Grafana FAQ & Answers

Grafana is open-source visualization platform for metrics, logs, and traces. 'Query, visualize, alert on, and explore your metrics, logs, and traces' through interactive dashboards. Key features: multi-datasource support (Prometheus, CloudWatch, Loki, Elasticsearch, PostgreSQL), 20+ visualization types, alerting, provisioning, templating, plugins, RBAC, Explore (ad-hoc queries). Editions: OSS (free), Enterprise (advanced features, support). Use cases: infrastructure monitoring, application metrics, business analytics, IoT. Industry standard for observability visualization.

Datasources: backends Grafana queries for data. 'Connects to diverse sources including Prometheus, CloudWatch, Loki, Elasticsearch, PostgreSQL, GitHub.' Built-in: Prometheus, Loki, Tempo, Elasticsearch, MySQL, PostgreSQL. Plugins: extend with community datasources. Configuration: Settings > Data Sources, add datasource, configure URL/auth. Default datasource: mark for quick selection. Variables: reuse dashboards with different datasources. Provisioning: YAML files for infrastructure-as-code. Multiple instances: same datasource type, different configs. Essential for data integration.

Dashboard: collection of panels organized in grid. Panel: individual visualization (graph, table, gauge). '20+ visualization types including time-series, gauges, heatmaps, tables, state timelines with configurable options for legends, tooltips, thresholds, field overrides.' Create: + icon > Dashboard > Add panel. Panel options: query, visualization type, panel options, overrides. Time range: dashboard-level or panel-level. Rows: organize panels. Best practice: 'add Text panel for documentation' - purpose, links, instructions. Import/export: JSON. Essential building blocks of Grafana.

Variables: dynamic dashboard values enabling reuse. Types: Query (from datasource), Custom (manual list), Constant (fixed value), Datasource (switch datasources), Interval, Text box, Ad hoc filters. Syntax: $variable_name or ${variable_name}. Use in: panel queries, panel titles, thresholds. Multi-value: select multiple values. All option: select all. Chaining: variable depends on another. Best practice: 'use templates and variables to reuse dashboards' - don't need separate dashboard per node. Essential for flexible dashboards.

Grafana Alerting: unified alerting for all datasources. Alert rules: define conditions, labels, annotations. 'Create Grafana-managed and data source-managed alert rules.' Evaluation: periodic check of conditions. States: Normal, Pending, Alerting. Contact points: notification destinations (Slack, email, PagerDuty, webhook). Notification policies: routing based on labels. Silences: temporary mute. Mute timings: scheduled mutes (maintenance windows). Templates: customize notifications. Best practice: 'alert on symptoms rather than causes' - alert on RED dashboards. Essential for proactive monitoring.

Best practices: (1) 'Alert on symptoms rather than causes' - user-facing issues, not internal metrics. (2) 'Alerts should only be created for big events requiring immediate attention' - quality over quantity. (3) Avoid noisy alerts: use silences, mute timings, tune rules. (4) Meaningful labels: for routing, grouping. (5) Clear annotations: templates for context. (6) Test alerts: verify before production. (7) Review effectiveness: continually tune. (8) Group related alerts: reduce noise. (9) Escalation: progressive notification. Use for: actionable issues only. Essential for effective on-call.

Provisioning: 'infrastructure-as-code approaches' for Grafana config. Provision: datasources, dashboards, alert rules, contact points. Files: YAML in provisioning directory. 'Each dashboard config file contains manifest specifying desired state of dashboard providers.' 'Grafana regularly checks for changes to dashboard definitions (by default every 10 seconds).' Datasource versioning: 'adding version number prevents old configurations from overwriting newer ones.' Benefits: GitOps, reproducibility, multi-instance management. Use for: automation, version control, disaster recovery. Essential for production deployments.

Best practices: (1) 'Add documentation with Text panel' - purpose, links, instructions. (2) 'Reuse dashboards with templates and variables' - don't duplicate per node. (3) 'Make datasource a template variable' - reuse across clusters. (4) Consistent naming: clear dashboard/panel titles. (5) Organize: use folders, tags, rows. (6) Time ranges: appropriate defaults. (7) Thresholds: visualize limits (green/yellow/red). (8) Annotations: mark events. (9) Links: dashboard links, drilldowns. (10) Performance: limit queries, use recording rules. Essential for maintainable dashboards.

