[GH-ISSUE #225] Feature Proposal: Labels and Tags for Instances

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:31 +03:00

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Originally created by @kstieger on GitHub (Mar 6, 2019).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/retspen/webvirtcloud/issues/225

Hi,
we are moving from ESXi to KVM servers in our company. One useful feature in vSphere Client was, you could group machines in folders (resource groups).
Unfortunately wervirtcloud and/or libvirt doesn't support this out of the box.
So I decided to implement (or better hack) it for our needs. The idea was to use the section of the xml definition of a Domain to store a project label and tags.
Looks like this:

  <metadata xmlns:project="example.com/meta/project" xmlns:tags="example.com/meta/tags">
    <project:name xmlns:project="example.com/meta/project">Infrastructure</project:name>
    <tags:value xmlns:tags="example.com/meta/tags">linux fedora29 icinga</tags:value>
  </metadata>

How it looks in the instances view and the instance settings you can see in the attached screenshots.

My code changes are very hacky (at least the django frontend stuff) and currently the grouping is only available as admin user.
But, if you like it, I would share my changes. But it needs further work to get a clean implementation. And I would need help with the django part.

Originally created by @kstieger on GitHub (Mar 6, 2019). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/retspen/webvirtcloud/issues/225 Hi, we are moving from ESXi to KVM servers in our company. One useful feature in vSphere Client was, you could group machines in folders (resource groups). Unfortunately wervirtcloud and/or libvirt doesn't support this out of the box. So I decided to implement (or better hack) it for our needs. The idea was to use the <metadata> section of the xml definition of a Domain to store a project label and tags. Looks like this: ```xml <metadata xmlns:project="example.com/meta/project" xmlns:tags="example.com/meta/tags"> <project:name xmlns:project="example.com/meta/project">Infrastructure</project:name> <tags:value xmlns:tags="example.com/meta/tags">linux fedora29 icinga</tags:value> </metadata> ``` How it looks in the instances view and the instance settings you can see in the attached screenshots. ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/38071946/53875893-e2776380-4005-11e9-9217-0389e97a145e.png) ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/38071946/53875829-beb41d80-4005-11e9-9acb-9986a06f1706.png) My code changes are very hacky (at least the django frontend stuff) and currently the grouping is only available as admin user. But, if you like it, I would share my changes. But it needs further work to get a clean implementation. And I would need help with the django part.

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@catborise commented on GitHub (Mar 7, 2019):

hi,
it is a nice feature, tagging and grouping. It is nice to have. i think it can be done with webvirtcloud but modifying libvirt xml.. ımmh i dont know.
There are two views for intances list. first one is host group view. The other ungrouped instance list view.
May be we can add the other view which is directory/project/resources view.

one question: why dont you use description field for tag info? for search? for grouping? what is the benefit ?

@catborise commented on GitHub (Mar 7, 2019): hi, it is a nice feature, tagging and grouping. It is nice to have. i think it can be done with webvirtcloud but modifying libvirt xml.. ımmh i dont know. There are two views for intances list. first one is host group view. The other ungrouped instance list view. May be we can add the other view which is directory/project/resources view. one question: why dont you use description field for tag info? for search? for grouping? what is the benefit ?

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 7, 2019):

Hi,
thanks for reply.
Yes, first I was also thinking about to 'abuse' description field for this additional meta data.
But description is also used for free text information (in our case) and parsing this would be very hard.
And yes, description is also not present in the Instances view, so I think searching would also not available out of the box.

To store the information directly in the machines configuration has the advantage, that the information is also available for other systems than webvirtcloud (also kind of mandatory in my usecase).
In the libvirt XML Domain definition there is already a section for store this kind of data: https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMetadata
AFAIK OpenStack is also using this for additional data.

Yes, you are right with the topic of the different views. I did a really dirty hack and rewrote the the grouped View. Thats why I didn't make pull request, this has to be fixed. Maybe it is possible to do this with Javascript/jQuery to rewrite the table on demand when triggering a switch like 'Group by Label' or so ... (But I don't have any skills in this technics. ;) )

If interrested I could create a patch for you in the next days. So you could try it, and review my changes.

