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Naming Conventions & Tagging

Purpose

A resource name is the first thing anyone sees in the portal, in a cost report, or in an incident alert. Consistent names make ownership, environment, and purpose readable at a glance, and they make automation possible, because scripts and policies can parse them. Tags carry the metadata that names can't.

Naming pattern

We follow the Cloud Adoption Framework naming guidance:

<type>-<product>-<environment>-<region>-<instance>

%%{init: { "flowchart": { "useMaxWidth": true } } }%%
flowchart LR
    T[type] --> P[product] --> E[environment] --> R[region] --> I[instance]
    T -.- TE[dbw]
    P -.- PE[visionanalytics]
    E -.- EE[prd]
    R -.- RE[swc]
    I -.- IE[001]

    classDef example fill:#e3f2fd,stroke:#1565c0
    class TE,PE,EE,RE,IE example
Segment Values Notes
type CAF abbreviation See the table below
product Short lowercase product name No hyphens inside the product name itself
environment dev / tst / acc / prd Subscriptions use prd / nonprd instead: they are the environment class, resources carry the specific environment
region swc for Sweden Central Our default region (see Regions & Storage)
instance 001, 002, ... Always three digits, even for the first instance

Abbreviations for our most-used resources

Taken from the CAF abbreviation list:

Resource Abbreviation Example
Resource group rg rg-visionanalytics-prd-swc-001
Microsoft Fabric capacity fc fcvisionanalyticsprd001 1
Databricks workspace dbw dbw-visionanalytics-prd-swc-001
Databricks access connector dbac dbac-visionanalytics-prd-swc-001
Azure SQL Database server sql sql-visionanalytics-prd-swc-001
Azure SQL database sqldb sqldb-visionanalytics-prd-swc-001
Storage account / ADLS Gen2 st stvisionanalyticsprd001 1
Key vault kv kv-visionanalytics-prd-swc-01 2
Data Factory adf adf-visionanalytics-prd-swc-001
User-assigned managed identity id id-visionanalytics-prd-swc-001
Log Analytics workspace log log-visionanalytics-prd-swc-001
Virtual network vnet vnet-visionanalytics-prd-swc-001
Subscription sub sub-visionanalytics-prd / sub-visionanalytics-nonprd

Check name rules before you settle on a product name

The 24-character limits on storage accounts and Key Vaults are the ones that bite. Pick a short product code early: visionanalytics is already too long for st + product + prd + instance to stay under 24 characters. Prefer something like visan.

Tagging

Tags travel with the resource into cost reports, inventories, and alerts. Two tags are mandatory on every resource, enforced by Azure Policy at the management group level:

Tag Required Example value Purpose
Owner ✅ sander.allert@plainsight.pro Who to contact: accountability for cost and incidents
Environment ✅ Production / Acceptance / Test / Development Filtering in cost analysis and safe-to-touch decisions
AppName Recommended Vision Analytics Groups resources across resource groups
CostCenter Recommended CC-1042 Chargeback to the right budget
Impact Recommended High / Medium / Low Prioritizing incidents and maintenance windows

Use Azure Policy with the inherit tag from resource group effect so resources automatically pick up Owner and Environment from their resource group: tag once, inherit everywhere.

Quick Reference: Do's and Don'ts

Do ✅ Don't ❌
Follow <type>-<product>-<env>-<region>-<instance> for every resource Invent per-project naming schemes
Use CAF abbreviations for the type segment Make up your own abbreviations
Keep product codes short (think of the 24-character limits) Discover the storage account limit at deploy time
Tag Owner and Environment on everything Leave tagging as a cleanup task for later
Enforce names and tags with Azure Policy Rely on code review to catch naming drift
Use lowercase everywhere Mix casing between resources

  1. Storage accounts and Fabric capacities only allow lowercase letters and numbers (no hyphens), and storage account names are capped at 24 characters. Drop the hyphens and, if needed, the region segment. ↩↩

  2. Key Vault names are capped at 24 characters. Shorten the product name or instance segment when necessary. ↩