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Provision Grafana

In previous versions of Grafana, you could only use the API for provisioning data sources and dashboards. But that required the service to be running before you started creating dashboards and you also needed to set up credentials for the HTTP API. In v5.0 we decided to improve this experience by adding a new active provisioning system that uses config files. This will make GitOps more natural as data sources and dashboards can be defined via files that can be version controlled. We hope to extend this system to later add support for users and orgs as well.

Config File

See Configuration for more information on what you can configure in grafana.ini.

Config File Locations

  • Default configuration from $WORKING_DIR/conf/defaults.ini
  • Custom configuration from $WORKING_DIR/conf/custom.ini
  • The custom configuration file path can be overridden using the --config parameter

Note

If you have installed Grafana using the deb or rpm packages, then your configuration file is located at /etc/grafana/grafana.ini. This path is specified in the Grafana init.d script using --config file parameter.

Using Environment Variables

It is possible to use environment variable interpolation in all 3 provisioning configuration types. Allowed syntax is either $ENV_VAR_NAME or ${ENV_VAR_NAME} and can be used only for values not for keys or bigger parts of the configurations. It is not available in the dashboard’s definition files just the dashboard provisioning configuration. Example:

yaml
datasources:
  - name: Graphite
    url: http://localhost:$PORT
    user: $USER
    secureJsonData:
      password: $PASSWORD

If you have a literal $ in your value and want to avoid interpolation, $$ can be used.


Configuration Management Tools

Currently we do not provide any scripts/manifests for configuring Grafana. Rather than spending time learning and creating scripts/manifests for each tool, we think our time is better spent making Grafana easier to provision. Therefore, we heavily rely on the expertise of the community.

ToolProject
Puppethttps://forge.puppet.com/puppet/grafana
Ansiblehttps://github.com/grafana/grafana-ansible-collection
Chefhttps://github.com/sous-chefs/chef-grafana
Saltstackhttps://github.com/salt-formulas/salt-formula-grafana
Jsonnethttps://github.com/grafana/grafonnet-lib/
NixOSservices.grafana.provision module

Data sources

Note

Available in Grafana v5.0 and higher.

You can manage data sources in Grafana by adding YAML configuration files in the provisioning/datasources directory. Each config file can contain a list of datasources to add or update during startup. If the data source already exists, Grafana reconfigures it to match the provisioned configuration file.

The configuration file can also list data sources to automatically delete, called deleteDatasources. Grafana deletes the data sources listed in deleteDatasources before adding or updating those in the datasources list.

You can configure Grafana to automatically delete provisioned data sources when they’re removed from the provisioning file. To do so, add prune: true to the root of your provisioning file. With this configuration, Grafana also removes the provisioned data sources if you remove the provisioning file entirely.

Note

The prune parameter is available in Grafana v11.1 and higher.

Running multiple Grafana instances

If you run multiple instances of Grafana, add a version number to each data source in the configuration and increase it when you update the configuration. Grafana updates only data sources with the same or lower version number than specified in the config. This prevents old configurations from overwriting newer ones if you have different versions of the datasource.yaml file that don’t define version numbers, and then restart instances at the same time.

Example data source config file

This example provisions a Graphite data source:

yaml
# Configuration file version
apiVersion: 1

# List of data sources to delete from the database.
deleteDatasources:
  - name: Graphite
    orgId: 1

# Mark provisioned data sources for deletion if they are no longer in a provisioning file.
# It takes no effect if data sources are already listed in the deleteDatasources section.
prune: true

