Plugins 〉Synthetic Monitoring
Synthetic Monitoring
Synthetic monitoring application
Synthetic Monitoring is a blackbox monitoring solution provided as part of Grafana Cloud. Synthetic Monitoring provides users with insights into how their applications and services are behaving from an external point of view. Users can define checks to continually test remote targets from 1 or more probe locations around the world to assess the availability, performance and correctness of the services. As each check runs, metrics and logs are collected and published to the user's Grafana Cloud service. Metrics are published to Grafana Cloud Prometheus and logs are published to Grafana Cloud Loki.
Synthetic monitoring is the successor to the original worldping application. The refreshed Synthetic Monitoring product focuses on reducing complexity and taking advantage of Grafana Cloud capabilities.
Check Types
Users can define HTTP/HTTPS, DNS, TCP and ICMP Ping checks to monitor their remote targets. Internally, the Synthetic Monitoring solution uses the Prometheus Blackbox exporter for executing the checks and collecting metrics and logs. When creating a check, users are able to customize the settings and validation rules supported by the Blackbox exporter.
Probe Locations
For each check, users can select 1 or more 'public' probe locations distributed throughout the world to run tests from. Additionally, users can run their own 'private' probe locations by downloading and deploying the Synthetic Monitoring Agent.
Configuration
Synthetic Monitoring requires a Grafana Cloud account, and is installed by default in Grafana Cloud stacks. A local Grafana instance can be configured to connect to Synthetic Monitoring via a provisioning file:
apiVersion: 1
apps:
- type: grafana-synthetic-monitoring-app
name: grafana-synthetic-monitoring-app
disabled: false
jsonData:
apiHost: <synthetic monitoring api url for your grafana cloud stack>
stackId: <instance ID of your hosted grafana>
logs:
grafanaName: <name of an existing Loki datasource pointing to the Grafana Cloud Loki instance>
hostedId: <Grafana Cloud Loki instance ID>
metrics:
grafanaName: <name of an existing Prometheus datasource pointing to the Grafana Cloud Prometheus instance>
hostedId: <Grafana Cloud Prometheus instance ID>
secureJsonData:
publisherToken: <metric publisher token from grafana.com>
Configuration details:
apiHost
expects Synthetic Monitoring API URL, see more details herestackId
expects an integer and can be found usinggcom /instances/<orgSlug>
, or by visitinghttps://grafana.com/orgs/<orgSlug>/stacks
and clicking thedetails
button on stack you are connecting to. The id will be in the URL.The
logs
andmetrics
section are instructing the plugin which datasources it needs to use.- The
grafanaName
needs to exactly match the names specified in your datasource provisioning - The
hostedId
expects an integer and is the same value as thebasicAuthUser
in your datasource provisioning. The value can also be found from thedetails
page of loki or prometheus athttps://grafana.com/orgs/<orgSlug>/stacks
.
- The
publisherToken
needs to be a grafana.com api key with aMetricsPublisher
role. This is what the probes use to publish metrics to your cloud stack.
Note: you can add a provisioning block per org to provision the plugin for multiple orgs. You can provide different values for each org block and connect to a different cloud stack per org.
Prerequisites:
- A datasource pointed at a Prometheus instance hosted in Grafana Cloud
- A datasource pointed at a Loki instance hosted in Grafana Cloud
Note: The Prometheus and Loki instances must be part of the same Cloud stack
The required datasources can be added via provisioning. The information needed can be copied from Prometheus and Loki datasources found in the datasources tab of a Cloud hosted Grafana instance:
apiVersion: 1
datasources:
-
name: <datasource name>
type: loki
access: proxy
url: https://logs-prod-us-central1.grafana.net
basicAuth: true
basicAuthUser: <Grafana Cloud Loki instance ID>
jsonData:
maxLines: 1000
secureJsonData:
basicAuthPassword: <viewer token from grafana.com>
version: 1
-
name: <datasource name>
type: prometheus
access: proxy
url: https://prometheus-us-central1.grafana.net/api/prom
basicAuth: true
basicAuthUser: <Grafana Cloud Prometheus instance ID>
jsonData:
timeInterval: 1s
secureJsonData:
basicAuthPassword: <viewer token from grafana.com>
version: 1
To start the using app:
- Navigate to Synthetic Monitoring via the sidebar
- Click the Get Started button. This will initialize the app.
