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Enterprise Open source Grafana Cloud
Last reviewed: October 8, 2026

Troubleshoot Parca data source issues

Warning

This plugin is deprecated and will only receive critical security updates. Support will end on January 2, 2027.

This page provides solutions to common issues you might encounter when installing, configuring, or using the Parca data source. For installation and configuration instructions, refer to Configure the Parca data source.

Installation issues

These errors occur when Grafana can’t load the manually installed Parca data source. Because Grafana doesn’t bundle it, you build and install it yourself. Refer to Install the data source.

Parca doesn’t appear in the data source list

Symptoms:

  • Searching for Parca under Connections > Add new connection returns no results.
  • Existing Parca data sources report the parca plugin isn’t found.

Possible causes and solutions:

CauseSolution
Data source isn’t installedBuild and install the Parca data source. Grafana 13.2 and later don’t bundle it.
Wrong plugin directoryConfirm the files are in a parca directory inside the configured plugin path. Refer to the plugins option in Configure Grafana.
plugin.json missingVerify the parca directory contains plugin.json at its top level. Copy the contents of dist/, not the dist directory itself.
Unsigned plugin blockedAdd allow_loading_unsigned_plugins = parca to the [plugins] section of your Grafana configuration file and restart Grafana.
Grafana wasn’t restartedRestart Grafana. It discovers plugins only at startup.
File permissionsVerify the Grafana process can read the files. On package-based installations, run chown -R grafana:grafana on the parca directory.

When Grafana loads the Parca data source, it logs the following warning on startup:

text 
WARN[...] Permitting unsigned plugin. This is not recommended   pluginId=parca

If this warning is absent, Grafana didn’t load it. Search the server log for parca to find the reason.

Queries fail but the data source appears

Symptoms:

  • The Parca data source appears in the list and you can save it, but Save & test or any query fails.
  • The server log mentions a missing or non-executable backend binary.

Solutions:

  1. Verify you ran both build steps. The data source needs its Go backend as well as its frontend assets, so npm run build alone isn’t enough. Run go run github.com/magefile/mage -v buildAll and reinstall.
  2. Verify the parca directory contains a gpx_grafana-parca-datasource_* executable for your operating system and architecture.
  3. Verify the executable has the execute permission bit set and isn’t blocked by noexec on the mounted filesystem.
  4. Restart Grafana after replacing any files.

Connection errors

These errors occur when Grafana can’t reach the Parca instance.

“Save & test” fails

Symptoms:

  • Data source test times out or returns an error.
  • Unable to connect to the Parca server.

Possible causes and solutions:

CauseSolution
Incorrect URLVerify the URL points to your Parca HTTP endpoint (for example, http://localhost:7070). Grafana connects using gRPC-Web.
Parca isn’t runningVerify that your Parca instance is running and accessible from the Grafana server.
Firewall blockingCheck that firewall rules allow outbound traffic from Grafana to the Parca server on the configured port.
TLS misconfigurationIf using HTTPS, verify that TLS certificates are correctly configured on both Grafana and Parca.

When the connection succeeds, the health check displays “Data source is working”. The health check queries the available profile types from the Parca server, so any connectivity or authentication issue causes it to fail.

Connection refused or timeout errors

Symptoms:

  • Queries fail with network errors.
  • Intermittent connection issues.

Solutions:

  1. Verify network connectivity from the Grafana server to the Parca endpoint.
  2. Check that the Parca server is healthy and responding to requests.
  3. If a reverse proxy sits between Grafana and Parca, verify it forwards gRPC-Web requests without buffering or rewriting them. The Parca data source queries Parca using gRPC-Web over the Parca HTTP endpoint.

Query errors

These errors occur when running queries against the Parca data source.

“Invalid report type” or “try updating Parca to v0.19+”

Symptoms:

  • Queries fail with an error containing “invalid report type.”
  • The error message suggests updating Parca to v0.19+.
  • Flame graph data doesn’t load.

Solutions:

  1. Upgrade your Parca server to v0.19 or later. This error occurs because older versions of Parca don’t support the flame graph Arrow format that Grafana requires.

Unknown report type returned from query. update parca

Symptoms:

  • Profile queries fail with this exact error message.
  • Metric queries may still succeed.

Solutions:

  1. Upgrade your Parca server. This error occurs when the Parca server returns a response format that Grafana doesn’t recognize. Updating to the latest Parca version resolves the issue.

“No data” or empty results

Symptoms:

  • Query runs without error but returns no data.
  • Flame graph or metrics panel shows “No data.”

Possible causes and solutions:

CauseSolution
No profile type selectedSelect a profile type from the drop-down menu. This field is required – queries silently return empty data without it.
Time range doesn’t contain dataExpand the dashboard time range or verify that profiling data exists for the selected period.
Label selector too restrictiveRemove or broaden label filters to verify that matching profiles exist.
Label selector syntax errorVerify the label selector uses valid syntax (for example, {job="my-service"}). Refer to the query editor documentation for supported operators.
Parca isn’t scraping targetsCheck your Parca configuration to verify that targets are being scraped and profiles collected.

Query editor issues

These issues relate to the query editor interface.

Profile type drop-down is empty

Symptoms:

  • The profile type selector shows no options.
  • The button text reads Select a profile type with nothing to choose.

Possible causes and solutions:

CauseSolution
Connection to Parca failedVerify the data source connection using Save & test in the data source settings.
Parca has no scraped dataVerify that Parca is scraping targets and has collected profile data.
Network or auth errorCheck the browser developer console for failed requests to the profileTypes resource endpoint.

“Both” query type is missing

Symptoms:

  • Only Metric and Profile appear in the query type options.
  • The Both option isn’t available.

Solution:

This is expected behavior. The Both query type is only available in Explore. Dashboard panels support only one visualization type, so Grafana limits the options to Metric or Profile. If a query set to Both in Explore is used in a dashboard, Grafana automatically changes it to Profile.

Autocomplete suggestions don’t appear

Symptoms:

  • No label name or value suggestions appear when typing in the label selector.
  • Autocomplete works for some labels but not others.

Possible causes and solutions:

CauseSolution
Label names haven’t loadedWait a moment after opening the query editor. Autocomplete loads label names from Parca on initialization.
Connection to Parca failedVerify the data source connection. Autocomplete queries the labelNames and labelValues resource endpoints.
Cursor position not recognizedPlace your cursor inside curly braces {} and after an = sign for value suggestions. Autocomplete triggers on specific characters: {, ,, =, ~, ", space.

Template variable issues

These issues relate to using template variables with the Parca data source.

Variables don’t resolve in queries

Symptoms:

  • Variable syntax like $variable appears literally in query results instead of being replaced.
  • Queries return no data when using variables.

Possible causes and solutions:

CauseSolution
Variable used in profile typeTemplate variables are only supported in the label selector field. The profile type drop-down doesn’t support variable interpolation.
Variable not definedVerify the variable exists in Dashboard options > Variables and has valid values.
Wrong variable syntaxUse $variablename or ${variablename}. Verify there are no typos in the variable name.

Can’t use Parca to populate variable options

Symptoms:

  • When creating a query-type variable with the Parca data source, no values are returned.

Solution:

Parca doesn’t support query-type variables. You can’t use the Parca data source to dynamically populate variable drop-downs. Use Custom variables with manually defined values, Text box variables for free-form input, or a different data source for query-type variables. Refer to Parca template variables for supported variable types and examples.

Enable debug logging

To capture detailed error information for troubleshooting:

  1. Set the Grafana log level to debug in the configuration file:

    ini 
    [log]
level = debug

  2. Review logs in /var/log/grafana/grafana.log (or your configured log location).

  3. Look for Parca-specific entries that include request and response details. Common log messages include:

    • "Failed to get profile types" – profile type loading failed.
    • "Failed to get label names" – label autocomplete data failed to load.
    • "Failed to process query" – a query to Parca returned an error.
    • "Failed to unmarshall query" – the query JSON couldn’t be parsed.

  4. Reset the log level to info after troubleshooting to avoid excessive log volume.

Get additional help

If you’ve tried the solutions on this page and still encounter issues:

  1. Check the Grafana community forums for similar issues.
  2. Review the repository issues for known bugs related to the Parca data source.
  3. Refer to the Parca documentation for service-specific guidance.
  4. Report new bugs in the grafana/grafana-parca-datasource repository. The Parca data source is deprecated and only receives critical security updates until January 2, 2027.
  5. When reporting issues, include:
    • Grafana version
    • Parca server version
    • Data source commit or version you built from
    • Error messages (redact sensitive information)
    • Steps to reproduce
    • Relevant configuration (redact credentials)