Regards,
Kurt

@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 7, 2019): Hi, thanks for reply. Yes, first I was also thinking about to 'abuse' description field for this additional meta data. But description is also used for free text information (in our case) and parsing this would be very hard. And yes, description is also not present in the Instances view, so I think searching would also not available out of the box. To store the information directly in the machines configuration has the advantage, that the information is also available for other systems than webvirtcloud (also kind of mandatory in my usecase). In the libvirt XML Domain definition there is already a section for store this kind of data: https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMetadata AFAIK OpenStack is also using this for additional data. Yes, you are right with the topic of the different views. I did a really dirty hack and rewrote the the grouped View. Thats why I didn't make pull request, this has to be fixed. Maybe it is possible to do this with Javascript/jQuery to rewrite the table on demand when triggering a switch like 'Group by Label' or so ... (But I don't have any skills in this technics. ;) ) If interrested I could create a patch for you in the next days. So you could try it, and review my changes. Regards, Kurt

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@catborise commented on GitHub (Mar 7, 2019):

i especially using this application for instance names. As you know openstack/cloudstack/opennebula gives name like instance-xyz. I do not want that. I want to give names like i write. Because i do not want to lock myself to management node. i want to manage them easily without many layers.

As i see, you are using libvirt/webvirtcloud like openstack/cloudstack/opennebula/proxmox style. Why do not use them?(this question is only for my curiosity)

We can use metadata tags for instances. it could be useful. But main consideration of this app is that giving web ui to libvirt. it is not a management app like openstack controller or vcenter server.

Beside that if you upload your code to github i can check it.
And there is a version 2 it could give much more flexibility(with api, react, django-restframework ), but it is not ready yet.
(i am a contributor, owner is retspen :) big changes are his decision)

@catborise commented on GitHub (Mar 7, 2019): i especially using this application for instance names. As you know openstack/cloudstack/opennebula gives name like instance-xyz. I do not want that. I want to give names like i write. Because i do not want to lock myself to management node. i want to manage them easily without many layers. As i see, you are using libvirt/webvirtcloud like openstack/cloudstack/opennebula/proxmox style. Why do not use them?(this question is only for my curiosity) We can use metadata tags for instances. it could be useful. But main consideration of this app is that giving web ui to libvirt. it is not a management app like openstack controller or vcenter server. Beside that if you upload your code to github i can check it. And there is a version 2 it could give much more flexibility(with api, react, django-restframework ), but it is not ready yet. (i am a contributor, owner is retspen :) big changes are his decision)

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 7, 2019):

Hi,
yes this is the same reason why we are using webvirtcloud and not one of the cloud controllers. Webvirtcloud acts as a simple and quick interface to manage and view the the running domains.
As I said, it's working fine here and I just wanted to know if this changes would be useful for other webvirtcloud users. In this case I would contribute my code for discussion about.
I will create a patch or PR and then you decide if it is useful for the product.

@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 7, 2019): Hi, yes this is the same reason why we are using webvirtcloud and not one of the cloud controllers. Webvirtcloud acts as a simple and quick interface to manage and view the the running domains. As I said, it's working fine here and I just wanted to know if this changes would be useful for other webvirtcloud users. In this case I would contribute my code for discussion about. I will create a patch or PR and then you decide if it is useful for the product.