During the Initialization process, the Synthetic Monitoring backend will:
- Validate the Publisher API key provided in the provisioning file.
- Ensure the account has active Grafana Cloud Prometheus and Grafana Cloud Loki services
- The dashboards included with the App will then be imported.
- Finally, the Synthentic Monitoring Backend will be notified that the service is ready.
Users can then create checks to monitor their remote targets. Metrics and logs will flow into the selected Cloud stack.
Grafana Cloud Pro
- $25 / user / month and includes a free trial for new users
- Available with a Grafana Cloud Pro plan
- Access to 1 Enterprise plugin
- Fully managed service (not available to self-manage)
Grafana Cloud Advanced / Grafana Enterprise
- Available with a Grafana Cloud Advanced plan or Grafana Enterprise license
- Access to all Enterprise plugins
- Run fully managed or self-manage on your own infrastructure
Installing Synthetic Monitoring on Grafana Cloud:
Installing plugins on a Grafana Cloud instance is a one-click install; same with updates. Cool, right?
Note that it could take up to 1 minute to see the plugin show up in your Grafana.
Installing plugins on a Grafana Cloud instance is a one-click install; same with updates. Cool, right?
Note that it could take up to 1 minute to see the plugin show up in your Grafana.
Installing plugins on a Grafana Cloud instance is a one-click install; same with updates. Cool, right?
Note that it could take up to 1 minute to see the plugin show up in your Grafana.
Installing plugins on a Grafana Cloud instance is a one-click install; same with updates. Cool, right?
Note that it could take up to 1 minute to see the plugin show up in your Grafana.
Installing plugins on a Grafana Cloud instance is a one-click install; same with updates. Cool, right?
Note that it could take up to 1 minute to see the plugin show up in your Grafana.
For more information, visit the docs on plugin installation.
Installing on a local Grafana:
For local instances, plugins are installed and updated via a simple CLI command. Plugins are not updated automatically, however you will be notified when updates are available right within your Grafana.
1. Install the Application
Use the grafana-cli tool to install Synthetic Monitoring from the commandline:
grafana-cli plugins install
The plugin will be installed into your grafana plugins directory; the default is /var/lib/grafana/plugins. More information on the cli tool.
Alternatively, you can manually download the .zip file for your architecture below and unpack it into your grafana plugins directory.
Alternatively, you can manually download the .zip file and unpack it into your grafana plugins directory.
2. Enable it
Next, log into your Grafana instance. Navigate to the Plugins section, found in your Grafana main menu.
Click the Apps tabs in the Plugins section and select the newly installed app.
To enable the app, click the Config tab. Follow the instructions provided with the application and click Enable. The app and any new UI pages are now accessible from within the main menu, as designed by the app creator.
If dashboards have been included with the application, they will attempt to be automatically installed. To view the dashboards, re-import or delete individual dashboards, click the Dashboards tab within the app page.
Change Log
1.11.0 (2023-6-1)
- Include some fixes for scenes
- Fix some issues with identifying datasources when an instance is renamed
- Replace the visualization list view with a scene
- Remove legacy theming
1.10.1 (2023-4-26)
- Suppress an erroneous error toast in the alerting view
- Add some testing for Terraform generation output
1.10.0 (2023-4-21)
- Add and release multi-http functionality behind feature flag
- Add and release scenes based dashboards behind feature flag
- Fix a bug with base64 encoding in TCP query/response
- Update datasource query editor to include probes in traceroute queries
1.9.36 (2023-3-15)
- Update build tooling from grafana-toolkit to create-plugin
1.9.35 (2023-2-16)
- Fix a bug with rendering data in the node panel for traceroute checks
1.9.34 (2023-2-09)
- Fix a bug with the config page not rendering in cloud instances
1.9.33 (2023-2-07)
- Upgrade the Worldmap panel dependency
1.9.32 (2023-2-06)
