Provision Grafana
In previous versions of Grafana, you could only use the API for provisioning data sources and dashboards. But that required the service to be running before you started creating dashboards and you also needed to set up credentials for the HTTP API. In v5.0 we decided to improve this experience by adding a new active provisioning system that uses config files. This will make GitOps more natural as data sources and dashboards can be defined via files that can be version controlled. We hope to extend this system to later add support for users and orgs as well.
Config File
See Configuration for more information on what you can configure in grafana.ini.
Config File Locations
- Default configuration from
$WORKING_DIR/conf/defaults.ini - Custom configuration from
$WORKING_DIR/conf/custom.ini - The custom configuration file path can be overridden using the
--configparameter
NOTE
If you have installed Grafana using thedeborrpmpackages, then your configuration file is located at/etc/grafana/grafana.ini. This path is specified in the Grafana init.d script using--configfile parameter.
Using Environment Variables
It is possible to use environment variable interpolation in all 3 provisioning configuration types. Allowed syntax is either $ENV_VAR_NAME or ${ENV_VAR_NAME} and can be used only for values not for keys or bigger parts of the configurations. It is not available in the dashboard’s definition files just the dashboard provisioning configuration. Example:
datasources:
- name: Graphite
url: http://localhost:$PORT
user: $USER
secureJsonData:
password: $PASSWORDIf you have a literal $ in your value and want to avoid interpolation, $$ can be used.
Configuration Management Tools
Currently we do not provide any scripts/manifests for configuring Grafana. Rather than spending time learning and creating scripts/manifests for each tool, we think our time is better spent making Grafana easier to provision. Therefore, we heavily rely on the expertise of the community.
Data sources
NOTE
Available in Grafana v5.0 and higher.
You can manage data sources in Grafana by adding YAML configuration files in the provisioning/datasources directory. Each config file can contain a list of datasources to add or update during startup. If the data source already exists, Grafana reconfigures it to match the provisioned configuration file.
The configuration file can also list data sources to automatically delete, called deleteDatasources. Grafana deletes the data sources listed in deleteDatasources before adding or updating those in the datasources list.
Running multiple Grafana instances
If you run multiple instances of Grafana, add a version number to each data source in the configuration and increase it when you update the configuration. Grafana updates only data sources with the same or lower version number than specified in the config. This prevents old configurations from overwriting newer ones if you have different versions of the datasource.yaml file that don’t define version numbers, and then restart instances at the same time.
Example data source config file
This example provisions a Graphite data source:
For provisioning examples of specific data sources, refer to that data source’s documentation.
JSON Data
Since not all data sources have the same configuration settings, we include only the most common ones as fields. To provision the rest of a data source’s settings, include them as a JSON blob in the jsonData field.
Common settings in the built-in core data sources include:
NOTE
Data sources tagged with HTTP* communicate using the HTTP protocol, which includes all core data source plugins except MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MSSQL.
For examples of specific data sources’ JSON data, refer to that data source’s documentation.
Secure JSON Data
Secure JSON data is a map of settings that will be encrypted with secret key from the Grafana config. The purpose of this is only to hide content from the users of the application. This should be used for storing TLS Cert and password that Grafana will append to the request on the server side. All of these settings are optional.
NOTE
The HTTP* tag denotes data sources that communicate using the HTTP protocol, including all core data source plugins except MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MSSQL.
Custom HTTP headers for data sources
Data sources managed by Grafanas provisioning can be configured to add HTTP headers to all requests going to that data source. The header name is configured in the jsonData field and the header value should be configured in secureJsonData.
apiVersion: 1
datasources:
- name: Graphite
jsonData:
httpHeaderName1: 'HeaderName'
httpHeaderName2: 'Authorization'
secureJsonData:
httpHeaderValue1: 'HeaderValue'
httpHeaderValue2: 'Bearer XXXXXXXXX'Plugins
NOTE
Available in Grafana v7.1 and higher.
