This is documentation for the next version of Grafana documentation. For the latest stable release, go to the latest version.

Grafana Cloud Enterprise Open source
Last reviewed: April 10, 2026

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

SettingDescription
NameA name to identify this data source in panels, queries, and Explore.
DefaultToggle to make this the default data source for new panels.

Connection

SettingDescription
URLThe 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:

MethodDescription
Basic authenticationAuthenticate with a username and password. Enter values in the User and Password fields.
Forward OAuth IdentityForward the logged-in user’s OAuth token to the data source.
No AuthenticationConnect without credentials. Use this when the Parca instance doesn’t require authentication.

TLS settings

Configure TLS for secure communication with your Parca instance.

SettingDescription
Add self-signed certificateToggle to provide a CA certificate. When enabled, paste the CA certificate in the CA Certificate field.
TLS Client AuthenticationToggle to enable mutual TLS. When enabled, provide the Server Name, Client Certificate, and Client Key.
Skip TLS certificate validationToggle 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

SettingDescription
Allowed cookiesCookies that should be forwarded to the data source. The Grafana proxy strips all cookies by default.
TimeoutThe 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.

SettingDescription
EnabledToggle 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.

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.

YAML provisioning example

YAML
apiVersion: 1

datasources:
  - name: Parca
    type: parca
    url: http://localhost:7070

To provision with basic authentication:

YAML
apiVersion: 1

datasources:
  - name: Parca
    type: parca
    url: http://localhost:7070
    basicAuth: true
    basicAuthUser: <USERNAME>
    secureJsonData:
      basicAuthPassword: <PASSWORD>

Replace the following:

  • <USERNAME>: Your Parca username.
  • <PASSWORD>: Your Parca password.

Terraform example

To provision the data source with Terraform, use the grafana_data_source resource:

hcl
resource "grafana_data_source" "parca" {
  type = "parca"
  name = "Parca"
  url  = "http://localhost:7070"
}

To provision with basic authentication:

hcl
resource "grafana_data_source" "parca" {
  type                = "parca"
  name                = "Parca"
  url                 = "http://localhost:7070"
  basic_auth_enabled  = true
  basic_auth_username = "<USERNAME>"

  secure_json_data_encoded = jsonencode({
    basicAuthPassword = "<PASSWORD>"
  })
}

Replace the following:

  • <USERNAME>: Your Parca username.
  • <PASSWORD>: Your Parca password.

Next steps