--- title: "Configure the Parca data source | Grafana documentation" description: "Configure the Parca data source in Grafana to connect to your Parca continuous profiling instance." --- # Configure the Parca data source This document explains how to configure the Parca data source in Grafana. You can configure the data source using the Grafana UI, a YAML provisioning file, or Terraform. If you make any changes in the UI, select **Save & test** to preserve those changes. ## Before you begin Before configuring the data source, ensure you have: - **Grafana permissions:** `Organization administrator` role. - **Parca instance:** A running Parca instance (v0.19 or later) accessible from your Grafana server. If you’re provisioning the data source, you also need administrative rights on the server hosting your Grafana instance. ## Add the data source To add the Parca data source: 1. Click **Connections** in the left-side menu. 2. Click **Add new connection**. 3. Type `Parca` in the search bar. 4. Select **Parca**. 5. Click **Add new data source**. ## Configure settings The **Settings** tab contains the following configuration sections. ### Basic settings Expand table | Setting | Description | |-------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------| | **Name** | A name to identify this data source in panels, queries, and Explore. | | **Default** | Toggle to make this the default data source for new panels. | ### Connection Expand table | Setting | Description | |---------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | **URL** | The URL of your Parca instance. For example, `http://localhost:7070`. Grafana connects to Parca using gRPC-Web, so the URL should point to the Parca HTTP endpoint. | ### Authentication Use this section to select an authentication method to access the data source. The available methods are: Expand table | Method | Description | |----------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | **Basic authentication** | Authenticate with a username and password. Enter values in the **User** and **Password** fields. | | **Forward OAuth Identity** | Forward the logged-in user’s OAuth token to the data source. | | **No Authentication** | Connect without credentials. Use this when the Parca instance doesn’t require authentication. | ### TLS settings Configure TLS for secure communication with your Parca instance. Expand table | Setting | Description | |-------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | **Add self-signed certificate** | Toggle to provide a CA certificate. When enabled, paste the CA certificate in the **CA Certificate** field. | | **TLS Client Authentication** | Toggle to enable mutual TLS. When enabled, provide the **Server Name**, **Client Certificate**, and **Client Key**. | | **Skip TLS certificate validation** | Toggle to skip server certificate verification. Use only for testing. | > Note > > Use Transport Layer Security (TLS) for an additional layer of security when working with Parca. ### Custom HTTP headers Add custom HTTP headers to requests sent to the Parca instance. Click **Add header** to add a new row with **Header** (name) and **Value** (secret) fields. Custom headers are useful for passing authentication tokens or routing information required by proxies between Grafana and Parca. ## Additional settings Click the down arrow to expand the **Additional settings** section. These settings are optional. ### Advanced HTTP settings Expand table | Setting | Description | |---------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | **Allowed cookies** | Cookies that should be forwarded to the data source. The Grafana proxy strips all cookies by default. | | **Timeout** | The HTTP request timeout in seconds. | ### Secure SOCKS proxy > Note > > This section is only visible when the Grafana server has the secure SOCKS proxy feature enabled. Expand table | Setting | Description | |-------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | **Enabled** | Toggle to route requests to the Parca instance through a secure SOCKS proxy. | ## Verify the connection Click **Save & test** to verify that Grafana can connect to your Parca instance. The health check queries the available profile types from the Parca server. A successful connection displays the message **Data source is working**. If the test fails, verify that the URL is correct and that your Parca instance is running and accessible from the Grafana server. For more help, refer to [Troubleshoot Parca data source issues](/docs/grafana/latest/datasources/parca/troubleshooting/). ## Provision the data source You can define the data source in YAML files as part of the Grafana provisioning system. For more information, refer to [Provisioning Grafana](/docs/grafana/latest/administration/provisioning/#data-sources). ### YAML provisioning example YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```yaml apiVersion: 1 datasources: - name: Parca type: parca url: http://localhost:7070 ``` To provision with basic authentication: YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```yaml apiVersion: 1 datasources: - name: Parca type: parca url: http://localhost:7070 basicAuth: true basicAuthUser: secureJsonData: basicAuthPassword: ``` Replace the following: - ``: Your Parca username. - ``: Your Parca password. ### Terraform example To provision the data source with Terraform, use the [`grafana_data_source` resource](https://registry.terraform.io/providers/grafana/grafana/latest/docs/resources/data_source): hcl ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```hcl resource "grafana_data_source" "parca" { type = "parca" name = "Parca" url = "http://localhost:7070" } ``` To provision with basic authentication: hcl ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```hcl resource "grafana_data_source" "parca" { type = "parca" name = "Parca" url = "http://localhost:7070" basic_auth_enabled = true basic_auth_username = "" secure_json_data_encoded = jsonencode({ basicAuthPassword = "" }) } ``` Replace the following: - ``: Your Parca username. - ``: Your Parca password. ## Next steps - [Query profiling data with the Parca query editor](/docs/grafana/latest/datasources/parca/query-editor/)