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 7, 2019):

Hi all,
I am really FOR the labels / tags functionality. It will also help me a lot to manage my VM instances.
SO I am supporting this with two hands :)
Another great functionality will be the VNC reverse proxying to be option to choose (or enabled by default).
@kstieger - please, upload your code and contribute it. It will help a lot 👍

@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 7, 2019): Hi all, I am really FOR the labels / tags functionality. It will also help me a lot to manage my VM instances. SO I am supporting this with two hands :) Another great functionality will be the VNC reverse proxying to be option to choose (or enabled by default). @kstieger - please, upload your code and contribute it. It will help a lot 👍

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 12, 2019):

Hi,
@Bandic007 , @catborise:
I commited my changes to the forked repo:
https://github.com/kstieger/webvirtcloud/tree/labelsAndTags

As I mentioned before, the code is far from perfect and at least the 2nd commit for grouping on labels has much space for improvement. But for now this only a proposal. Let me know what you think about this.
Thanks

@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 12, 2019): Hi, @Bandic007 , @catborise: I commited my changes to the forked repo: https://github.com/kstieger/webvirtcloud/tree/labelsAndTags As I mentioned before, the code is far from perfect and at least the 2nd commit for grouping on labels has much space for improvement. But for now this only a proposal. Let me know what you think about this. Thanks

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 12, 2019):

@catborise - can you merge this with your repo and review if you can improve something? I don't get the code so much but I will test it too!
Thanks!

@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 12, 2019): @catborise - can you merge this with your repo and review if you can improve something? I don't get the code so much but I will test it too! Thanks!

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@catborise commented on GitHub (Mar 13, 2019):

@Bandic007 kstieger is using my latest commit. it includes everything, so you can test it. Feedback is important.

my main consideration is merging it as third view option..

@kstieger i have some questions about code for clearity. i will write them to code line...
thanks

@catborise commented on GitHub (Mar 13, 2019): @Bandic007 kstieger is using my latest commit. it includes everything, so you can test it. Feedback is important. my main consideration is merging it as third view option.. @kstieger i have some questions about code for clearity. i will write them to code line... thanks

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 14, 2019):

I've tried it and I am getting the following error when I try to access the Instances page from inside the Compute:
`

Request Method:	GET
http://rack.bigspace.top:443/computes/1/instances/
1.11.18
NoReverseMatch
Reverse for 'instance' with arguments '(1, '')' not found. 2 pattern(s) tried: ['instances/(?P<compute_id>[0-9]+)/(?P[\w\-\.]+)/#*$', 'instances/(?P<compute_id>[0-9]+)/(?P[\w\-\.]+)/$']
/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/urls/resolvers.py in _reverse_with_prefix, line 497
/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/bin/python2
2.7.15
['/srv/webvirtcloud', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/bin', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/lib/python2.7', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/lib/python2.7/plat-x86_64-linux-gnu', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/lib/python2.7/lib-tk', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/lib/python2.7/lib-old', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload', '/usr/lib/python2.7', '/usr/lib/python2.7/plat-x86_64-linux-gnu', '/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages']
Thu, 14 Mar 2019 12:56:18 +0000

`

@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 14, 2019): I've tried it and I am getting the following error when I try to access the Instances page from inside the Compute: ` Request Method: | GET -- | -- http://rack.bigspace.top:443/computes/1/instances/ 1.11.18 NoReverseMatch Reverse for 'instance' with arguments '(1, '')' not found. 2 pattern(s) tried: ['instances/(?P<compute_id>[0-9]+)/(?P<vname>[\\w\\-\\.]+)/#*$', 'instances/(?P<compute_id>[0-9]+)/(?P<vname>[\\w\\-\\.]+)/$'] /srv/webvirtcloud/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/urls/resolvers.py in _reverse_with_prefix, line 497 /srv/webvirtcloud/venv/bin/python2 2.7.15 ['/srv/webvirtcloud', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/bin', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/lib/python2.7', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/lib/python2.7/plat-x86_64-linux-gnu', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/lib/python2.7/lib-tk', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/lib/python2.7/lib-old', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload', '/usr/lib/python2.7', '/usr/lib/python2.7/plat-x86_64-linux-gnu', '/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages', '/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages'] Thu, 14 Mar 2019 12:56:18 +0000 `

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 14, 2019):

Uahah, yes I can see it.
Introduced with this commit github.com/kstieger/webvirtcloud@3137d9882a
Will have a look on it soon.
Thanks, for finding.