# List of data sources to insert/update depending on what's
# available in the database.
datasources:
  # <string, required> Sets the name you use to refer to
  # the data source in panels and queries.
  - name: Graphite
    # <string, required> Sets the data source type.
    type: graphite
    # <string, required> Sets the access mode, either
    # proxy or direct (Server or Browser in the UI).
    # Some data sources are incompatible with any setting
    # but proxy (Server).
    access: proxy
    # <int> Sets the organization id. Defaults to orgId 1.
    orgId: 1
    # <string> Sets a custom UID to reference this
    # data source in other parts of the configuration.
    # If not specified, Grafana generates one.
    uid: my_unique_uid
    # <string> Sets the data source's URL, including the
    # port.
    url: http://localhost:8080
    # <string> Sets the database user, if necessary.
    user:
    # <string> Sets the database name, if necessary.
    database:
    # <bool> Enables basic authorization.
    basicAuth:
    # <string> Sets the basic authorization username.
    basicAuthUser:
    # <bool> Enables credential headers.
    withCredentials:
    # <bool> Toggles whether the data source is pre-selected
    # for new panels. You can set only one default
    # data source per organization.
    isDefault:
    # <map> Fields to convert to JSON and store in jsonData.
    jsonData:
      # <string> Defines the Graphite service's version.
      graphiteVersion: '1.1'
      # <bool> Enables TLS authentication using a client
      # certificate configured in secureJsonData.
      tlsAuth: true
      # <bool> Enables TLS authentication using a CA
      # certificate.
      tlsAuthWithCACert: true
    # <map> Fields to encrypt before storing in jsonData.
    secureJsonData:
      # <string> Defines the CA cert, client cert, and
      # client key for encrypted authentication.
      tlsCACert: '...'
      tlsClientCert: '...'
      tlsClientKey: '...'
      # <string> Sets the database password, if necessary.
      password:
      # <string> Sets the basic authorization password.
      basicAuthPassword:
    # <int> Sets the version. Used to compare versions when
    # updating. Ignored when creating a new data source.
    version: 1
    # <bool> Allows users to edit data sources from the
    # Grafana UI.
    editable: false

For provisioning examples of specific data sources, refer to that data source’s documentation.

JSON Data

Since not all data sources have the same configuration settings, we include only the most common ones as fields. To provision the rest of a data source’s settings, include them as a JSON blob in the jsonData field.

Common settings in the built-in core data sources include:

Note

Data sources tagged with HTTP* communicate using the HTTP protocol, which includes all core data source plugins except MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MSSQL.
NameTypeData sourceDescription
tlsAuthbooleanHTTP*, MySQLEnable TLS authentication using client cert configured in secure json data
tlsAuthWithCACertbooleanHTTP*, MySQL, PostgreSQLEnable TLS authentication using CA cert
tlsSkipVerifybooleanHTTP*, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQLControls whether a client verifies the server’s certificate chain and host name.
serverNamestringHTTP*, MSSQLOptional. Controls the server name used for certificate common name/subject alternative name verification. Defaults to using the data source URL.
timeoutstringHTTP*Request timeout in seconds. Overrides dataproxy.timeout option
graphiteVersionstringGraphiteGraphite version
timeIntervalstringPrometheus, Elasticsearch, InfluxDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL and MSSQLLowest interval/step value that should be used for this data source.
httpModestringInfluxdbHTTP Method. ‘GET’, ‘POST’, defaults to GET
maxSeriesnumberInfluxdbMax number of series/tables that Grafana processes
httpMethodstringPrometheusHTTP Method. ‘GET’, ‘POST’, defaults to POST
customQueryParametersstringPrometheusQuery parameters to add, as a URL-encoded string.
manageAlertsbooleanPrometheus and LokiManage alerts via Alerting UI
alertmanagerUidstringPrometheus and LokiUID of Alert Manager that manages Alert for this data source.
timeFieldstringElasticsearchWhich field that should be used as timestamp
intervalstringElasticsearchIndex date time format. nil(No Pattern), ‘Hourly’, ‘Daily’, ‘Weekly’, ‘Monthly’ or ‘Yearly’
logMessageFieldstringElasticsearchWhich field should be used as the log message
logLevelFieldstringElasticsearchWhich field should be used to indicate the priority of the log message
maxConcurrentShardRequestsnumberElasticsearchMaximum number of concurrent shard requests that each sub-search request executes per node
sigV4AuthbooleanElasticsearch and PrometheusEnable usage of SigV4
sigV4AuthTypestringElasticsearch and PrometheusSigV4 auth provider. default/credentials/keys
sigV4ExternalIdstringElasticsearch and PrometheusOptional SigV4 External ID
sigV4AssumeRoleArnstringElasticsearch and PrometheusOptional SigV4 ARN role to assume
sigV4RegionstringElasticsearch and PrometheusSigV4 AWS region
sigV4ProfilestringElasticsearch and PrometheusOptional SigV4 credentials profile
authTypestringCloudwatchAuth provider. default/credentials/keys
externalIdstringCloudwatchOptional External ID
assumeRoleArnstringCloudwatchOptional ARN role to assume
defaultRegionstringCloudwatchOptional default AWS region
customMetricsNamespacesstringCloudwatchNamespaces of Custom Metrics
profilestringCloudwatchOptional credentials profile
tsdbVersionstringOpenTSDBVersion
tsdbResolutionstringOpenTSDBResolution
sslmodestringPostgreSQLSSLmode. ‘disable’, ‘require’, ‘verify-ca’ or ‘verify-full’
tlsConfigurationMethodstringPostgreSQLSSL Certificate configuration, either by ‘file-path’ or ‘file-content’
sslRootCertFilestringPostgreSQL, MSSQLSSL server root certificate file, must be readable by the Grafana user
sslCertFilestringPostgreSQLSSL client certificate file, must be readable by the Grafana user
sslKeyFilestringPostgreSQLSSL client key file, must be readable by only the Grafana user
encryptstringMSSQLDetermines SSL encryption handling. Options include: disable - data sent between client and server is not encrypted; false - data sent between client and server is not encrypted beyond the login packet; true - data sent between client and server is encrypted. Default is false.
postgresVersionnumberPostgreSQLPostgres version as a number (903/904/905/906/1000) meaning v9.3, v9.4, …, v10
timescaledbbooleanPostgreSQLEnable usage of TimescaleDB extension
maxOpenConnsnumberMySQL, PostgreSQL and MSSQLMaximum number of open connections to the database (Grafana v5.4+)
maxIdleConnsnumberMySQL, PostgreSQL and MSSQLMaximum number of connections in the idle connection pool (Grafana v5.4+)
connMaxLifetimenumberMySQL, PostgreSQL and MSSQLMaximum amount of time in seconds a connection may be reused (Grafana v5.4+)
keepCookiesarrayHTTP*Cookies that needs to be passed along while communicating with data sources
prometheusVersionstringPrometheusThe version of the Prometheus data source, such as 2.37.0, 2.24.0
prometheusTypestringPrometheusPrometheus database type. Options are Prometheus, Cortex, Mimir orThanos.
cacheLevelstringPrometheusDetermines the duration of the browser cache. Valid values include: Low, Medium, High, and None. This field is configurable when you enable the prometheusResourceBrowserCache feature flag.
incrementalQueryingstringPrometheusExperimental: Turn on incremental querying to enhance dashboard reload performance with slow data sources
incrementalQueryOverlapWindowstringPrometheusExperimental: Configure incremental query overlap window. Requires a valid duration string, i.e. 180s or 15m Default value is 10m (10 minutes).
disableRecordingRulesbooleanPrometheusExperimental: Turn off Prometheus recording rules
implementationstringAlertManagerThe implementation of the AlertManager data source, such as prometheus, cortex or mimir
handleGrafanaManagedAlertsbooleanAlertManagerWhen enabled, Grafana-managed alerts are sent to this Alertmanager

For examples of specific data sources’ JSON data, refer to that data source’s documentation.

Secure JSON Data

Secure JSON data is a map of settings that will be encrypted with secret key from the Grafana config. The purpose of this is only to hide content from the users of the application. This should be used for storing TLS Cert and password that Grafana will append to the request on the server side. All of these settings are optional.

Note

The HTTP* tag denotes data sources that communicate using the HTTP protocol, including all core data source plugins except MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MSSQL.
NameTypeData sourceDescription
tlsCACertstringHTTP*, MySQL, PostgreSQLCA cert for out going requests
tlsClientCertstringHTTP*, MySQL, PostgreSQLTLS Client cert for outgoing requests
tlsClientKeystringHTTP*, MySQL, PostgreSQLTLS Client key for outgoing requests
passwordstringHTTP*, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQLpassword
basicAuthPasswordstringHTTP*password for basic authentication
accessKeystringCloudwatchAccess key for connecting to Cloudwatch
secretKeystringCloudwatchSecret key for connecting to Cloudwatch
sigV4AccessKeystringElasticsearch and PrometheusSigV4 access key. Required when using keys auth provider
sigV4SecretKeystringElasticsearch and PrometheusSigV4 secret key. Required when using keys auth provider

Custom HTTP headers for data sources

Data sources managed with provisioning can be configured to add HTTP headers to all requests. The header name is configured in the jsonData field and the header value is configured in secureJsonData.

yaml
apiVersion: 1

datasources:
  - name: Graphite
    jsonData:
      httpHeaderName1: 'HeaderName'
      httpHeaderName2: 'Authorization'
    secureJsonData:
      httpHeaderValue1: 'HeaderValue'
      httpHeaderValue2: 'Bearer XXXXXXXXX'

Plugins

Note

Available in Grafana v7.1 and higher.

You can manage plugin applications in Grafana by adding one or more YAML config files in the provisioning/plugins directory. Each config file can contain a list of apps that will be updated during start up. Grafana updates each app to match the configuration file.

Note

This feature enables you to provision plugin configurations, not the plugins themselves. The plugins must already be installed on the Grafana instance.

Example plugin configuration file

yaml
apiVersion: 1

apps:
  # <string> the type of app, plugin identifier. Required
  - type: raintank-worldping-app
    # <int> Org ID. Default to 1, unless org_name is specified
    org_id: 1
    # <string> Org name. Overrides org_id unless org_id not specified
    org_name: Main Org.
    # <bool> disable the app. Default to false.
    disabled: false
    # <map> fields that will be converted to json and stored in jsonData. Custom per app.
    jsonData:
      # key/value pairs of string to object
      key: value
    # <map> fields that will be converted to json, encrypted and stored in secureJsonData. Custom per app.
    secureJsonData:
      # key/value pairs of string to string
      key: value

Dashboards

You can manage dashboards in Grafana by adding one or more YAML config files in the provisioning/dashboards directory. Each config file can contain a list of dashboards providers that load dashboards into Grafana from the local filesystem.

The dashboard provider config file looks somewhat like this:

yaml
apiVersion: 1

providers:
  # <string> an unique provider name. Required
  - name: 'a unique provider name'
    # <int> Org id. Default to 1
    orgId: 1
    # <string> name of the dashboard folder.
    folder: ''
    # <string> folder UID. will be automatically generated if not specified
    folderUid: ''
    # <string> provider type. Default to 'file'
    type: file
    # <bool> disable dashboard deletion
    disableDeletion: false
    # <int> how often Grafana will scan for changed dashboards
    updateIntervalSeconds: 10
    # <bool> allow updating provisioned dashboards from the UI
    allowUiUpdates: false
    options:
      # <string, required> path to dashboard files on disk. Required when using the 'file' type
      path: /var/lib/grafana/dashboards
      # <bool> use folder names from filesystem to create folders in Grafana
      foldersFromFilesStructure: true

When Grafana starts, it will update/insert all dashboards available in the configured path. Then later on poll that path every updateIntervalSeconds and look for updated json files and update/insert those into the database.

Note: Dashboards are provisioned to the root level if the folder option is missing or empty.

Making changes to a provisioned dashboard

It’s possible to make changes to a provisioned dashboard in the Grafana UI. However, it is not possible to automatically save the changes back to the provisioning source. If allowUiUpdates is set to true and you make changes to a provisioned dashboard, you can Save the dashboard then changes will be persisted to the Grafana database.

Note: If a provisioned dashboard is saved from the UI and then later updated from the source, the dashboard stored in the database will always be overwritten. The version property in the JSON file will not affect this, even if it is lower than the existing dashboard.

If a provisioned dashboard is saved from the UI and the source is removed, the dashboard stored in the database will be deleted unless the configuration option disableDeletion is set to true.

If allowUiUpdates is configured to false, you are not able to make changes to a provisioned dashboard. When you click Save, Grafana brings up a Cannot save provisioned dashboard dialog. The screenshot below illustrates this behavior.

