Provisioning Grafana

Check out the configuration page for more information on what you can configure in grafana.ini

• 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 --config 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:

If 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.

This feature is available from v5.0

It’s possible to manage data sources in Grafana by adding one or more YAML config files in the directory. Each config file can contain a list of datasources that will get added or updated during start up. If the data source already exists, then Grafana updates it to match the configuration file. The config file can also contain a list of data sources that should be deleted. That list is called deleteDatasources. Grafana will delete data sources listed in deleteDatasources before inserting/updating those in the datasource list.

Running Multiple Grafana Instances

If you are running multiple instances of Grafana you might run into problems if they have different versions of the datasource.yaml configuration file. The best way to solve this problem is to add a version number to each datasource in the configuration and increase it when you update the config. Grafana will only update datasources with the same or lower version number than specified in the config. That way, old configs cannot overwrite newer configs if they restart at the same time.

# config file version
apiVersion: 1
# list of datasources that should be deleted from the database
deleteDatasources:
  - name: Graphite
    orgId: 1
# list of datasources to insert/update depending
# what's available in the database
datasources:
  # <string, required> name of the datasource. Required
  - name: Graphite
    # <string, required> datasource type. Required
    type: graphite
    # <string, required> access mode. proxy or direct (Server or Browser in the UI). Required
    access: proxy
    # <int> org id. will default to orgId 1 if not specified
    orgId: 1
    uid: my_unique_uid
    # <string> url
    url: http://localhost:8080
    # <string> Deprecated, use secureJsonData.password
    password:
    # <string> database user, if used
    user:
    # <string> database name, if used
    database:
    # <bool> enable/disable basic auth
    basicAuth:
    # <string> basic auth username
    basicAuthUser:
    # <string> Deprecated, use secureJsonData.basicAuthPassword
    basicAuthPassword:
    # <bool> enable/disable with credentials headers
    withCredentials:
    # <bool> mark as default datasource. Max one per org
    isDefault:
    # <map> fields that will be converted to json and stored in jsonData
    jsonData:
      graphiteVersion: '1.1'
      tlsAuth: true
    # <string> json object of data that will be encrypted.
    secureJsonData:
      tlsCACert: '...'
      tlsClientCert: '...'
      tlsClientKey: '...'
      # <string> database password, if used
      password:
      # <string> basic auth password
      basicAuthPassword:
    version: 1
    # <bool> allow users to edit datasources from the UI.
    editable: false

Custom Settings per Datasource

Please refer to each datasource documentation for specific provisioning examples.

JSON Data

Since not all datasources have the same configuration settings we only have the most common ones as fields. The rest should be stored as a json blob in the jsonData field. Here are the most common settings that the core datasources use.

Note: Datasources tagged with HTTP* below denotes any data source which communicates using the HTTP protocol, e.g. all core data source plugins except MySQL, PostgreSQL and MSSQL.

Secure Json Data

{"authType":"keys","defaultRegion":"us-west-2","timeField":"@timestamp"}

Secure json data is a map of settings that will be encrypted with 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.

Custom HTTP headers for datasources

Data sources managed by Grafanas provisioning can be configured to add HTTP headers to all requests going to that datasource. 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

This feature is available from v7.1

You can manage plugins 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.

Example plugin configuration file

You can manage dashboards in Grafana by adding one or more YAML config files in the 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:

apiVersion: 1
providers:
  # <string> an unique provider name. Required
  - name: 'a unique provider name'
    # <int> Org id. Default to 1
    orgId: 1
    # <string> name of the dashboard folder.
    folder: ''
    # <string> folder UID. will be automatically generated if not specified
    folderUid: ''
    # <string> provider type. Default to 'file'
    type: file
    # <bool> disable dashboard deletion
    disableDeletion: false
    # <int> how often Grafana will scan for changed dashboards
    # <bool> allow updating provisioned dashboards from the UI
    allowUiUpdates: false
    options:
      # <string, required> path to dashboard files on disk. Required when using the 'file' type
      path: /var/lib/grafana/dashboards
      # <bool> use folder names from filesystem to create folders in Grafana
      foldersFromFilesStructure: true

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 General folder if the folder option 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.

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 re-use settings that are supposed to be unique. Be careful not to re-use the same title multiple times within a folder or uid within the same installation as this will cause weird behaviors.

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
    └── /resources_dashboard.json

you need to specify just this short provision configuration file.

server and application will become new folders in Grafana menu.

Note: folder and folderUid options should be empty or missing to make foldersFromFilesStructure work.

Note: To provision dashboards to the General folder, store them in the root of your path.

Alert Notification Channels

Alert Notification Channels can be provisioned by adding one or more YAML config files in the directory.

Each config file can contain the following top-level fields:

• notifiers, a list of alert notifications that will be added or updated during start up. If the notification channel already exists, Grafana will update it to match the configuration file.
• delete_notifiers, a list of alert notifications to be deleted before inserting/updating those in the notifiers list.

Provisioning looks up alert notifications by uid, and will update any existing notification with the provided uid.

By default, exporting a dashboard as JSON will use a sequential identifier to refer to alert notifications. The field uid can be optionally specified to specify a string identifier for the alert name.

{
  ...
      "alert": {
        ...,
        "conditions": [...],
        "frequency": "24h",
        "noDataState": "ok",
        "notifications": [
           {"uid": "notifier1"},
           {"uid": "notifier2"},
        ]
      }
  ...
}

Example Alert Notification Channels Config File

notifiers:
  - name: notification-channel-1
    type: slack
    uid: notifier1
    # either
    org_id: 2
    # or
    org_name: Main Org.
    is_default: true
    send_reminder: true
    frequency: 1h
    disable_resolve_message: false
    # See `Supported Settings` section for settings supported for each
    # alert notification type.
    settings:
      recipient: 'XXX'
      uploadImage: true
      token: 'xoxb' # legacy setting since Grafana v7.2 (stored non-encrypted)
      url: https://slack.com # legacy setting since Grafana v7.2 (stored non-encrypted)
    # Secure settings that will be encrypted in the database (supported since Grafana v7.2). See `Supported Settings` section for secure settings supported for each notifier.
    secure_settings:
      token: 'xoxb'
      url: https://slack.com
delete_notifiers:
  - name: notification-channel-1
    uid: notifier1
    # either
    org_id: 2
    # or
    org_name: Main Org.
  - name: notification-channel-2

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.

Alert notification pushover

Alert notification discord

Alert notification slack

Alert notification victorops

Alert notification kafka

Alert notification LINE

Alert notification pagerduty

Alert notification sensu

Alert notification sensugo

Alert notification prometheus-alertmanager

Alert notification teams

Alert notification dingding

Alert notification email

Alert notification hipchat

Alert notification opsgenie

Alert notification telegram

Alert notification threema

Alert notification webhook

Alert notification

Grafana Enterprise supports provisioning for the following resources:

• Access Control Provisioning