@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 14, 2019): Uahah, yes I can see it. Introduced with this commit https://github.com/kstieger/webvirtcloud/commit/3137d9882a9eea3754c90f2dc8bb5c611b0598f0 Will have a look on it soon. Thanks, for finding.

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 14, 2019):

@kstieger - about the addition in the settings.py file about xml - which address should I put there and will it work as expected if I leave it default

@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 14, 2019): @kstieger - about the addition in the settings.py file about xml - which address should I put there and will it work as expected if I leave it default

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 14, 2019):

Hi @Bandic007 .

In most cases the default should be ok. It just needs to be a uniq identifier for the namespace. It could also be set to 'webvirtcloud.io/metadata'. However, if you have a domain under your control you could use this.
My source for this topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_namespace

Greetings.

@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 14, 2019): Hi @Bandic007 . In most cases the default should be ok. It just needs to be a uniq identifier for the namespace. It could also be set to 'webvirtcloud.io/metadata'. However, if you have a domain under your control you could use this. My source for this topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_namespace Greetings.

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 14, 2019):

@kstieger - great, thanks!
Can you please review the instaces page as I am using it more often trough there than the dashboard.
Thank you!

@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 14, 2019): @kstieger - great, thanks! Can you please review the instaces page as I am using it more often trough there than the dashboard. Thank you!

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 15, 2019):

@Bandic007 : Fixed the issue with the Compute > Instances view temporary.
(see also https://github.com/kstieger/webvirtcloud/issues/1)
This view works now again, but without labels and tags. Will implement this asap.
Meanwhile you can pull my latest commit to get rid of the error message.

@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 15, 2019): @Bandic007 : Fixed the issue with the Compute > Instances view temporary. (see also https://github.com/kstieger/webvirtcloud/issues/1) This view works now again, but without labels and tags. Will implement this asap. Meanwhile you can pull my latest commit to get rid of the error message.

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 15, 2019):

@kstieger - can you make the separator for the tags to be comma or semicolon (, or ;) - not space? It seems more logical to me.

@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 15, 2019): @kstieger - can you make the separator for the tags to be comma or semicolon (, or ;) - not space? It seems more logical to me.

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 15, 2019):

@Bandic007: I prefer whitespaces, but I consider to make it configureable, https://github.com/kstieger/webvirtcloud/issues/3

@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 15, 2019): @Bandic007: I prefer whitespaces, but I consider to make it configureable, https://github.com/kstieger/webvirtcloud/issues/3

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 16, 2019):

Thank you! Can such tags functionality be applied for examole for the drives of the vms too? I mean when I go in storage, choose the disks storage and view all drives there, to be able to tag them too or matbe they to get tags from the vms that they are attached to? Or it willl be too much of a change?

@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 16, 2019): Thank you! Can such tags functionality be applied for examole for the drives of the vms too? I mean when I go in storage, choose the disks storage and view all drives there, to be able to tag them too or matbe they to get tags from the vms that they are attached to? Or it willl be too much of a change?

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 16, 2019):

@Bandic007 This sounds very interesting. Let keep this in mind. But for now the metadata is stored in the domain (vm instance) context. I don't know if the volume or storage pool xml definition also allows to store metadata. Didn't find it on the first look. Can you create a feature ticket with a usecase example in my fork?
But for now I'll care about to implement the labels and tags in a correct way to the views. When this is done, and the code is mergeable we can think about metadata for other items than domains.

@kstieger commented on GitHub (Mar 16, 2019): @Bandic007 This sounds very interesting. Let keep this in mind. But for now the metadata is stored in the domain (vm instance) context. I don't know if the volume or storage pool xml definition also allows to store metadata. Didn't find it on the first look. Can you create a feature ticket with a usecase example in my fork? But for now I'll care about to implement the labels and tags in a correct way to the views. When this is done, and the code is mergeable we can think about metadata for other items than domains.

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 16, 2019):

Great! You plan to merge with catborise repo or with master one?

