Grafana configuration

Configuration for Grafana dashboards and visualization.

Authentication

Default credentials

Default admin credentials for the local Docker installation (set via GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_USER / GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_PASSWORD in the compose file):

Username: monitor
Password: demo

The password is ${GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_PASSWORD:-demo} — override it by setting GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_PASSWORD in .env. On Helm, the admin username and password come from the chart secret keys grafana-admin-user / grafana-admin-password.

warning

The default password demo is for local testing only. Always set a strong GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_PASSWORD before any production or exposed deployment.

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

The stack provisions three data sources automatically (from config/grafana/provisioning/datasources/datasources.yml). They are re-provisioned on every startup (editable: false), so edit the provisioning file rather than the Grafana UI.

Data source	Type	URL	Default
`PGWatch-Prometheus`	`prometheus`	`http://sink-prometheus:9090`	Yes
`PGWatch-PostgreSQL`	`postgres`	`sink-postgres:5432` (db `measurements`)	No
`Infinity`	`yesoreyeram-infinity-datasource`	—	No

The default PGWatch-Prometheus source points at the single-node VictoriaMetrics instance (sink-prometheus, internal port 9090) and uses basic auth from VM_AUTH_USERNAME / VM_AUTH_PASSWORD:

apiVersion: 1
datasources:
  - name: PGWatch-Prometheus
    type: prometheus
    access: proxy
    url: http://sink-prometheus:9090
    isDefault: true
    basicAuth: true
    basicAuthUser: ${VM_AUTH_USERNAME}
    secureJsonData:
      basicAuthPassword: ${VM_AUTH_PASSWORD}
    editable: false

Adding additional data sources

Add entries to the source provisioning file config/grafana/provisioning/datasources/datasources.yml:

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

The datasources file lives only in the postgres_ai_configs volume (Grafana reads it read-only via GF_PATHS_PROVISIONING), and Grafana provisions datasources only at container startup. postgresai mon update-config does not apply this change — it regenerates the pgwatch sources.yml only, and does not reseed the volume or restart Grafana. To apply a datasources edit, reseed the config volume (which requires recreating config-init with docker compose up -d directly), then restart Grafana so it re-reads the provisioned file:

docker compose run --rm --entrypoint rm config-init /target/.pgai-configs-version
docker compose up -d --force-recreate config-init  # recreate config-init -> reseed the volume with the edited file
postgresai mon restart grafana                     # restart Grafana so it re-provisions from the reseeded volume

Use docker compose up -d here, not postgresai mon start: because you are editing a live stack, mon start sees the running containers, prints Monitoring services are already running, and exits without running docker compose up -d, so config-init is never recreated and the edited datasources.yml is never reseeded — the subsequent mon restart grafana would then re-provision Grafana from the old volume contents. mon restart alone would not work either: docker compose restart restarts the existing config-init container in place, but with the marker already gone the reseed only runs when config-init is recreated by docker compose up -d.

Dashboard provisioning

Auto-loading dashboards

PostgresAI dashboards are provisioned automatically from config/grafana/provisioning/dashboards/dashboards.yml, which loads the JSON files mounted at /postgres_ai_configs/grafana/dashboards:

apiVersion: 1
providers:
  - name: 'PostgresAI Dashboards'
    orgId: 1
    type: file
    disableDeletion: false
    updateIntervalSeconds: 10
    allowUiUpdates: true
    options:
      path: /postgres_ai_configs/grafana/dashboards

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_USERS_DEFAULT_TIMEZONE=browser

# Use specific time zone
GF_USERS_DEFAULT_TIMEZONE=UTC

These set Grafana's [users] default_timezone setting (the env override for an ini setting is GF_<SECTION>_<KEY>).

Theme

New in 0.15, the bundled Grafana ships with Desert Bloom as the default theme. It is set in the provisioned grafana.ini:

[users]
default_theme = desertbloom

[feature_toggles]
# Required for the bundled experimental themes (desertbloom, etc.)
enable = grafanaconThemes

The grafanaconThemes feature toggle is enabled by default in the stack so the theme is available. To revert to a stock theme, override the default:

# Revert to the stock Grafana theme (overrides the [users] default_theme ini setting)
GF_USERS_DEFAULT_THEME=dark  # dark, light

note

grafanaconThemes must remain enabled for desertbloom to apply. If you disable it, set GF_USERS_DEFAULT_THEME to dark or light to avoid falling back to an unavailable theme.

Refresh interval

Default auto-refresh:

GF_DASHBOARDS_DEFAULT_INTERVAL=15s

Performance

note

The bundled stack ships a minimal grafana.ini (config/grafana/provisioning/grafana.ini) that only sets [analytics], [users], [feature_toggles], [auth], and [auth.generic_oauth] keys. The grafana.ini examples below are optional, generic Grafana customizations, not stack defaults — add them yourself if you need them.

Query caching

Grafana's built-in query result caching ([caching]) is a Grafana Enterprise feature and is not available in the OSS grafana/grafana image the stack ships. If you run Grafana Enterprise, enable it with:

[caching]
enabled = true
ttl = 60s

Max data points

Grafana has no grafana.ini key that limits the number of points returned per query. The point count is capped per panel by the Max data points (maxDataPoints) query option, set in the panel editor under Query options (or as "maxDataPoints" in the panel's dashboard JSON). When left empty, Grafana auto-derives it from the panel's pixel width; lowering it reduces the resolution (and cost) of each query:

// In a panel's dashboard JSON
{
  "maxDataPoints": 500
}

Concurrent queries

Size Grafana's own backend database connection pool (this governs connections to Grafana's config/session database, not to your monitored Postgres):

[database]
max_open_conn = 100

Embedding

The [security] settings below are optional, generic Grafana customizations — the bundled grafana.ini does not set any [security] keys (admin credentials are supplied via the GF_SECURITY_* env vars instead).

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

The stack installs one external plugin (via GF_INSTALL_PLUGINS in Docker Compose, or grafana.plugins on Helm):

Plugin	Purpose
`yesoreyeram-infinity-datasource`	Backs the `Infinity` data source used by some panels

The remaining panel types used by the dashboards (stat, time series, table, heatmap) are built into Grafana and require no extra plugins.

Resource limits

Memory

Grafana's memory limit is set with mem_limit (default 512 MiB), overridable via the GRAFANA_MEM .env variable (bytes):

# .env — raise Grafana's memory limit to 1 GiB
GRAFANA_MEM=1073741824

See Resource limits (per service).

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

Open panel edit mode
Click "Query Inspector"
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

Authentication​

Default credentials​

Disable anonymous access​

LDAP/Active Directory​

OAuth/OIDC​

Data sources​

Adding additional data sources​

Dashboard provisioning​

Auto-loading dashboards​

Custom dashboard folder​

Variables​

Default variable values​

Variable refresh​

Panel customization​

Time zone​

Theme​

Refresh interval​

Performance​

Query caching​

Max data points​

Concurrent queries​

Embedding​

Allow embedding in iframes​

CORS settings​

Alerting​

Enable Grafana alerting​

Disable classic alerting​

Plugins​

Install plugins​

Required plugins​

Resource limits​

Memory​

Concurrent users​

Backup and restore​

Backup dashboards​

Restore dashboards​

Troubleshooting​

Check data source connectivity​

Debug panel queries​

Common issues​