You use categories to group tags together and define how tags can be applied to objects. You create, edit, and delete a tag category from the vSphere Client.

You can create a tag category explicitly, as explained here, or as part of the tag creation process. Each tag has to belong to at least one tag category.

Prerequisites

The required privilege depends on the task that you want to perform.
Task Privilege
Create a tag category vSphere Tagging.Create vSphere Tag Category on the root vCenter Server
Edit a tag category vSphere Tagging.Edit vSphere Tag Category on the root vCenter Server.
Delete a tag category vSphere Tagging.Delete vSphere Tag Category on the root vCenter Server.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, click Menu > Tags & Custom Attributes.
  2. Click the Tags tab and click Categories.
  3. Start the task that you want to perform.
    Option Description
    Create a tag category Click the New Category icon.
    Edit a tag category Select a category and click the Edit Category icon.
    Delete a tag category Select a category from the list and click the Delete Category icon.
  4. Edit the category options.
    Option Description
    Category Name The category name must be unique to the currently selected vCenter Server system.
    Description You can provide text in the description to describe the purpose or use of the category.
    Tags Per Object
    • If you select One Tag, you can apply only one tag from this category to an object.

      Use this option for categories whose tags are mutually exclusive. For example, if you have a category called Priority with tags High, Medium, and Low, then each object should have only one tag because an object can have only one priority.

    • If you select Many tags, you can apply more than one tag from the category to an object.

      Use this option for categories whose tags are not mutually exclusive.

    After you have set Tags Per Object, you can change from One Tag to Many Tags, but not from Many Tags to One Tag.

    Associable Object Types

    Select whether tags in this category can be assigned to all objects or only to a specific type of object, such as a virtual machine or a datastore.

    Changes to the associable object type are limited.

    • If you initially selected a single object type, you can later change the category to work for all object types.
    • If you initially selected All Objects, you cannot restrict the category later.
  5. Click OK or Yes to confirm.