Change Tracking

Compare any two past Azure scans side-by-side to see what was added, modified, or deleted. Property-level diffs show the exact before and after value for every changed field, and tenant-wide ignore rules silence noisy fields so real configuration drift stays visible.

What You'll Learn

This documentation covers the Changes view end-to-end:

  • What the Changes view is and the snapshot model behind it
  • How to pick two scans and read the property-level diff
  • How to add an ignore rule from a noisy property in the diff
  • How to read Ignore Metrics Analysis for cross-scan noise patterns
  • Common gotchas around default filters and tenant-wide rule scope

Key Capabilities

Compare Any Two Scans

Pick a baseline and a comparison scan from your full scan history. Compare yesterday with today, or a scan from six months ago with one from this morning.

Property-Level Diffs

Drill into a resource and see a three-column Property / Old Value / New Value table showing the exact before and after value for every changed field.

Filter by Change Type

Narrow on Added, Modified, or Deleted resources. Switch the result layout between Subscription, Resource Type, Region, or Region by Resource Group.

One-Click Ignore from Diff

An eye-slash icon next to any property row creates an ignore rule. Pick a scope: all resource types, the current type only, or the field name everywhere it appears.

Cross-Scan Ignore Metrics

The Ignore Metrics Analysis modal aggregates filtered noise across every scan in the comparison range, so admins can see which rules pull their weight and which fields keep flipping.

Audit-Ready Comparison Links

Every filter, view mode, and Show Ignored state is in the URL. Bookmark a comparison or share it with a teammate for change-review meetings and incident retros.

Related Features

Change Tracking sits at the center of several workflows in StratoLens.

  • Ignore Rules, the rule list at Settings > Ignore List, manage tenant-wide rules and add advanced path-based rules.
  • Your dashboard's recent-changes widget links into the Changes view with a pre-filled scan pair.
  • Resource selection from Resource Explorer, Cost Explorer, and Activity Explorer is preserved when navigating into Changes, the same resource expands automatically.
  • Management Groups Visualization opens from the Changes header when the comparison range contains management group changes.
  • Scan History is the source of truth for which scans exist. If the Snapshot pickers are empty, that's the page to check.

Documentation Sections

Read the Overview first if you're new to scan comparisons. Jump to Comparing Scans for the step-by-step workflow.

Want to learn more about what Change Tracking can do?

Check out the feature page for benefits, use cases, and highlights.

View Feature Page