Forum Discussion
Azure customer usage attribution (CUA) - report or validate it is working?
- Oct 26, 2025
Hi 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.
- Show more lines
- 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.
- Show more lines
- 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
- Show more lines
- 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 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.
- Show more lines
- 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.
- Show more lines
- 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
- Show more lines
- 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.