Tag Format and Application

An asset tag is primarily composed of a Category:Value pair. For example, if you want to group your assets by location, create a Location category with the value Headquarters.

Note: If you want to create tags without individual categories, Tenable recommends that you add the generic category Category, which you can use for all your tags.

Tag membership is reevaluated:

  • When you update or create a tag

  • When Tenable.io imports data

  • Every 12 hours

Manual Tags vs. Automatic Tags

When you create a tag, Tenable.io automatically applies it to the assets on your instance that match the tags rules. These automatically applied tags are sometimes called dynamic tags. When you create an automatic tag, Tenable.io applies that tag to all your current assets and any new assets added to your organization's account. Tenable.io also regularly reviews your assets for changes to their attributes and adds or removes automatic tags accordingly.

Note: When you create or edit an automatic tag, Tenable.io may take some time to apply the tag to existing assets, depending on the system load and the number of matching assets.

You can also create a tag without rules and then manually apply the tag to individual assets. Alternatively, you can manually apply an automatic tag to additional assets that may not meet the rules criteria for that tag. These manually applied tags are sometimes called static tags.

Manual tags appear with the icon, whereas automatic tags appear with the icon.

See the following examples for clarification:

Scenarios Tag Type Tag Icon
You create a tag with Location:Headquarters as the Category:Value pair, but you do not add any tag rules. Later, you add the tag to assets located at your headquarters. Manual
You create a tag with Location:Headquarters as the Category:Value pair, and you specify an IP address range in the tag rules. Tenable.io then automatically applies the tag to all existing or new assets within that IP address range. Automatic