You can manage plugin applications in Grafana by adding one or more YAML config files in the provisioning/plugins directory. Each config file can contain a list of apps that will be updated during start up. Grafana updates each app to match the configuration file.
NOTE
This feature enables you to provision plugin configurations, not the plugins themselves. The plugins must already be installed on the Grafana instance.
Example plugin configuration file
Dashboards
You can manage dashboards in Grafana by adding one or more YAML config files in the provisioning/dashboards directory. Each config file can contain a list of dashboards providers that load dashboards into Grafana from the local filesystem.
The dashboard provider config file looks somewhat like this:
When Grafana starts, it will update/insert all dashboards available in the configured path. Then later on poll that path every updateIntervalSeconds and look for updated json files and update/insert those into the database.
Note: Dashboards are provisioned to the root level if the
folderoption is missing or empty.
Making changes to a provisioned dashboard
It’s possible to make changes to a provisioned dashboard in the Grafana UI. However, it is not possible to automatically save the changes back to the provisioning source. If allowUiUpdates is set to true and you make changes to a provisioned dashboard, you can Save the dashboard then changes will be persisted to the Grafana database.
Note: If a provisioned dashboard is saved from the UI and then later updated from the source, the dashboard stored in the database will always be overwritten. The
versionproperty in the JSON file will not affect this, even if it is lower than the existing dashboard.If a provisioned dashboard is saved from the UI and the source is removed, the dashboard stored in the database will be deleted unless the configuration option
disableDeletionis set to true.
If allowUiUpdates is configured to false, you are not able to make changes to a provisioned dashboard. When you click Save, Grafana brings up a Cannot save provisioned dashboard dialog. The screenshot below illustrates this behavior.
Grafana offers options to export the JSON definition of a dashboard. Either Copy JSON to Clipboard or Save JSON to file can help you synchronize your dashboard changes back to the provisioning source.
Note: The JSON definition in the input field when using Copy JSON to Clipboard or Save JSON to file will have the id field automatically removed to aid the provisioning workflow.
Reusable Dashboard URLs
If the dashboard in the JSON file contains an UID, Grafana forces insert/update on that UID. This allows you to migrate dashboards between Grafana instances and provisioning Grafana from configuration without breaking the URLs given because the new dashboard URL uses the UID as identifier. When Grafana starts, it updates/inserts all dashboards available in the configured folders. If you modify the file, then the dashboard is also updated. By default, Grafana deletes dashboards in the database if the file is removed. You can disable this behavior using the disableDeletion setting.
NOTE
Provisioning allows you to overwrite existing dashboards which leads to problems if you reuse settings that are supposed to be unique. Be careful not to reuse the sametitlemultiple times within a folder oruidwithin the same installation as this will cause weird behaviors.
Provision folders structure from filesystem to Grafana
If you already store your dashboards using folders in a git repo or on a filesystem, and also you want to have the same folder names in the Grafana menu, you can use foldersFromFilesStructure option.
For example, to replicate these dashboards structure from the filesystem to Grafana,
/etc/dashboards
├── /server
│ ├── /common_dashboard.json
│ └── /network_dashboard.json
└── /application
├── /requests_dashboard.json
└── /resources_dashboard.jsonyou need to specify just this short provision configuration file.
apiVersion: 1
providers:
- name: dashboards
type: file
updateIntervalSeconds: 30
options:
path: /etc/dashboards
foldersFromFilesStructure: trueserver and application will become new folders in Grafana menu.
NOTE
folderandfolderUidoptions should be empty or missing to makefoldersFromFilesStructurework.
NOTE
To provision dashboards to the root level, store them in the root of yourpath.
NOTE
This feature doesn’t currently allow you to create nested folder structures, that is, where you have folders within folders.
Alerting
For information on provisioning Grafana Alerting, refer to Provision Grafana Alerting resources.
Supported Settings
The following sections detail the supported settings and secure settings for each alert notification type. Secure settings are stored encrypted in the database and you add them to secure_settings in the YAML file instead of settings.
NOTE
Secure settings is supported since Grafana v7.2.
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