Explore: ad-hoc querying without dashboard creation for troubleshooting and data exploration. 'Explore your data through ad-hoc queries and dynamic drilldown. Split view and compare different time ranges, queries, and data sources side by side.' Features: query editor, log/trace viewer, split view, query history. Explore Apps Suite (now Drilldown apps): Metrics Drilldown, Logs Drilldown, Traces Drilldown, Profiles Drilldown provide queryless, point-and-click UIs without needing PromQL/LogQL/TraceQL. Use cases: incident response, log pattern detection, trace comparison for latency issues, hypothesis testing. vs Dashboards: Explore for investigation, dashboards for monitoring. Essential for observability workflows.

20+ visualization types available. Primary visualizations: (1) Time series: 'time based line, area and bar charts' - default for monitoring metrics over time. (2) Gauge: traditional rounded visual showing threshold proximity. (3) Stat: 'single values of interest with optional sparkline' - current/latest value, replaces deprecated Singlestat. (4) Table: tabular data, multiple metrics. (5) Bar chart: compare categories. (6) Heatmap: density over time. (7) State timeline: state changes. (8) Logs: log lines from Loki. (9) Node graph: dependencies. (10) Geomap: geographic data. Choose based on data type, message, audience. 'play.grafana.org has demo dashboards showcasing all visualizations.' Essential for effective communication.

RBAC: 'standardized way of granting, changing, and revoking access' for Grafana resources. Available in Grafana Enterprise and Cloud. Permission structure: action + scope. Role types: Basic roles (OSS standard), Fixed roles (pre-defined), Custom roles (Enterprise - 'unique combinations of permissions actions and scopes'). Management: Grafana UI, HTTP API, Terraform, or provisioning (YAML). Basic roles: Admin (manage users/datasources), Editor (create/edit dashboards), Viewer (read-only). Teams: group users, assign permissions. Service accounts: API access, automation. Folders: organize with folder-level permissions. Use for: multi-user environments, compliance, security. Essential for production Grafana.

Git Sync: Grafana 12 feature for 'managing dashboards as code as JSON files stored in GitHub.' Bidirectional: 'works both with changes done directly in GitHub as well as in the Grafana UI.' Save button 'triggers workflow to save dashboard directly to configured GitHub repository.' Pull request integration: 'Grafana integration comments with before-and-after previews of dashboard changes.' Benefits: version-controlled history, revert to previous versions, compare modifications, transparency. Status (2025): experimental for OSS/Enterprise, private preview for Cloud. Currently supports: dashboards and folders only (alerts/panels planned). Authentication: Personal Access Token. Use for: GitOps workflows, collaboration, disaster recovery. Modern observability-as-code approach.

Transformations: 'manipulate data returned by a query before the system applies a visualization.' Operations: filter by value ('similar to SQL WHERE clause'), join by field (merge data from multiple sources), organize fields, calculate field, group by, sort, limit, concatenate, spatial operations. Use cases: combine datasources, calculate rates, filter data, rename fields. 'Filter data by values transformation allows you to include or exclude rows based on specific values.' Pipeline: multiple transformations applied sequentially. 2025 UI improvements: see more transformations at once, search/filter by actions/outcomes, improved descriptions with visualization images. Config: Transformations tab in panel editor. Use for: data preparation, multi-query panels. Essential for complex visualizations.

Plugins: extend Grafana functionality. Three types: (1) Panel plugins: 'add new visualization types available for dashboards.' (2) Data source plugins: 'communicate with external data sources, return data in Grafana format.' (3) App plugins: 'bundle data sources, panels, dashboards, and Grafana pages into cohesive experience.' Install: grafana-cli or UI (Administration > Plugins and data > Plugins). Filter by: Data sources, Panels, Applications. Signed plugins: verified by Grafana Labs. Unsigned: allow in config (security risk). Develop: plugin SDK. Marketplace: grafana.com/plugins with hundreds of community plugins. Use for: custom visualizations, new integrations, specialized monitoring. Essential for extending Grafana.

