Forum Discussion
Azure customer usage attribution (CUA) - report or validate it is working?
MicrosoftHi ph_richardson -
Here's some additional information related to your question:
Customer Usage Attribution (CUA) validation is critical when you’re using Azure PowerShell with the ISV/SDC Tracking GUID to provision resources in a customer tenant. Here’s how you can report and validate that the attribution is working - take a look below and let me know if you have any additional questions.
How CUA Works
- The Tracking GUID (also called PartnerId) is passed during resource creation (e.g., VM deployment) via Azure PowerShell or ARM templates.
- Azure logs this GUID in the resource metadata, which is then used for attribution in Partner Center.
How to Validate CUA
- Check Resource Metadata
- After provisioning, inspect the resource properties in the customer tenant:PowerShellLook for the tag PartnerId or MicrosoftPartnerNetworkID with your GUID.
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- Get-AzResource -ResourceGroupName <RGName> -Name <ResourceName> | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Tags
- Use Azure Activity Logs
- Query the Activity Log for the deployment operation:PowerShellConfirm that the deployment includes the PartnerId.
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- Get-AzActivityLog -StartTime (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) -ResourceGroupName <RGName>
- Partner Center Reporting
- Attribution data flows into Partner Center Analytics (under Customer Usage Attribution reports) within 24–48 hours.
- Navigate to: Partner Center → Insights → Customer Usage Attribution
- Filter by your MPN ID or Tracking GUID.
- Validate that the usage metrics (VM hours, resource consumption) appear.
- Optional: Azure Resource Graph
- For bulk validation across subscriptions:PowerShell
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- Search-AzGraph -Query "Resources | where tags['PartnerId'] == '<YourGUID>'"
Common Pitfalls
- GUID not applied: Ensure you use the correct parameter (-Tag @{ 'PartnerId'='<GUID>' }) during deployment.
- Cross-tenant provisioning: Attribution only works when resources are deployed in the customer tenant, not in your own subscription.
- Delay in reporting: Partner Center updates are not real-time; allow up to 48 hours.
Hi justinroyal - regards Partner Centre reporting, I don't appear to see the items you pointed out:
Partner Center Reporting
- Attribution data flows into Partner Center Analytics (under Customer Usage Attribution reports) within 24–48 hours.
- Navigate to: Partner Center → Insights → Customer Usage Attribution
- Filter by your MPN ID or Tracking GUID.
- Validate that the usage metrics (VM hours, resource consumption) appear.
Any advice?
Thanks
Hi ph_richardson sorry for any confusion.
There is reporting for usage of Marketplace purchased solutions, which can be found in Usage dashboard of Insights workspace in Partner Center. However, this will not include reporting of Azure customer usage attribution.
The original documentation page you referenced has directions on how to verify deployments tracked with a GUID. Microsoft does not share Azure consumption data tracked via Customer Usage Attribution externally with Partners.
I hope that clarifies reporting and that you were able to validate your tracking ID is working as intended.
Hi v-kylecallahan,
Thanks, unfortunately this still doesn't help me.
The original doc referenced does indeed have a section on "Verify deployments tracked with a GUID" specifically for Resource Manager templates - however the same section also states that it "doesn't apply to Resource Manager API or Terraform deployments".
In our case, we are using Resource Manager API's and with Azure PowerShell (per https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/marketplace-offers/azure-partner-customer-usage-attribution?source=docs#example-azure-powershell) and there is no information on how to confirm if CUA is working or not.
I am not asking for a report on the actual Azure consumption volumes, revenues, etc.; nor am I even looking for a list of end-customers..... all I'm after is a way to confirm that Microsoft is internally indeed seeing seeing Azure consumption data tracked via Customer Usage Attribution for a specific tracking GUID.
For example, perhaps a simple Green/Red indicator next to each Tracking GUID in our partner portal view that indicates some/any consumption data has been received within the last 3-months would be helpful.
While such an indicator doesn't exist as far as I'm aware of, is there a way for someone in Microsoft to manually check a tracking GUID and give a thumbs up/down as to is there CUA data associated to it in the last 3-months?
