12 KiB
Grafana
Open-source platform for monitoring and observability.
- TL;DR
- Setup
- Configuration
- Provisioning
- Dashboards of interest
- Alerting
- APIs
- Further readings
- Sources
TL;DR
Grafana needs a database to store users, dashboards, and other data. It supports mysql, postgres or sqlite3.
By default it uses the sqlite3 embedded database included in the main Grafana binary.
Grafana creates a folder for each installed plugin, containing its associated files and data.
Plugin files are located by default in $PWD/data/plugins (/var/lib/grafana/plugins for deb or rpm
packages).
Usage
docker run -d --rm --name 'grafana-oss' -p '3000:3000' 'grafana/grafana-oss'
docker run -d --rm --name 'grafana-enterprise' -p '3000:3000' -ti -entrypoint 'bash' 'grafana/grafana-enterprise'
# Return health information
GET /api/health
Real world use cases
# Export all existing dashboards by ID.
curl -sS 'http://grafana:3000/api/search' -H 'Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=' \
| jq -r '.[].uid' - \
| parallel " \
curl -sS 'http://grafana:3000/api/dashboards/uid/{}' -H 'Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=' \
> '{}.json' \
"
Setup
Kubernetes
helm repo add 'grafana' 'https://grafana.github.io/helm-charts'
helm -n 'monitoring' upgrade -i --create-namespace --set adminPassword='abc0123' 'grafana' 'grafana/grafana'
helm -n 'monitoring' upgrade -i --create-namespace --repo 'https://grafana.github.io/helm-charts' 'grafana' 'grafana'
Access components:
| Component | From within the cluster |
|---|---|
| Server | grafana.monitoring.svc.cluster.local:80 |
# Access the server
kubectl -n 'monitoring' get secret 'grafana' -o jsonpath='{.data.admin-password}' | base64 --decode
kubectl -n 'monitoring' get pods -l 'app.kubernetes.io/name=grafana,app.kubernetes.io/instance=grafana' \
-o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}' \
| xargs -I '%%' kubectl -n 'monitoring' port-forward "%%" '3000'
Clean up:
helm -n 'monitoring' delete 'grafana'
kubectl delete namespace --ignore-not-found 'monitoring'
Access Prometheus instances in the same namespace using http://prometheus-server.
Configuration
Refer Configuration file location.
Grafana searches for default settings in the ${PWD}/conf/defaults.ini file. Do not change this file.
Depending on the executing OS, Grafana searches for custom configuration in the ${PWD}/conf/custom.ini or in the
/usr/local/etc/grafana/grafana.ini files. Specify a custom file path with the --config option.
deb and rpm packages put the custom configuration file at /etc/grafana/grafana.ini, and do not use a separate
custom.ini file. That path is specified in Grafana's init script using the --config option.
Prefer using environmental variables to override existing options (and not to add them).
All letters must be uppercase.
Replace periods (.) and dashes (-) with underscores (_).
# default section
instance_name = ${HOSTNAME}
[security]
admin_user = admin
[auth.google]
client_secret = 0ldS3cretKey
[plugin.grafana-image-renderer]
rendering_ignore_https_errors = true
[feature_toggles]
enable = newNavigation
# export GF_${SECTION NAME}_${KEY}='value'
export \
GF_DEFAULT_INSTANCE_NAME='some-instance' \
GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_USER='owner' \
GF_AUTH_GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET='newS3cretKey' \
GF_PLUGIN_GRAFANA_IMAGE_RENDERER_RENDERING_IGNORE_HTTPS_ERRORS=true \
GF_FEATURE_TOGGLES_ENABLE='newNavigation'
Grafana evaluates options containing the expression $__<PROVIDER>{<ARGUMENT>}or ${<ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE>}.
The evaluation runs the specified provider with the provided argument to get the final value of the option.
Available providers are env, file, and vault.
The env provider expands environment variables.
One can also use the short-hand syntax ${PORT}.
instance_name = ${HOSTNAME}
[paths]
logs = $__env{LOGDIR}/grafana
The file provider reads a value from a file in the filesystem.