Annotations: mark events on time-series graphs for correlation with metrics. Sources: query-based (from datasource), manual entry, or API. Types: dashboard annotations (appear on all panels) or panel annotations (single panel only). Use cases: deployments, incidents, releases, maintenance windows, alerts. Query annotations: automatic from datasource (e.g., Prometheus firing alerts, Loki log patterns). Display: vertical lines (events) or regions (time ranges). Tags: filter/categorize annotations. Configuration: Dashboard settings > Annotations. API: POST /api/annotations for programmatic creation. Use for: correlating events with metrics spikes, root cause analysis, incident timelines. Essential for observability and incident investigation.

Loki: 'horizontally-scalable, highly-available, multi-tenant log aggregation system inspired by Prometheus.' Key difference: 'indexes only metadata about logs as a set of labels' not full log contents. Features: efficient storage (highly compressed chunks), cost-effective (dramatically reduced storage vs full-text indexing), LogQL query language (PromQL-inspired with labels/operators). Two query types: log queries (return log lines), metric queries (calculate values from logs). Integration: seamless with Grafana, Mimir, Tempo for complete observability stack. Query: {app='nginx'} |= 'error'. Promtail: log shipper. Alerting: ruler component integrates with Alertmanager. Essential for unified observability.

Dashboard links: navigate between related dashboards. Types: dashboard link (static URL), link with variables (dynamic, passes current values), external link (documentation/tools). Drilldown: panel → detailed dashboard for focused analysis. Configure: Panel editor > Links section. Variable passing: include ${variable_name} to maintain context across dashboards. Data links: clickable links on specific data points using field values. URL variables: ${__value} (point value), ${__field.name} (field name), ${__series.name} (series name), ${__data.fields.fieldName} (any field). Use cases: overview → detail workflows, related metric exploration, external documentation. Breadcrumbs: navigation trail. Essential for dashboard hierarchy and investigative workflows.

Thresholds: define value ranges with color coding for visual alerts. Types: absolute (fixed values like 80, 90, 100) or percentage. Colors: customizable (default: green/yellow/red). Display modes: background color, value color, or both. Apply to: Gauge, Stat, Bar Gauge, Table, Time series. Use for: SLO visualization, capacity thresholds, performance boundaries. Value mappings: transform numeric/text values to human-readable text or colors. Types: value (exact: 1→'Running'), range (0-50→'Low'), regex pattern, special (null, true, false). Examples: HTTP codes (200→'OK', 404→'Not Found'), boolean (1→'Active', 0→'Inactive'). Field overrides: apply different thresholds/mappings per series. Essential for readable, actionable dashboards.

Current status (2025): Legacy alerting completely removed from Grafana 11+ (May 2024). Only unified alerting (Grafana Alerting) available. Unified alerting (Grafana 8+): 'alerts decoupled from dashboarding, making system more powerful and scalable.' Features: system-wide visibility with single rule generating multiple alert instances, combine data from multiple sources, multi-dimensional rules (fewer rules, less noise). Integration: 'deep integration with Prometheus ruler and Alertmanager.' Capabilities: retrieve rules from all Prometheus/Loki/Alertmanager datasources, label-based routing, silences, mute timings. vs Legacy: Legacy only supported graph panel alerts, no multi-datasource queries. Migration timeline: deprecated in Grafana 9, removed in Grafana 11. Essential for modern observability.

Enterprise: commercial edition with advanced features. Key features: (1) SAML authentication: 'enables users to authenticate with single sign-on services using SAML.' (2) Reporting: 'generate PDF report from any dashboard and schedule email delivery.' (3) White labeling: 'customize Grafana from brand and logo to footer links.' (4) Enhanced RBAC: fine-grained permissions, custom roles. (5) Data source permissions: restrict per datasource. (6) Enterprise plugins: Oracle, MongoDB, Splunk, Snowflake, ServiceNow. (7) Audit logging: compliance tracking. (8) 24/7 support and SLA. 2025 recognition: Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Observability Platforms. OSS: free core features. Enterprise: compliance, enterprise integrations, support. Essential for large organizations.

Scaling strategies for enterprise deployments: (1) Horizontal scaling: multiple Grafana instances behind load balancer with shared database. (2) Database: MySQL or PostgreSQL for production (SQLite for development only). (3) Session caching: Redis/Memcached for distributed sessions. (4) Provisioning: infrastructure-as-code with YAML for datasources, dashboards, alerts (automated, version-controlled). (5) Organization: folders per team/service, RBAC with teams for access control. (6) Template dashboards: variables to reuse across nodes/clusters, library panels for standard visualizations. (7) Query optimization: datasource caching, recording rules for expensive queries. (8) Dashboard lifecycle: archive/delete unused dashboards. (9) Monitoring: monitor Grafana metrics (request latency, query performance). (10) High availability: database replication, multi-region deployment. Essential for thousands of users.

Folders: hierarchical organization for dashboards. Permissions: folder-level RBAC (Viewer, Editor, Admin roles). Inheritance: dashboards automatically inherit folder permissions (simplifies management). General folder: default folder with no custom permissions (public access). Permission levels: Viewer (read-only), Editor (create/edit dashboards in folder), Admin (manage folder permissions, move/delete). Use cases: team separation (engineering/ops/security), project organization, environment separation (prod/staging/dev). Create: Dashboards > New folder. Move: dashboard settings > General > Folder. Search: filter by folder in dashboard list. Tags: cross-folder organization (orthogonal to folders). RBAC integration: assign teams/users to folders. Best practice: folder per team/service, clear naming conventions. Essential for multi-team deployments.

Library panels: 'reusable panel that you can use in any dashboard. When you make a change to a library panel, that change propagates to all instances.' Storage: saved in folders with RBAC permissions. Create (Grafana 11.5+): Panel edit mode > More > Create library panel (moved from sharing options). Use: Add panel > Add library panel > Select from list. Updates: modify on any dashboard, save changes propagate to all instances automatically. Unlink: 'when you want to make a change to the panel and not affect other instances.' Use cases: standard visualizations (CPU/memory/disk metrics), consistent organization-wide monitoring, centralized updates for compliance. Benefits: consistency, efficiency, maintenance. Use for: organization standards, common metrics across teams. Essential for dashboard standardization at scale.

Anti-patterns to avoid: (1) Dashboard sprawl: duplicate dashboards per node/cluster (solution: 'reuse dashboards with templates and variables'). (2) No documentation: unclear purpose (solution: 'add documentation with Text panel' including purpose, links, instructions). (3) Overloaded dashboards: 50+ panels causing slow load, cognitive overload (solution: split into focused dashboards). (4) Hardcoded datasources: not portable (solution: 'make datasource a template variable'). (5) No organization: missing folders/tags (solution: folder per team, consistent tagging). (6) Alert fatigue: non-actionable alerts (solution: 'alerts should only be created for big events requiring immediate attention'). (7) SQLite in production (solution: MySQL/PostgreSQL only). (8) Manual configuration: not reproducible (solution: provisioning with YAML). (9) Inefficient queries: no query caching, recording rules. (10) Poor access control: everyone admin (solution: RBAC with folders).

'Grafana 12 unveiled at GrafanaCON 2025, bringing dozens of new features.' Major features: (1) Drilldown apps (formerly Explore apps): 'queryless, point-and-click UIs' for Metrics/Logs/Traces/Profiles Drilldown without needing PromQL/LogQL/TraceQL. (2) Git Sync: bidirectional 'syncing dashboards to GitHub' with PR integration and before-and-after previews. (3) Native alert and recording rules management: manage Prometheus/Loki rules directly in Grafana. (4) Dynamic dashboards: 'faster and more flexible, with tabs, conditional logic.' (5) Performance: 'blazing fast tables and geomaps' with improved rendering. (6) Observability as code: provision resources via Git. (7) Dashboard enhancements: improved UI/UX. Use for: improved investigative workflows, GitOps integration, faster dashboards. Latest 2025 capabilities.