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Manage dataset configurations

Note

Before configuring datasets, ensure you understand how the knowledge graph uses environment and region labels. These labels are critical for scoping your data and enabling effective troubleshooting. Refer to Environment and region for complete details.

If you complete the product activation and knowledge graph build, but find that the default configuration didn’t provide the desired datasets for your environment, you can edit your dataset configuration. A dataset is a logical grouping of telemetry and can consist of:

  • Kubernetes metrics
  • Host Monitoring metrics from Node Exporters and process metrics (Private preview)
  • OpenTelemetry metrics, including span or servicegraph metrics
  • Metrics ingested from AWS, Azure, or GCP that come from Cloud Provider Observability
  • Prometheus metrics, including rpc or http metrics

You can activate the knowledge graph using any single dataset or any combination of datasets based on your monitoring needs.

During this process, you choose an environment label and, if applicable, a cloud region label. These labels are used to scope your exploration and troubleshooting. For example, you can quickly filter to include only region: us-central-0 and env: prod when troubleshooting a region-specific issue.

  • Environment label: The environment label corresponds to one or more environments that contain metrics data stored in Grafana Cloud. The environment label populates the list of environments you can select on each knowledge graph page.

    If you are using Kubernetes or Prometheus, the environment label is most likely cluster.

    However, with application metrics, the label can be:

    • k8s_cluster_name if you run your applications in Kubernetes
    • deployment_environment_name
    • deployment_environment: You can use this label, but it has been deprecated.

    For cloud providers, the recommended environment labels are:

    • AWS: account_Id
    • Azure: subscriptionName
    • GCP: project_id

  • Environments: By default, the knowledge graph selects All environments, but you can exclude one or more environments.

  • Cloud region label: The cloud region label populates the list of sites you can select on each knowledge graph page.

  • Cloud regions: An environment can contain multiple regions. The Cloud regions drop-down defaults to All and you can choose to exclude one or more regions.

If you’ve activated the knowledge graph and don’t see entities being discovered, refer to the troubleshooting guide.

Example metric

In the following example metric, environment="dev" maps to the an environment and cluster="company-abc-infra-dev-euw2-eu-west-2-eks" maps to a site in Asserts.

http_server_duration_bucket{cluster="company-abc-infra-dev-euw2-eu-west-2-eks",environment="dev",,container="support",instance="XXX.XX.XX.XXX:8000",job="support-support-svc-metrics",le="5",namespace="support", service="support-support-svc-metrics"}

However, if you do not have a special environment label, select cluster as your environment label.

Before you begin

Before you edit a dataset configuration, ensure the following:

  • You are sending Kubernetes, OpenTelemetry, or Host Monitoring metrics to Grafana Cloud
  • You are familiar with your metrics coming into Grafana Cloud, including the source environment and clusters
  • You have Grafana Cloud Admin permissions

Refer to one of the following dataset types: