Documentation Grafana documentation Dashboards Build dashboards Create a dynamic dashboard

Create and edit dynamic dashboards

Dashboards and panels allow you to show your data in visual form. Each panel needs at least one query to display a visualization.

Before you begin

• Ensure that you have the proper permissions. For more information about permissions, refer to About users and permissions.
• Identify the dashboard to which you want to add the panel.
• Understand the query language of the target data source.
• Ensure that data source for which you are writing a query has been added. For more information about adding a data source, refer to Add a data source if you need instructions.

Create a dashboard

To create a dashboard, follow these steps:

1. Click Dashboards in the main menu.

2. Click New and select New Dashboard.

3. In the edit pane, enter the dashboard title and description.

4. Under Panel layout, choose one of the following options:

   • Custom - Position and size panels manually. The default selection.
   • Auto grid - Panels are automatically resized to create a uniform grid based on the column and row settings.

5. Click + Add visualization.

6. In the dialog box that opens, do one of the following:

   • Select one of your existing data sources.
   • Select one of the Grafana built-in special data sources.
   • Click Configure a new data source to set up a new one (Admins only).

   The Edit panel view opens with your data source selected. You can change the panel data source later using the drop-down in the Query tab of the panel editor if needed.

   For more information about data sources, refer to Data sources for specific guidelines.

7. Write or construct a query in the query language of your data source.

8. Click Refresh to query the data source.

9. In the visualization list, select a visualization type.

   Grafana displays a preview of your query results with the visualization applied.

   For more information about configuring individual visualizations, refer to Visualizations options.

10. Under Panel options, enter a title and description for your panel or have Grafana create them using generative AI features.

11. Refer to the following documentation for ways you can adjust panel settings.

    While not required, most visualizations need some adjustment before they properly display the information that you need.

    • Configure value mappings
    • Visualization-specific options
    • Override field values
    • Configure thresholds
    • Configure standard options

12. When you’ve finished editing your panel, click Save.

    Alternatively, click Back to dashboard if you want to see your changes applied to the dashboard first. Then click Save when you’re ready.

13. Enter a title and description for your dashboard if you haven’t already or have Grafana create them using generative AI features.

14. Select a folder, if applicable.

15. (Optional) Enter a description of the changes you’ve made.

16. Click Save.

17. To add more panels to the dashboard, click Back to dashboard and at the bottom-left corner of the dashboard, click + Add panel.

18. (Optional) In the edit pane, enter a title and description for the panel and set the panel transparency and repeat options, if applicable.

19. Click Configure in either the edit pane or on the panel to the configuration process.

20. When you’ve saved all the changes you want to make to the dashboard, click Back to dashboard.

21. Toggle off the edit mode switch.

Group panels

To help create meaningful sections in your dashboard, you can group panels into rows or tabs. Rows and tabs let you break up big dashboards or make one dashboard out of several smaller ones. You can nest tabs and rows within each other or themselves. Also, tabs are included in the dashboard URL.

The following sections describe the configuration options for adding tabs and rows. While grouping is meant for multiple panels, you can start a grouping with just one panel.

1. Click Dashboards in the main menu.

2. Navigate to the dashboard you want to update.

3. Toggle on the edit mode switch.

4. At the bottom-left corner of the dashboard, click Group panels.

5. Select Group into row or Group into tab.

   A dotted line surrounds the panels and the Row or Tab edit pane is displayed on the right side of the dashboard.

6. Set the grouping configuration options.

7. When you’re finished, click Save at the top-right corner of the dashboard.

8. (Optional) Enter a description of the changes you’ve made.

9. Click Save.

Grouping configuration options

The following table describes the options you can set for a row.

Configure repeat options

You can configure Grafana to dynamically add panels, rows, or tabs to a dashboard based on the value of that variable. Variables dynamically change your queries across all rows in a dashboard.

This only applies to queries that include a multi-value variable.

To configure repeats, follow these steps:

1. Click Dashboards in the main menu.

2. Navigate to the dashboard you want to update.

3. Toggle on the edit mode switch.

   The Dashboard edit pane opens on the right side of the dashboard.

4. Click in the panel, row, or tab you want to work with to bring it into focus and display the associated options in the edit pane.

5. Expand the Repeat options section.

6. Select the Repeat by variable.

7. For panels only, set the following options:

   • Under Repeat direction, choose one of the following:

     • Horizontal - Arrange panels side-by-side. Grafana adjusts the width of a repeated panel. You can’t mix other panels on a row with a repeated panel.
     • Vertical - Arrange panels in a column. The width of repeated panels is the same as the original, repeated panel.

   • If you selected Horizontal, select a value in the Max per row drop-down list to control the maximum number of panels that can be in a row.

8. (Optional) To provide context to dashboard users, add the variable name to the panel, row, or tab title.

9. When you’ve finished setting the repeat option, click Save.

10. (Optional) Enter a description of the changes you’ve made.