It trims whitespace from the beginning and the end of files.
[database]
password = $__file{/etc/secrets/gf_sql_password}
The vault provider integrates with Hashicorp Vault.
It is only available in Grafana Enterprise.
Provisioning
See provision dashboards and data sources for details.
Datasources
Data sources can be managed automatically at provisioning by adding YAML configuration files in the
provisioning/datasources directory.
Each configuration file can contain a list of datasources to add or update during startup.
If the data source already exists, Grafana reconfigures it to match the provisioned configuration file.
Grafana also deletes the data sources listed in deleteDatasources before adding or updating those in the datasources
list.
---
apiVersion: 1
datasources:
- id: 1
name: Prometheus
orgId: 1
uid: a17feb01-a0c1-432e-8ef5-7b277cb0b32b
type: prometheus
typeName: Prometheus
typeLogoUrl: public/app/plugins/datasource/prometheus/img/prometheus_logo.svg
access: proxy
url: http://prometheus:9090
user: ''
database: ''
basicAuth: false
isDefault: true
jsonData:
httpMethod: POST
readOnly: false
The easiest way to write datasources definitions in the configuration file is to:
-
Login to Grafana as
admin -
Manually setup the datasource
-
Issue a
GET /api/datasourcesrequest to Grafana's API to get the datasource configurationcurl -sS 'http://grafana:3000/api/datasources' -H 'Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=' -
Edit it as YAML
-
Drop the YAML definition into the
provisioning/datasourcesdirectory
$ curl -sS 'http://grafana:3000/api/datasources' -H 'Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=' \
| yq -y '{apiVersion: 1, datasources: .}' - \
| tee '/etc/grafana/provisioning/datasources/default.yml'
apiVersion: 1
datasources:
- id: 1
uid: a17feb01-a0c1-432e-8ef5-7b277cb0b32b
orgId: 1
name: Prometheus
type: prometheus
typeName: Prometheus
typeLogoUrl: public/app/plugins/datasource/prometheus/img/prometheus_logo.svg
access: proxy
url: http://rpi4b.lan:9090
user: ''
database: ''
basicAuth: false
isDefault: true
jsonData:
httpMethod: POST
readOnly: true
Dashboards
Dashboards can be automatically managed by adding one or more YAML config files in the provisioning/dashboards
directory.
Each config file can contain a list of dashboards providers that load dashboards into Grafana from the local
filesystem.
When Grafana starts, it will insert all dashboards available in the configured path, or update them if they are already
present.
Later on it will poll that path every updateIntervalSeconds, look for updated json files and update/insert those into
the database.
apiVersion: 1
providers:
- name: dashboards
folder: ''
disableDeletion: false
updateIntervalSeconds: 10
allowUiUpdates: false
options:
path: /var/lib/grafana/dashboards
foldersFromFilesStructure: true
Save existing dashboards like you would for the datasources.
Save the dashboard definitions in JSON files in the path searched by the provider (e.g. /var/lib/grafana/dashboards).
curl -sS 'http://grafana:3000/api/search' -H 'Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=' \
| jq -r '.[].uid' - \
| parallel " \
curl -sS 'http://grafana:3000/api/dashboards/uid/{}' -H 'Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=' \
> '/var/lib/grafana/dashboards/{}.json' \
"
Dashboards of interest
| Name | Grafana ID | URLs |
|---|---|---|
| Node exporter full | 1860 | summary code |
| OpenWRT | 11147 | summary code |
| Prometheus | 19105 | summary code |
| Kubernetes Cluster (Prometheus) | 6417 | summary |
| Kubernetes cluster monitoring (via Prometheus) | 315 | summary |
| Nextcloud | 20716 | summary |
Alerting
Refer alerting and Get started with Grafana Alerting.
- Create a contact point if not existing already.
- Create an alert rule.
APIs
Refer HTTP API reference.
Further readings
- Website
- Github
- Documentation
- HTTP API reference
- Prometheus
- docker compositions/monitoring
- Official helm chart
- Loki
- Get started with Grafana Alerting
Sources
All the references in the further readings section, plus the following: