CloudWatch Centralization Now Carries Your Tags Along with the Logs!

Hi, it's Shiichan! Here's an update for anyone centralizing logs across accounts.

AWS What's New aws.amazon.com

What was announced?

AWS's What's New page announced that Amazon CloudWatch Centralization now supports tag propagation. CloudWatch Centralization aggregates log data from multiple accounts and Regions into one destination account, and with this update, tags on the source log groups can now be copied over to the destination log groups too.

The story so far

CloudWatch Centralization already let you aggregate logs from multiple accounts and Regions into one place. But tags you maintained on the source log groups — for cost, ownership, or compliance — weren't carried over to the destination log groups. Even with solid tag hygiene on the source side, that information used to get lost once logs were centralized.

What changes

With this update, the tags you maintain at the source now apply to the copied logs as well. CloudWatch copies the tags of each source log group to its destination log group and keeps them in sync, based on the tag propagation behavior you select as part of the centralization rule setup.

For example, a platform team can preserve Application and CostCenter tags on the centralized log groups, then use those tags to scope access with IAM conditions and report centralized log spend by team in AWS Cost Explorer.

Dive Deep

Setup is simple: turn on tag propagation for a centralization rule in the Amazon CloudWatch console, or via the AWS CLI or AWS SDKs.

Tag propagation is available in all AWS Regions where CloudWatch Centralization is available — check the AWS Regions table for the full list. See the Log Centralization User Guide for more details if your team wants to keep tag management intact while centralizing logs.

Wrap-up

• CloudWatch Centralization now copies tags from source log groups to the destination log groups it creates
• You choose the tag propagation behavior as part of the centralization rule setup, and tags stay in sync
• Tags like Application and CostCenter can now power IAM-conditioned access and per-team cost reporting in Cost Explorer
• Configurable via the console, AWS CLI, or AWS SDKs
• Available in all Regions where CloudWatch Centralization is available

If your platform team centralizes logs across accounts and Regions but doesn't want to lose its tagging discipline in the process, this update is for you!