11. Click Save.

12. Toggle off the edit mode switch.

Repeating rows and the Dashboard special data source

If a row includes panels using the special Dashboard data source—the data source that uses a result set from another panel in the same dashboard—then corresponding panels in repeated rows will reference the panel in the original row, not the ones in the repeated rows.

For example, in a dashboard:

• Row 1 includes Panel 1A and Panel 1B
• Panel 1B uses the results from Panel 1A by way of the -- Dashboard -- data source
• Repeating row, Row 2, includes Panel 2A and Panel 2B
• Panel 2B references Panel 1A, not Panel 2A

Configure show/hide rules

You can configure panels, rows, and tabs to be shown or hidden based on rules. For example, you might want to set a panel to be hidden if there’s no data returned by a query or a tab to only be shown based on a variable being present.

To configure show/hide rules, follow these steps:

1. Click Dashboards in the main menu.

2. Navigate to the dashboard you want to update.

3. Toggle on the edit mode switch.

   The Dashboard edit pane opens on the right side of the dashboard.

4. Click in the panel, row, or tab you want to work with to bring it into focus and display the associated options in the edit pane.

5. Expand the Show / hide rules section.

6. Select Show or Hide to set whether the panel, row, or tab is shown or hidden based on the rules outcome.

7. Click + Add rule.

8. Select a rule type:

   • Query result - Show or hide a panel based on query results. Choose from Has data and No data. For panels only.
   • Template variable - Show or hide the panel, row, or tab dynamically based on the variable value. Select a variable and operator and enter a value.
   • Time range less than - Show or hide the panel, row, or tab if the dashboard time range is shorter than the selected time frame. Select or enter a time range.

9. Configure the rule.

10. Under Match rules, select one of the following:

    • Match all - The panel, row, or tab is shown or hidden only if all the rules are matched.
    • Match any - The panel, row, or tab is shown or hidden if any of the rules are matched.

    This option is only displayed if you add multiple rules.

11. When you’ve finished setting rules, click Save.

12. (Optional) Enter a description of the changes you’ve made.

13. Click Save.

14. Toggle off the edit mode switch.

Edit dashboards

When the dashboard is in edit mode, the edit pane that opens displays options associated with the part of the dashboard that it’s in focus. For example, if you click in the area of a panel, row, or tab, that area comes into focus and the edit pane shows the options for that area:

• For rows and tabs, all of the available options are in the edit pane.
• For panels, high-level options are in the edit pane and further configuration options are in the Edit panel view.
• For dashboards, high-level options are in the edit pane and further configuration options are in the Settings page.

To edit dashboards, follow these steps:

1. Click Dashboards in the main menu.

2. Navigate to the dashboard you want to update.

3. Toggle on the edit mode switch.

   The Dashboard edit pane opens on the right side of the dashboard.

4. Click in the area you want to work with to bring it into focus and display the associated options in the edit pane.

5. Do one of the following:

   • For rows or tabs, make the required changes using the edit pane.
   • For panels, update the panel title, description, repeat options or show/hide rules in the edit pane. For more changes, click Configure and continue in Edit panel view.
   • For dashboards, update the dashboard title, description, grouping or panel layout. For more changes, click the settings (gear) icon in the top-right corner.

6. When you’ve finished making changes, click Save.

7. (Optional) Enter a description of the changes you’ve made.

8. Click Save.

9. Toggle off the edit mode switch.

Move or resize a panel

When you’re dashboard has a Custom layout, you can resize or move a panel to any location on the dashboard.

To move or resize, follow these steps:

1. Click Dashboards in the main menu.

2. Navigate to the dashboard you want to update.

3. Toggle on the edit mode switch.

4. Do one of the following:

   • Click the panel title and drag the panel to the new location.
   • Click and drag the lower-right corner of the panel to change the size of the panel.

5. Click Save.

6. (Optional) Enter a description of the changes you’ve made.

7. Click Save.

8. Toggle off the edit mode switch.

Navigate using the dashboard outline

The dashboard Outline provides a tree-like structure that shows you all of the parts of your dashboard and their relationships to each other including panels, rows, tabs, and variables. The outline also lets you quickly navigate the dashboard so that you don’t have to spend time finding a particular element to work with it. By default, the outline is collapsed except for the part that’s currently in focus.

To navigate the dashboard using the outline, follow these steps:

1. Click Dashboards in the main menu.

2. Navigate to the dashboard you want to update.

3. Toggle on the edit mode switch.

   The Dashboard edit pane opens on the right side of the dashboard.

4. In the edit pane, expand the Outline section.

5. Expand the outline to find the dashboard part to which you want to navigate.

6. Click the tree item to navigate that part of the dashboard.

Copy a dashboard

To make a copy of a dashboard, follow these steps:

1. Click Dashboards in the main menu.

2. Navigate to the dashboard you want to update.

3. Toggle on the edit mode switch.

4. Click the Save drop-down and select Save as copy.

5. (Optional) Specify the name, folder, description, and whether or not to copy the original dashboard tags for the copied dashboard.

   By default, the copied dashboard has the same name as the original dashboard with the word “Copy” appended and is in the same folder.

6. Click Save.