- Fix a bug with the config page not rendering in cloud instances
1.9.31 (2023-1-13)
- Fix a bug where checks weren't refetched after bulk updating probes
- Add some information on how to set up a private probe after creating a token
- Show error state if validating the body of an HTTP HEAD request
- Remove the legacy initialization flow
1.9.30 (2023-1-9)
- Remove deprecated initialization flow
1.9.29 (2023-1-4)
- Add proxy headers to HTTP checks
1.9.28 (2022-11-9)
- Update Alert URL for compatiblity with Grafana 9
1.9.27 (2022-11-8)
- Fix error message on non-traceroutes timeout field
1.9.26 (2022-11-2)
- Fix a duplicate button on the setup page
1.9.25 (2022-10-24)
- Support the new Grafana navigation setup
1.9.24 (2022-10-11)
- Fix a bug with dashboard redirects that were causing them to lose query params
1.9.23 (2022-10-5)
- Bump Grafana dependencies to version 9
1.9.22 (2022-9-15)
- Update worldmap panel dependency
1.9.21 (2022-8-10)
- Update link to alerting UI
1.9.20 (2022-8-2)
- Make sure 100% is never rendered as 100.0%
1.9.19 (2022-6-21)
- Fix a bug with some promql queries that could result in values over 100%
1.9.18 (2022-6-21)
- Fix a bug with settting default alert rules in Grafana v9
1.9.17 (2022-6-9)
- Handles a breaking change in the alerting api for Grafana v9
1.9.16 (2022-6-3)
- Adds a more helpful error message when probe deletion fails
1.9.15 (2022-4-28)
- Fixes a routing issue where the unprovisioned plugin could get stuck in an infinite loop
- Fixes a routing issue where the plugin could prevent navigation to other parts of Grafana
1.9.14 (2022-4-15)
- Fixes a bug where there alerting tab could end up in a disabled state when it shouldn't
1.9.13 (2022-3-29)
Bug fixes
- Fixes reachability queries that could sometimes be over 100% for long time windows
- Hides dashboard update modal from users that don't have permissions to update dashboards
1.9.12 (2022-3-16)
Bug fixes
- Dashboard maps weren't displaying thresholds correctly
- Show custom alert thresholds in the check editor form
1.9.11 (2022-3-3)
Bug fixes
- Fix broken dashboard redirect logic
1.9.10 (2022-2-16)
Bug fixes
- Use datasource UIDs when creating dashboards instead of names
- Fix a potential infinite routing loop when initializing on prem
1.9.9 (2022-2-04)
Features
- Rearranged checklist filters under a central dropdown
1.9.8 (2022-2-01)
1.9.7 (2022-1-25)
Features
- Adds a map to the probe edit page to visualize longitude & latitude
1.9.6 (2022-1-21)
Features
- Increase the maximum quantity of labels per check to 10.
1.9.5 (2022-1-21)
Bug fixes
- Fix a race condition that prevented values from showing up when navigating to the edit check form
1.9.4 (2022-1-19)
Bug fixes
- Update routing to use React router
- Fix a bug in the usage prediction calculation
- Accessibility fixes
Features
- Include traceroute checks in the Terraform config export
1.9.3 (2022-1-10)
Bug fixes
- Gracefully handle inability to connect to API
1.9.2 (2022-1-06)
Features
- Added the ability to bulk edit probes for checks
1.8.1 (2022-1-04)
Bug Fixes
- Update the README with additional configuration details
1.8.0 (2022-1-04)
Features
- Add a
terraform import
command to the terraform config download. This allows users to generate intial TF state.
Bug Fixes
- Replace worldmap panel plugin with geomap panel in all the dashboards
- Use the updated timeseries panel in the summary dashboard
- Rename the DNS dashboard to align with the other dashboards
1.7.0 (2021-12-01)
Features
- Add the ability to export checks and probes as terraform config from the plugin config page
- Add a button to generate a new API key in the plugin config page
1.6.0 (2021-11-17)
Features
- Add traceroute check type
1.5.6 (2021-11-15)
Bug Fixes
- Add data points per minute to usage calculator
1.5.5 (2021-10-29)
Features
- Mark deprecated probes as such in check editor. Prevent adding deprecated probes to checks.
1.5.3 (2021-09-20)
Bug Fixes
- Fix a dashboard config error
1.5.2 (2021-09-20)
Bug Fixes
1.5.1 (2021-09-14)
Bug Fixes
1.5.0 (2021-09-13)
Features
- add a homepage (625beb9)
1.4.0 (2021-09-08)
Features
1.3.2 (2021-09-08)
Bug Fixes
1.3.0 (2021-08-27)
Bug Fixes
- go back to circle bild (7d159fa)
Features
[1.2.30] - 2021-08-27
- New start to changelog with updated build process