Grafana configuration

Configuration for Grafana dashboards and visualization.

Authentication

Default credentials

Default admin credentials for local installation:

Username: admin
Password: admin

warning

Change the default password immediately after first login.

Disable anonymous access

GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ENABLED=false

LDAP/Active Directory

# grafana.ini
[auth.ldap]
enabled = true
config_file = /etc/grafana/ldap.toml

OAuth/OIDC

[auth.generic_oauth]
enabled = true
name = OAuth
client_id = your-client-id
client_secret = your-client-secret
scopes = openid profile email
auth_url = https://auth.example.com/authorize
token_url = https://auth.example.com/token
api_url = https://auth.example.com/userinfo

Data sources

VictoriaMetrics data source

Automatically configured during installation:

apiVersion: 1
datasources:
  - name: VictoriaMetrics
    type: prometheus
    url: http://victoriametrics:8428
    access: proxy
    isDefault: true

Adding additional data sources

datasources:
  - name: PostgreSQL
    type: postgres
    url: postgresql://host:5432/db
    user: readonly_user
    secureJsonData:
      password: ${DB_PASSWORD}  # Use environment variable

Dashboard provisioning

Auto-loading dashboards

PostgresAI dashboards are provisioned automatically:

apiVersion: 1
providers:
  - name: postgres_ai
    folder: postgres_ai
    type: file
    options:
      path: /var/lib/grafana/dashboards/postgres_ai

Custom dashboard folder

GF_DASHBOARDS_DEFAULT_HOME_DASHBOARD_PATH=/var/lib/grafana/dashboards/custom/home.json

Variables

Default variable values

Override dashboard variable defaults:

# In dashboard JSON
"templating": {
  "list": [
    {
      "name": "cluster_name",
      "current": {
        "value": "production"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Variable refresh

Control when variables are refreshed:

Setting	Behavior
On dashboard load	Refresh when dashboard opens
On time range change	Refresh when time picker changes
Never	Manual refresh only

Panel customization

Time zone

# Use browser time zone
GF_DEFAULT_TIMEZONE=browser

# Use specific time zone
GF_DEFAULT_TIMEZONE=UTC

Theme

GF_DEFAULT_THEME=dark  # dark, light

Refresh interval

Default auto-refresh:

GF_DASHBOARDS_DEFAULT_INTERVAL=15s

Performance

Query caching

Enable query result caching:

[caching]
enabled = true
ttl = 60s

Max data points

Limit data points returned per query:

[server]
router_logging = false

Concurrent queries

[database]
max_open_conn = 100

Embedding

Allow embedding in iframes

[security]
allow_embedding = true

CORS settings

[security]
cookie_samesite = none
cookie_secure = true

Alerting

Enable Grafana alerting

[unified_alerting]
enabled = true

Disable classic alerting

[alerting]
enabled = false

See Alerting configuration for alert rules.

Plugins

Install plugins

# Via environment variable
GF_INSTALL_PLUGINS=grafana-clock-panel,grafana-piechart-panel

# Via CLI
grafana-cli plugins install grafana-clock-panel

Required plugins

PostgresAI dashboards use these plugins:

Plugin	Purpose
Stat panel	Single value displays
Time series	Metric charts
Table	Data grids
Heatmap	Wait event visualization

Resource limits

Memory

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  grafana:
    deploy:
      resources:
        limits:
          memory: 512M

Concurrent users

[server]
concurrent_render_request_limit = 30

Backup and restore

Backup dashboards

# Export all dashboards
for uid in $(curl -s http://monitor:YOUR_PASSWORD@localhost:3000/api/search | jq -r '.[].uid'); do
  curl -s "http://monitor:YOUR_PASSWORD@localhost:3000/api/dashboards/uid/$uid" > "dashboard-$uid.json"
done

Restore dashboards

for file in dashboard-*.json; do
  curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d @"$file" \
    http://monitor:YOUR_PASSWORD@localhost:3000/api/dashboards/db
done

Troubleshooting

Check data source connectivity

curl http://localhost:3000/api/datasources/proxy/1/api/v1/query?query=up

Debug panel queries

1. Open panel edit mode
2. Click "Query Inspector"
3. Review raw query and response

Common issues

Issue	Cause	Solution
No data	Data source misconfigured	Check data source URL and credentials
Slow dashboards	Too many panels	Reduce time range or panel count
Login loop	Cookie issues	Clear cookies, check cookie_samesite