You can also edit the tag values for an individual resource. For more information, see View and edit tags for a selected resource.

  1. Open the Tag Editor console, and submit a query that returns multiple resources that you want to tag.

  2. In the results table of your Find resources to tag query, select the check boxes next to the resources that you want to add tags to. Enter a text string in Filter resources at the top of the table to filter for part of a resource's name, ID, tag keys, or tag values. In the Tags column, note that resources in the results already have tags applied to them. In the following example, the first EC2 instance in the list already has two tags.

    
                        Find resources query results with four
                            resources selected.
  3. Select the check box for one or more resources, and then choose Manage tags of the selected resources.

  4. On the Manage tags page, shown below, view the tags on the resources that you selected. Although your original query returned more resources, you're adding tags to only those resources that you selected in step 1. Choose Add tag.

    
                        Manage tags page, editing tags of a selected
                            resource.
  5. Enter a tag key and an optional tag value. For this procedure, you'll add the tag key Team and the tag value Development.

    
                        Manage tags page, adding a new tag.
    Note

    A resource can have a maximum of 50 user-applied tags. You might not be able to add new tags to a resource if you're approaching 50 user-applied tags. AWS generated tags don't apply to the 50-tag limit. Tag keys must also be unique within your selected resources. You can't add a new tag with a key that matches a tag key that already exists in your selected resources.

  6. When you're finished adding tags, choose Review and apply changes.

  7. If you accept the changes, choose Apply changes to all selected.

  8. Depending on the number of resources you select, applying new tags can take a few minutes. Don't leave the page or open a different page in the same browser tab. If changes were successful, a green success banner is displayed at the top of the page. Wait for a success or failure banner to appear on the page before you continue.

    If tag changes to some or all resources were not successful, see Troubleshooting tag changes. After you resolve the unsuccessful tag changes (such as insufficient permissions), you can retry the tag changes on resources for which tag changes failed. For more information, see Retry failed tag changes.

Edit tags of selected resources

You can use Tag Editor to change existing tag values on selected resources that are in the results of your Find resources to tag query. Editing a tag changes the tag's value on all selected resources that have the same tag key. You can't rename a tag key, but you can delete a tag and create a tag with a new name to replace the original tag key. This deletes all tags with that key on selected resources.

Important

Do not store personally identifiable information (PII) or other confidential or sensitive information in tags. We use tags to provide you with billing and administration services. Tags are not intended to be used for private or sensitive data.

  1. In the results of your Find resources to tag query, select the check boxes next to the resources for which you want to change existing tags. Enter a text string in Filter resources to filter for part of a resource's name or ID. In the Tags column, note that resources in the results already have tags applied to them. In the following example, the first selected EC2 instance already has two tags.

    
                        Find resources query results with resources
                            selected.
  2. Choose Manage tags of the selected resources.

  3. On the Manage tags page, in Edit tags of selected resources, view the tags on the resource that you selected. Although your original query might have returned more resources, you are changing tags for only those resources that you selected in step 1.

    
                        Manage tags page, editing tags of a selected
                            resource.
  4. Change, add, or delete tag values. Existing tags must have a tag key, but tag values are optional. In this procedure, we change the value of the Team tag to QA.

    
                        Manage tags page, editing tags of a selected
                            resource.

    If resources in your selection have different values for the same key, Selected resources have different tag values is displayed in the Tag value field. In this case, placing your cursor in the box opens a dropdown list of all available values for this tag key in your selected resources.

    
                        Manage tags page, multiple tag values for
                            selected resources.

    If resources in your selection have the tag value you want, the tag value is highlighted as you type it. For example, if resources in your selection already have the tag value QA, the value is highlighted as you type Q. The values in the dropdown list help keep tag values consistent across resources. The tag value is changed on all selected resources. In this example, the tag value is changed to QA for all selected resources that had a Team tag key. For selected resources that don't have the Team tag, the Team tag with the value QA is added.

  5. When you're finished changing tags, choose Review and apply changes.

  6. If you accept the changes, choose Apply changes to all selected.

    
                        Apply tag changes confirmation window.
  7. Depending on the number of resources you selected, editing tags can take a few minutes. Don't leave the page or open a different page in the same browser tab. If changes were successful, a green success banner is displayed at the top of the page. Wait for a success or failure banner to appear on the page before you continue.

    If tag changes to some or all resources were not successful, see Troubleshooting tag changes. After you resolve the root causes of unsuccessful tag changes (such as insufficient permissions), you can retry tag changes on resources for which tag changes failed. For more information, see Retry failed tag changes.

Remove tags from selected resources

You can use Tag Editor to remove tags from selected resources that are in the results of your Find resources to tag query. Removing a tag deletes the tag from all selected resources that have the tag. Because you can't edit tag keys, you can remove tags and replace them with new tags if you need to edit a tag key. This deletes all tags with that key on selected resources.

  1. In the results of your Find resources to tag query, select the check boxes next to the resources you want to remove tags from. Enter a text string in Filter resources to filter for part of a resource's name or ID.

    
                        Find resources query results with resource
                            selected.
  2. Choose Manage tags of the selected resources.

  3. On the Manage tags page, in Edit tags of selected resources, view the tags on the resources that you selected. Although your original query might have returned more resources, you're changing tags for only those resources that you selected in step 1.

    
                        Manage tags page, editing tags of selected
                            resources.
  4. Choose Remove tag next to any tags that you want to delete. In this procedure, we remove the Team tag.

    Note

    Choosing Remove tag removes a tag from all selected resources that have the tag. In the example shown, this removes the Team tag from all selected resources that currently have the Team tag, regardless of the tag's value.

    
                        Manage tags page, removing tags of a selected
                            resource.
  5. Choose Review and apply changes.

  6. On the confirmation page, choose Apply changes to all selected.

  7. Depending on the number of resources you selected, removing tags can take a few minutes. Don't leave the page or open a different page in the same browser tab. If changes were successful, a green success banner is displayed at the top of the page. Wait for a success or failure banner to appear on the page before you continue.

    If tag changes to some or all resources were not successful, see Troubleshooting Tag Changes. After you resolve the root causes of unsuccessful tag changes (such as insufficient permissions), you can retry tag changes on resources for which tag changes failed. For more information, see Retry failed tag changes.

Retry failed tag changes

If tag changes fail on at least one of your selected resources, Tag Editor displays a red banner at the bottom of the page. The banner shows an error message for each type of failure that occurs. For each error, the banner identifies the specific resources on which Tag Editor couldn't make tag changes. After you review and troubleshoot the errors, choose Retry failed tag changes on resources to retry changes on only those resources on which tag changes failed.