Why ClickHouse and Grafana
ClickHouse is a column-oriented database built for online analytical processing (OLAP). Instead of optimizing for single-row lookups like a traditional transactional database, it’s built to scan and aggregate across very large datasets quickly. That performance at scale is why teams reach for ClickHouse to store logs, traces, metrics, and high-volume event data.
Why connect ClickHouse to Grafana
Pairing ClickHouse with Grafana gives you a single place to explore and visualize that data:
- Query with the builder or SQL. Use the visual query builder for common patterns, or write raw ClickHouse SQL when you need full control.
- Purpose-built for observability. The data source understands logs, traces, and time series, and ships prebuilt OpenTelemetry dashboards for data written by the OpenTelemetry Collector.
- Dynamic dashboards. ClickHouse-specific macros and template variables let you build reusable, parameterized dashboards.
- Alerting. Turn ClickHouse queries into Grafana alert rules and recording rules.
What you’ll do in this journey
This first journey focuses on getting connected safely. You’ll create a read-only ClickHouse user, add the data source, configure the connection, test it, and run your first query. Once you’re connected, the follow-on paths cover exploring observability data and building dashboards.
In the next milestone, you’ll prepare a read-only ClickHouse user for Grafana to use.