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The data source landscape

The data source landscape

Grafana supports dozens of data sources covering metrics, logs, traces, databases, APIs, and more. In this tour, we’ll focus on the most common ones by category.

CategoryData sourcesWhat they connect
MetricsPrometheus, InfluxDBTime-series metrics from your infrastructure
LogsLoki, ElasticsearchLog aggregation and search systems
CloudCloudWatchAWS metrics and logs
DatabasesMySQL, PostgreSQLQuery data directly from SQL databases
FlexibleInfinity, Google SheetsAPIs, JSON, CSV, spreadsheets

Start with what you already have. Most teams connect their existing metrics or log system first, then expand from there.

Script

Grafana supports dozens of data sources, but you don’t need to learn them all. In this tour, we’ll walk through the most common ones you’ll encounter.

We’ve grouped them by what they store: metrics systems like Prometheus and InfluxDB, log systems like Loki and Elasticsearch, cloud providers like CloudWatch, SQL databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL, and flexible options like Infinity for APIs and Google Sheets for spreadsheets.

Most teams start by connecting their existing metrics or log system, then expand from there. For each one, we’ll cover what it’s for and when you’d use it.