Grafana offers options to export the JSON definition of a dashboard. Either Copy JSON to Clipboard or Save JSON to file can help you synchronize your dashboard changes back to the provisioning source.

Note: The JSON definition in the input field when using Copy JSON to Clipboard or Save JSON to file will have the id field automatically removed to aid the provisioning workflow.

Reusable Dashboard URLs

If the dashboard in the JSON file contains an UID, Grafana forces insert/update on that UID. This allows you to migrate dashboards between Grafana instances and provisioning Grafana from configuration without breaking the URLs given because the new dashboard URL uses the UID as identifier. When Grafana starts, it updates/inserts all dashboards available in the configured folders. If you modify the file, then the dashboard is also updated. By default, Grafana deletes dashboards in the database if the file is removed. You can disable this behavior using the disableDeletion setting.

Note

Provisioning allows you to overwrite existing dashboards which leads to problems if you reuse settings that are supposed to be unique. Be careful not to reuse the same title multiple times within a folder or uid within the same installation as this will cause weird behaviors.

Provision folders structure from filesystem to Grafana

If you already store your dashboards using folders in a git repo or on a filesystem, and also you want to have the same folder names in the Grafana menu, you can use foldersFromFilesStructure option.

For example, to replicate these dashboards structure from the filesystem to Grafana,

/etc/dashboards
├── /server
│   ├── /common_dashboard.json
│   └── /network_dashboard.json
└── /application
    ├── /requests_dashboard.json
    └── /resources_dashboard.json

you need to specify just this short provision configuration file.

yaml
apiVersion: 1

providers:
  - name: dashboards
    type: file
    updateIntervalSeconds: 30
    options:
      path: /etc/dashboards
      foldersFromFilesStructure: true

server and application will become new folders in Grafana menu.

Note

folder and folderUid options should be empty or missing to make foldersFromFilesStructure work.

Note

To provision dashboards to the root level, store them in the root of your path.

Note

This feature doesn’t currently allow you to create nested folder structures, that is, where you have folders within folders.

Alerting

For information on provisioning Grafana Alerting, refer to Provision Grafana Alerting resources.

Supported Settings

The following sections detail the supported settings and secure settings for each alert notification type. Secure settings are stored encrypted in the database and you add them to secure_settings in the YAML file instead of settings.

Note

Secure settings is supported since Grafana v7.2.

Alert notification pushover

NameSecure setting
apiTokenyes
userKeyyes
device
priority
okPriority
retry
expire
sound
okSound

Alert notification discord

NameSecure setting
urlyes
avatar_url
content
use_discord_username

Alert notification slack

NameSecure setting
urlyes
recipient
username
icon_emoji
icon_url
uploadImage
mentionUsers
mentionGroups
mentionChannel
tokenyes

Alert notification victorops

Name
url
autoResolve

Alert notification kafka

Name
kafkaRestProxy
kafkaTopic

Alert notification LINE

NameSecure setting
tokenyes

Alert notification pagerduty

NameSecure setting
integrationKeyyes
autoResolve

Alert notification sensu

NameSecure setting
url
source
handler
username
passwordyes

Alert notification sensugo

NameSecure setting
url
apikeyyes
entity
check
handler
namespace

Alert notification prometheus-alertmanager

NameSecure setting
url
basicAuthUser
basicAuthPasswordyes

Alert notification teams

Name
url

Alert notification dingding

Name
url

Alert notification email

Name
singleEmail
addresses

Alert notification hipchat

Name
url
apikey
roomid

Alert notification opsgenie

NameSecure setting
apiKeyyes
apiUrl
autoClose
overridePriority
sendTagsAs

Alert notification telegram

NameSecure setting
bottokenyes
chatid
uploadImage

Alert notification threema

NameSecure setting
gateway_id
recipient_id
api_secretyes

Alert notification webhook

NameSecure setting
url
httpMethod
username
passwordyes

Alert notification googlechat

Name
url

Alert notification Cisco Webex Teams

NameSecure setting
message
room_id
api_url
bot_tokenyes

Grafana Enterprise

Grafana Enterprise supports: