When you define an auto-tagging rule or a management-zone rule targeting a specific entity type, Dynatrace can automatically extend that rule's effect to related entity types through implicit propagation. These propagation paths are fixed and built into the Dynatrace rule engine; no additional configuration is required.
Implicit propagation means that metadata applied by a rule to a source entity type is automatically inherited by one or more target entity types, without any additional rule configuration. Propagation applies to newly created entities as well, so a child entity that appears after a rule is already active immediately inherits its parent's assignments.
Only auto-tagging rules and management-zone rules trigger implicit propagation. Conditional naming rules and entity-selector-based rules do not.
The following table lists all implicit propagation paths, the target entity types that inherit the metadata, and the rule types for which propagation is active.
| Source entity type | Propagates to | Available for | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Process group | Process group instance | Auto-tagging, Management zones | Ensures tags and management-zone assignments applied to a logical process group automatically reach its runtime instances. |
Process group | Process group instance, Container group | Management zones | Management-zone metadata flows to the instances and container groups related to the process group. |
Process group | Container group instance | Management zones | Ensures containerized runtime instances receive process-group-level management-zone data. |
Host | Kubernetes node | Auto-tagging, Management zones | Host-level metadata is propagated to the Kubernetes node that the host represents. |
Host | EC2 instance, Container group instance | Management zones | Host-level metadata propagates to cloud instance representations and container group instances running on that host. |
Hypervisor | vCenter | Management zones | Hypervisor-level metadata is visible on the associated vCenter object. |
AWS credentials | AWS availability zone, AWS Lambda function, AWS application load balancer, AWS network load balancer, EC2 instance, Custom device, Custom device group, Auto scaling group, Relational database service | Management zones | Credential-level tags and labels propagate broadly across all AWS resource types discovered using those credentials. Expect wide propagation scope when targeting credential-level entities. |
Cloud application | Cloud application instance | Management zones | Cloud-application metadata flows to its concrete running instances. |
Synthetic test | Application | Management zones | Metadata on a synthetic test can flow to the application that the test targets. |
Auto-tagging, management-zone, and service naming rules are evaluated asynchronously against recently observed entities. During regular processing, rules that use standard conditions evaluate entities observed within the previous 2 hours, while entity-selector-based rules evaluate entities observed within the previous 6 hours. When a rule is created or changed, Dynatrace re-evaluates that rule for entities observed within the previous 7 days. The rule preview is different: it checks a specific rule on demand against entities observed within the previous 72 hours, but it doesn't apply tags or management zones.
An entity matches only when the entity and all attributes, relationships, and related entities required by the rule are available within the applicable evaluation timeframe. For example, a recently active entity might not match when the rule requires a related entity or relationship that wasn't observed within that timeframe.
You can't force a rule to evaluate inactive entities or configure a longer inactivity window. Dynatrace evaluates those entities again once they report data and the required rule data is available.