AWS Resource Tags
Flightcontrol leverages a set of AWS resource tags to simplify the management and organization of managed resources. These tags facilitate resource tracking, hierarchical organization, and cost allocation across your AWS environment.
Common tags
These tags are applied universally across all Flightcontrol-managed resources:
| Tag Key | Description | Default Value |
|---|---|---|
fc:createdBy | Denotes that the resource is created and managed by flightcontrol | flightcontrol |
fc:purpose | Represents the use case of the provisioned resource | Empty |
Resource specific tags
Resource-specific tags use the unique identifiers of each Flightcontrol entity (such as services, environments, projects, or organizations) and are embedded in the tag values.
| Tag Key | Description | Format |
|---|---|---|
fc:id | Unique ID of the Flightcontrol entity (service, environment, etc) | srv-<service-id> or env-<environment-id> or … |
fc:serviceId | Unique ID for the service | srv-<service-id> |
fc:environmentServiceId | Unique ID for the parent environment service | esrv-<service-id> |
fc:environmentId | Unique ID for the parent environment | env-<environment-id> |
fc:previewEnvironmentId | Unique ID for the parent preview environment | prenv-<environment-id> |
fc:projectId | Unique ID for the parent project | proj-<project-id> |
fc:awsAccountId | Unique ID for the connected AWS account | acc-<account-id> |
fc:organizationId | Unique ID for the Flightcontrol organization | org-<organization-id> |
Note: The tags are listed in order of specificity. Every Flightcontrol-managed resource includes the most specific fc:id tag, followed by its parent tags. This hierarchical tagging structure provides clear context about the resource’s usage through Flightcontrol.
For example, when a RDS database is provisioned, it is tagged with all relevant Flightcontrol identifiers based on the service, environment, project, and organization it belongs to.
These tags can be used to filter and search for resources in the AWS console as well as be used in the AWS Cost Explorer to analyze managed resource costs by the tags in a service / environment / project / organization level which will be covered in the next section.
AWS Cost Explorer
By default, Flightcontrol activates the resource tag keys above as cost allocation tags in AWS Cost Explorer. This enables more accurate current usage and cost data in your Flightcontrol dashboard.
View the troubleshooting guide in case the tags are not visible in the AWS Cost Explorer or AWS Cost Explorer is not enabled.
Viewing Costs by Tags in AWS Cost Explorer
Follow these steps to analyze your costs by Flightcontrol resource tags:
1. Open AWS Cost Explorer:
Navigate to the Cost Explorer tab.
2. Apply Tag Filters:
In the Filter dropdown, select the resource tag key you wish to analyze.
3. Example – Filter by Service:
If you filter by the fc:id tag (for instance, with a value like srv-cm3iyrhvl000v7idac6vdeci5), AWS Cost Explorer will display all cost data associated with that service. The results are shown both in tabular form and in graphical representations, making it easier to understand your spending at the service, environment, project, or organization level.
AWS Resource Explorer
AWS Resource Explorer enables you to quickly search and discover AWS resources across your account. By leveraging Flightcontrol’s resource tags, you can easily identify all related resources within a service, environment, project, or organization.
Enabling AWS Resource Explorer
Before you can search for resources using tags, ensure that AWS Resource Explorer is enabled:
1. Open AWS Resource Explorer
Navigate to the AWS Resource Explorer in the AWS Management Console.
2. Enable Resource Explorer (if not already enabled)
- If this is your first time using Resource Explorer, follow the guided setup to enable it in your AWS account.
- Choose a home Region to store indexes for faster searches.
3. Wait for Indexing to Complete
AWS may take a few minutes to index your resources before they appear in search results.
Searching for Resources by Tag
Once AWS Resource Explorer is enabled, you can search for all AWS resources associated with a specific Flightcontrol tag.
Example: Finding All Resources for a Specific Service
