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What’s new in Grafana v11.6

Welcome to Grafana 11.6! This minor release includes a number of dashboarding features that are now generally available including one-click data links and actions, Cron syntax support for annotations, and WebGL-powered geomaps for better performance. We’ve also fully migrated from API keys to service accounts in Grafana for better security. Read on to learn more about version history for Grafana Managed Alerts, label-based access control (LBAC) for Mimir metrics, and more in Grafana v11.6.

For even more detail about all the changes in this release, refer to the changelog. For the specific steps we recommend when you upgrade to v11.6, check out our Upgrade Guide.


Dashboards and visualizations

Grafana Cloud Generally Available Open source Enterprise Generally Available Dashboards and visualizations

Last year we introduced one-click data links and actions for canvas visualizations in public preview and experimentally respectively. With the One click switch toggled on, it takes just a single click to open a data link or trigger an action. Now, both of these features are generally available for the canvas visualization.


Grafana Cloud Generally Available Open source Enterprise Generally Available Dashboards and visualizations

You can now configure data links to be accessed with a single click. We’ve added the One click switch to data links for the following visualizations:


Visualization actions are now GA

Grafana Cloud Generally Available Open source Enterprise Generally Available Dashboards and visualizations

Actions for visualizations are now generally available. With actions, you can trigger basic, unauthenticated API calls from a dashboard panel. Previously experimental, actions are now generally available for the following visualizations:


New Actions cell type for table visualizations

Grafana Cloud Generally Available Open source Enterprise Generally Available Dashboards and visualizations

The table visualization now includes a new Actions cell type, which lets you trigger actions directly from table cells. This enhancement allows you to define custom actions, such as triggering external workflows, from within a table column:


Better time region control in Annotations with Cron syntax

Grafana Cloud Generally Available Open source Enterprise Generally Available Dashboards and visualizations

Using Cron syntax, you can define more granular schedules than previously possible with just weekday and time selections. For example, it is now possible to create a single time region query that marks periods like “At 21:00 on the second Tuesday of every other month” or “Weekdays 9-5.” To try it out create an Annotation, toggle the Advanced switch and use Cron syntax to set more granular time region controls.

Time region query with cron syntax


Dashboard variables supported for all transformations

Grafana Cloud Generally Available Open source Enterprise Generally Available Dashboards and visualizations

In previous releases, we added support for dashboard variables to a small number of transformations. Now this functionality has been added to all transformations, where applicable. All text input fields in transformations accept variable syntax:

Transformation with a mock variable in a text field

Alerting

Alert rule version history

Grafana Cloud Generally Available Open source Enterprise Generally Available Alerting

Grafana Managed Alerts now supports version history. You can view, compare, and restore your alert’s historical versions by navigating to the alert details view of any Grafana Managed Alert rule and clicking the Version tab.


Alerting support for Jira Service Management contact point

Grafana Cloud Generally Available Open source Enterprise Generally Available Alerting

In response to the recent deprecation of OpsGenie, Grafana Alerting has added support for Jira Service Management as a Grafana Managed contact point. You can ensure you don’t miss any critical alerts by updating your OpsGenie contact points to use Jira Service Management.


Data sources

LBAC for data sources - metrics

Grafana Cloud Experimental Enterprise Experimental Data sources Authentication and authorization Metrics

It can be hard for teams to collaborate on dashboards when they have to use different data sources. Grafana instances can become cluttered and confusing with hundreds of data sources.

datasource permissions tab - team lbac

Plugins

Grafana Cloud Available in public preview Open source Enterprise Available in public preview Plugins

Standardized links for plugins to simplify user-developer interactions

We’re pleased to announce an improvement to the Grafana plugin catalog that benefits both Grafana users and plugin developers. By introducing standardized links on plugin details pages, we’re making it easier for users to engage with developers, and find the essential information they need to get the most out of a plugin. Developers, in turn, will gain valuable feedback and support from their audience.

plugin-details-links

Security

API keys fully deprecated and automatically migrated to Service Accounts

Grafana Cloud Generally Available Open source Enterprise Generally Available Security Authentication and authorization

We’ve fully deprecated API keys in Grafana, and all existing API keys have been automatically migrated to Service Accounts. No action is needed on your part—your API integrations will continue to work seamlessly while benefiting from improved security and management features.