Migrate MZ Filters → Variables & Segments

Migrating Dashboard Filters

Management zone filters on dashboards need to be replaced with Segments and DQL variables. This is one of the most impactful changes — a single variable-driven dashboard can replace dozens of MZ-filtered copies.

Segments (Replacing Management Zones)

Gen2: Management Zones                  Gen3: Segments
──────────────────────────────────────  ──────────────────────────────────────
Entity-based filtering (rule-based)     DQL filter expressions (query-time)
Pre-computed (performance overhead)     Query-time (no pre-computation)
Environment-level config                Account-level, reusable across environments
Applied globally or per dashboard       Applied per app, dashboard, notebook

Dashboard Variables

Variables create dropdown filters on dashboards. Users can select values to filter all tiles.

// Variable query: list all host names for a dropdown
fetch dt.entity.host
| fields entity.name
| sort entity.name asc

Using Variables in Tile Queries

// Single-select variable — must have by:{} for | filter to work
timeseries avg(dt.host.cpu.usage), by:{dt.entity.host}
| filter dt.entity.host == $HostVariable

// Multi-select variable
fetch logs, from:now() - 1h
| filter in(dt.process.name, array($ProcessVariable))

Variable Types

Type      How It Works                              Use Case
────────  ────────────────────────────────────────  ──────────────────────────────
Query     DQL query populates dropdown values        Host picker, service picker
Code      JavaScript generates values                Dynamic calculations
Static    Fixed list of values                       Environment names, team names

Query Variable Example

// Populate a host dropdown
fetch dt.entity.host
| fields entity.name
| sort entity.name asc

Multi-Select with array()

// Filter by multiple selected values
fetch logs, from:now() - 1h
| filter in(dt.process.name, array($ProcessVariable))
| summarize count(), by:{loglevel}

Migration: MZ Filters → Variables + Segments

In Gen2, management zones filtered all dashboard tiles globally. In Gen3, you have two options:

Gen2 Pattern                            Gen3 Replacement
──────────────────────────────────────  ──────────────────────────────────────
MZ filter on dashboard                  Segment applied to dashboard
MZ filter per tile                      DQL variable in tile query
MZ for team isolation                   ABAC policy (Phase 4, Module 17)
MZ for cost center                      dt.cost.costcenter tag + variable

Variable JSON Format (for API deployment)

{
  "key": "HostVariable",
  "type": "query",
  "visible": true,
  "version": 2,
  "input": "fetch dt.entity.host | fields entity.name | sort entity.name asc"
}