@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 16, 2019): Great! You plan to merge with catborise repo or with master one?

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 19, 2019):

@kstieger - when do you plan to merge?

@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 19, 2019): @kstieger - when do you plan to merge?

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 21, 2019):

Hey @kstieger - there are some updates on the @catborise repo - please, pull first before merge as I want to get the latest changes :) I can't wait to see this merge happen as it will help me so much in organisation.

@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 21, 2019): Hey @kstieger - there are some updates on the @catborise repo - please, pull first before merge as I want to get the latest changes :) I can't wait to see this merge happen as it will help me so much in organisation.

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 26, 2019):

@catborise - do you plan to implement labels and tags in your repo too? My main upstream is your repo, so I will be glad if I can pull them from there after your revision of course!

@lord-kyron commented on GitHub (Mar 26, 2019): @catborise - do you plan to implement labels and tags in your repo too? My main upstream is your repo, so I will be glad if I can pull them from there after your revision of course!

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@catborise commented on GitHub (Mar 26, 2019):

I think kurt develops it as third view option. If he completes it as described he could merge it to retspen also i can merge... it could takes time to implement. I can also implement it but it would be redundant effort.

Meanwhile v2 waits for centos 8, retspen said that.

@catborise commented on GitHub (Mar 26, 2019): I think kurt develops it as third view option. If he completes it as described he could merge it to retspen also i can merge... it could takes time to implement. I can also implement it but it would be redundant effort. Meanwhile v2 waits for centos 8, retspen said that.

kerem commented

2026-02-27 15:57:32 +03:00

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@schidirala-celestial commented on GitHub (Feb 15, 2023):

Hi, we are moving from ESXi to KVM servers in our company. One useful feature in vSphere Client was, you could group machines in folders (resource groups). Unfortunately wervirtcloud and/or libvirt doesn't support this out of the box. So I decided to implement (or better hack) it for our needs. The idea was to use the section of the xml definition of a Domain to store a project label and tags. Looks like this:
  <metadata xmlns:project="example.com/meta/project" xmlns:tags="example.com/meta/tags">
    <project:name xmlns:project="example.com/meta/project">Infrastructure</project:name>
    <tags:value xmlns:tags="example.com/meta/tags">linux fedora29 icinga</tags:value>
  </metadata>
How it looks in the instances view and the instance settings you can see in the attached screenshots.

My code changes are very hacky (at least the django frontend stuff) and currently the grouping is only available as admin user. But, if you like it, I would share my changes. But it needs further work to get a clean implementation. And I would need help with the django part.

Hi Team,
in which file do I need to add the below entry, I appreciate it if you can share how-to

@schidirala-celestial commented on GitHub (Feb 15, 2023): > Hi, we are moving from ESXi to KVM servers in our company. One useful feature in vSphere Client was, you could group machines in folders (resource groups). Unfortunately wervirtcloud and/or libvirt doesn't support this out of the box. So I decided to implement (or better hack) it for our needs. The idea was to use the section of the xml definition of a Domain to store a project label and tags. Looks like this: > > ``` > <metadata xmlns:project="example.com/meta/project" xmlns:tags="example.com/meta/tags"> > <project:name xmlns:project="example.com/meta/project">Infrastructure</project:name> > <tags:value xmlns:tags="example.com/meta/tags">linux fedora29 icinga</tags:value> > </metadata> > ``` > > How it looks in the instances view and the instance settings you can see in the attached screenshots. > > ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/38071946/53875893-e2776380-4005-11e9-9217-0389e97a145e.png) > > ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/38071946/53875829-beb41d80-4005-11e9-9acb-9986a06f1706.png) > > My code changes are very hacky (at least the django frontend stuff) and currently the grouping is only available as admin user. But, if you like it, I would share my changes. But it needs further work to get a clean implementation. And I would need help with the django part. Hi Team, in which file do I need to add the below entry, I appreciate it if you can share how-to

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[GH-ISSUE #225] Feature Proposal: Labels and Tags for Instances #150