Add custom tags to FlashArray block volumes

PX-CSI automatically tags FlashArray block volumes to identify those created by the CSI driver. You can also define custom tags to apply your own metadata, such as environment names, team ownership, or cost allocation labels.

Tags are supported only for FlashArray block volumes. For more information about FlashArray tags, see FlashArray tag administration.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you are running:

• PX-CSI version 26.2.1 or later.
• Purity version 6.8.2 or later.

Default tag

PX-CSI automatically applies the following tag to each FlashArray block volume when it is dynamically provisioned, cloned, or imported into Kubernetes:

Property	Value	Description
Key	created-by	Identifies the creator of the volume
Value	px-csi	Indicates the volume was created by PX-CSI
Namespace	portworx.internal	Internal namespace for Portworx-specific tags
Copyable	false	Tags are not copied to cloned volumes

The portworx.internal namespace and the created-by key are reserved. You cannot modify or remove this tag.

Custom tags

You can define custom tags on FlashArray block volumes using the pure_backend_tags parameter. Custom tags are applied at provisioning time.

Tag format

Specify tags as a semicolon-separated list. Each tag must use one of the following formats:

Format	Example	Description
key:value	env:production	Adds a tag in the default namespace
namespace:key:value	team:storage:ops	Adds a tag in a custom namespace
key:	owner:	Adds a tag with an empty value

To specify multiple tags, separate them with semicolons: env:production;team:storage:ops.

Add custom tags in a StorageClass

Specify the pure_backend_tags parameter in the StorageClass parameters field:

apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: px-fa-block-tagged
provisioner: pxd.portworx.com
parameters:
  backend: pure_block
  pure_backend_tags: "env:production;team:storage:ops"

Modify or remove custom tags on an existing volume

You can add or remove custom tags on an existing FlashArray block volume using VolumeAttributesClass mutable parameters:

Parameter	Format	Description
pure_backend_tags	key:value or namespace:key:value, semicolon-separated	Tags to add to the volume
pure_backend_remove_tags	key or namespace:key, semicolon-separated	Tag keys to remove from the volume

For pure_backend_remove_tags, specify only the key (not the value). To remove a tag in a custom namespace, use namespace:key format. For more information, see Modify volume attributes of a PVC.

You cannot modify or remove the reserved portworx.internal:created-by tag.

Using tags on FlashArray

You can use tags to identify and filter volumes created by PX-CSI on the FlashArray.

List all volumes with tags

View all volumes and their tags:

purevol list --tags

Name                    Key         Value       Namespace           Copyable
pvc-abc123-fa-vol       created-by  px-csi      portworx.internal   False
pvc-abc123-fa-vol       env         production  default             False
pvc-def456-fa-vol       created-by  px-csi      portworx.internal   False
other-volume            Department  IT          default             True

List only PX-CSI volumes

Filter to show only volumes created by PX-CSI using the tag key and value:

purevol list --tags --filter="key='created-by' and value='px-csi'"

Name                    Key         Value    Namespace           Copyable
pvc-abc123-fa-vol       created-by  px-csi   portworx.internal   False
pvc-def456-fa-vol       created-by  px-csi   portworx.internal   False
pvc-ghi789-fa-vol       created-by  px-csi   portworx.internal   False

This command lists all volumes on the FlashArray that were created by PX-CSI, making it easy to identify and manage CSI-managed volumes separately from other volumes on the array.

View tags for a specific volume

purevol list --tags <volume-name>

Replace <volume-name> with the name of the volume you want to inspect.

You can also filter tags for a specific volume by key:

purevol list --tags <volume-name> --filter="key='created-by'"