Settings & Behavior
Tune what counts as orphaned, hide recommendations you've deliberately kept, and understand how the Metrics Timeframe filter narrows the list. Detection thresholds live under Settings > Orphaned Resource Detection.
Permissions
Viewing recommendations and reading thresholds is available to read-only roles. Saving threshold changes requires a role with write access to scanner settings.
Detection Thresholds
Two thresholds control when a resource starts qualifying as orphaned. Both accept integers between 0 and 365, and changes take effect on the next scan, not retroactively.
Defaults
- Minimum Idle Days
- 7
- Snapshot Age Threshold
- 10 days
Minimum Idle Days
The minimum days of inactivity required before a metrics-based detector flags a resource. Set to 0 to flag immediately. Affects metrics-based detectors only: VPN Gateways, Azure Bastions, idle Application Gateways, idle NAT Gateways, idle Traffic Manager Profiles, Container Registries, and Storage Accounts. Inventory-based detectors are unaffected.
Tune for your environment
If you're seeing freshly deployed gateways flagged before they've had a chance to carry traffic, raise this threshold. Lower it when you're actively hunting waste in a stable environment and want recent inactivity to count.
Snapshot Age Threshold
The minimum age in days for a Disk Snapshot to be flagged as Stale. Set to 0 to flag every snapshot.
Long retention environments
For DR or compliance archives where snapshots are intentionally kept for months, set this to 180 or 365 so day-to-day snapshots aren't flagged.
Threshold changes are not retroactive
Raising a threshold won't remove existing recommendations on save. Those drop off on the next scan when they no longer qualify.
Metrics Timeframe Filter
The Metrics Timeframe dropdown at the top of the Orphaned Resources page (1 Day, 7 Days, 14 Days, 30 Days, 60 Days, default 30 Days) only affects metrics-based recommendations. It changes the window used to decide whether a resource is "still active":
- If the resource's last activity falls inside the window, it's considered active and excluded from the list.
- If the resource has no activity, or its last activity falls before the window, it's considered idle and included.
Inventory recommendations always show
Unattached disks, NICs, NSGs, and other inventory-based recommendations are always included regardless of the timeframe selection.
Filtering is client-side and instant, no rescanning is needed when changing it. All filter selections, the timeframe, Show hidden, Show resolved, and the current selection are stored in the URL, so you can bookmark or share a filtered view.
Hiding Recommendations
Click Hide on a recommendation card you've deliberately kept (a resource that's required for an upcoming launch, a snapshot held for compliance, an idle gateway used for failover). The dialog has an optional Reason field, the reason is recorded in the activity log for audit.
Hidden recommendations stay hidden across scans. They reappear when Show hidden is on, and unhiding from there is immediate. Unhiding takes effect right away, no scan needed.
Hide is shared, not personal
Hiding is tenant-scoped. Anyone with access to your StratoLens instance sees the same hidden state, so coordinate with teammates before hiding shared resources.
Hidden recommendations are excluded from dashboards
The dashboard widget's counts and the Top Savings Opportunities table do not include hidden recommendations. To reconcile a difference between the widget total and the page, toggle Show hidden on the page.
Troubleshooting
I deleted the resource in Azure but it still shows here
Answer
Recommendations are recomputed each scan. Run a new scan and the resource will move from the active list into Show resolved with a Resource Deleted badge.
I changed Minimum Idle Days but recommendations didn't disappear
Answer
Threshold changes apply on the next scan, not on save. Run a new scan to apply the new threshold.
My VPN Gateway is brand new but already shows as Idle
Answer
Check whether Minimum Idle Days is set to 0. At 0, every metrics-based resource without recorded activity is flagged immediately. Raise it to the default 7 or higher to give new resources time to record activity.
The cost shown is lower than what I see in Cost Management
Answer
The cost on each card is rolling 30-day actual spend, or a calendar-day-normalized projection when less than 30 days of cost data exist. Azure Cost Management's forecasts use a different model and time horizon, so the numbers won't match exactly.
The widget total doesn't match the page
Answer
The widget excludes hidden recommendations. Toggle Show hidden on the full page to see them and reconcile the count.