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Grafana

Observability dashboards - visualize metrics from Prometheus, Loki, and 50+ data sources with alerting

TL;DR

What: An open-source analytics and visualization platform.

Why: Beautiful dashboards, multiple data sources, alerting, extensive plugin ecosystem.

Quick Start

Install with Docker:

docker run -d --name grafana \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  grafana/grafana

Open http://localhost:3000 (admin/admin)

Or with Docker Compose (with Prometheus):

version: '3'
services:
  prometheus:
    image: prom/prometheus
    ports:
      - "9090:9090"
  grafana:
    image: grafana/grafana
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_PASSWORD=secret

Cheatsheet

ActionHow
Add data sourceSettings → Data Sources → Add
Create dashboard+ → Dashboard
Add panelDashboard → Add panel
Import dashboard+ → Import → Enter ID
Create alertPanel → Alert → Create

Gotchas

Adding Prometheus data source

  1. Go to Configuration → Data Sources
  2. Click “Add data source”
  3. Select Prometheus
  4. URL: http://prometheus:9090 (or your Prometheus URL)
  5. Click “Save & Test”

Basic panel query (Prometheus)

# Request rate
rate(http_requests_total[5m])

# With legend
rate(http_requests_total{job="api"}[5m])
# Legend: {{method}} {{path}}

Dashboard variables

# Query variable
label_values(http_requests_total, job)

# Use in panel
http_requests_total{job="$job"}
DashboardID
Node Exporter Full1860
Docker Containers893
Kubernetes Cluster6417
Nginx9614

Import: Dashboard → Import → Enter ID

Alerting

# Grafana 9+ unified alerting
# Create in UI: Alert Rules → New Alert Rule
# Or provision via YAML:

apiVersion: 1
groups:
  - name: example
    rules:
      - alert: HighCPU
        condition: B
        data:
          - refId: A
            datasourceUid: prometheus
            model:
              expr: avg(rate(node_cpu_seconds_total{mode!="idle"}[5m])) > 0.8

Next Steps