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Graphite alerting

You can use Grafana Alerting with Graphite to create alerts based on your time series data. This lets you monitor metrics, detect anomalies, and receive notifications when specific conditions are met.

For general information about Grafana Alerting, refer to Grafana Alerting.

Before you begin

Before creating alerts with Graphite, ensure you have:

• A Graphite data source configured in Grafana. Refer to Configure the Graphite data source.
• Permission to create alert rules.
• An understanding of the metrics you want to monitor.

Supported queries

Grafana Alerting evaluates any Graphite query that returns time series data. Grafana runs the query on the backend, reduces each series to a single value, and compares that value against the condition you define.

Create an alert rule

To create an alert rule using Graphite:

1. Navigate to Alerting > Alert rules.
2. Click New alert rule.
3. Enter a name for the alert rule.
4. In the query section, select your Graphite data source.
5. Build your query:
   • Click Select metric to choose the metric path, or click the pencil icon to write the query in code.
   • Add Graphite functions to aggregate or shape the series, for example sumSeries() or summarize().
6. Add a Reduce expression to convert the series to a single value, for example Last or Mean.
7. Add a Threshold expression that defines when the alert fires, for example when the value is above a limit.
8. Set the evaluation interval and pending period.
9. Configure notifications and labels.
10. Click Save rule.

For detailed instructions, refer to Create a Grafana-managed alert rule.

Example alert queries

The following examples show common alerting scenarios with Graphite. Each query returns a single series that the alert condition reduces to one value.

Alert on high CPU usage

Average CPU usage across every core on a host and alert when it exceeds 90%:

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averageSeries(servers.web01.cpu.*.percent.user)

Condition: Reduce with Mean, then alert when the value is above 90.

Alert on low free disk space

Monitor available disk space and alert when it drops below 10 GB:

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servers.web01.disk.root.free_bytes

Condition: Reduce with Last, then alert when the value is below 10737418240.

Alert on high error rate

Combine error counts across a service and alert on spikes:

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summarize(sumSeries(stats.myservice.errors.count), '5min', 'sum', false)

Condition: Reduce with Last, then alert when the value is above 100.

Alert on request latency

Monitor 95th percentile latency and alert when it exceeds 500 ms:

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stats.timers.myservice.request.latency.p95

Condition: Reduce with Mean, then alert when the value is above 500.

Alert across many hosts

Use a wildcard to evaluate every matching host and alert when any host crosses the threshold:

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aliasByNode(servers.*.cpu.percent.user, 1)

Because the wildcard returns one series per host, configure the alert rule to evaluate each series separately so you get a distinct alert instance for each host that breaches the threshold.

Limitations

When using Graphite with Grafana Alerting, be aware of the following limitations.

Template variables not supported

Alert queries can’t contain template variables. Grafana evaluates alert rules on the backend without dashboard context, so variables like $server or $environment aren’t resolved.

If your dashboard query uses template variables, create a separate query for alerting with hard-coded values.

Nested queries not supported

Alert queries can’t reference another query by letter, such as #A. Build a self-contained query for each alert rule instead of chaining query references.

Consolidation affects results

Grafana consolidates data points so that a query doesn’t return more points than needed. Consolidation can change the value the alert evaluates. Use consolidateBy() or summarize() to control how Graphite aggregates points, and match the interval to your evaluation frequency.

Metrics that stop reporting

When a metric stops reporting, the query returns no data rather than a zero value, so a threshold alone can’t detect the gap. To alert when a service stops sending metrics, set the alert rule’s No Data state to Alerting. Configure this behavior in the alert rule under the evaluation options. For more information, refer to Configure no data and error handling.

Best practices

Follow these best practices when creating Graphite alerts:

• Return a single series: Aggregate wildcard queries with sumSeries() or averageSeries(), or evaluate each series separately when you want per-target alerts.
• Control consolidation: Use consolidateBy() or summarize() so the evaluated value matches what you expect.
• Test queries first: Verify your query returns the expected values in Explore before creating an alert.
• Set realistic thresholds: Base thresholds on historical data patterns to avoid false positives.
• Use meaningful names: Give alert rules descriptive names that indicate what they monitor.

Next steps

• Build queries to explore your metrics before creating alerts.
• Troubleshoot Graphite data source issues if alerts aren’t firing as expected.