Documentationbreadcrumb arrow Grafana Cloudbreadcrumb arrow Instrument and send databreadcrumb arrow Metricsbreadcrumb arrow Send or visualize Graphite metrics
Grafana Cloud

Send or visualize Graphite metrics

With Grafana Cloud, you can:

  • Send metrics to the Graphite backend in your stack using a pre-provisioned data source.
  • Visualize metrics by creating a data source that points to the external source where metrics are stored.

Note

The Graphite metrics system is stable, but older, and does not receive major feature upgrades. If you already use Graphite, this content can help.

Make sure to read the official Graphite documentation that is for the version that is specific to the release you are using. If you are deploying a new metrics stack and deciding what to use, we recommend Prometheus.

The main Graphite docs are the canonical source for information about Graphite. Graphite query functions are supported and available in the Grafana UI, whether using the Grafana Explore feature or writing queries for panels. The caveat is that functions that only exist in later Graphite releases are not be available if your Graphite installation is an older release.

Send Graphite metrics to Grafana Cloud

Your hosted Grafana instance includes a pre‑provisioned Graphite data source. This data source queries the managed Graphite backend in your stack where the metrics you send are stored. Complete the following to send Graphite metrics.

Find your API endpoints

The two endpoints for use are provided on your Grafana Cloud Stack details page under “Graphite”.

The endpoints look something like:

  • <ingest_endpoint> : https://something.grafana.net/graphite/metrics
  • <query_endpoint> : https://something.grafana.net/graphite

Send data

Refer to Graphite data ingestion to send your data.

Out-of-order ingestion support

By default Cloud Graphite accepts only in-order samples within 1–2 hours of the newest sample across all metrics. Cloud Graphite can accept out-of-order samples, but this is not enabled by default; contact support to enable it. Keep in mind these caveats:

  • The maximum recommended out-of-order window is 10 hours. Cloud Graphite compares a sample timestamp to the newest timestamps across all metrics. If the gap exceeds the window, the sample is rejected. You can adjust the window.

  • Overriding a sample is not supported. A second sample with the same timestamp produces undefined results. Stock Graphite overrides; Cloud Graphite does not guarantee that behavior.

  • A cache in front of the query path stores the last 10 minutes of data. Out-of-order samples for a cached series may not appear until the cache expiry.

For details, refer to Understand out-of-order. The Discarded Metric Samples panel on the Billing/Usage dashboard shows whether constraints reject samples.

Visualize Graphite metrics in Grafana Cloud

If you do not send metrics to the managed Cloud Graphite backend, add a Graphite data source that points to your external Graphite instance. Refer to the Grafana Graphite Grafana Graphite data source documentation.