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Grafana Data Sources - Detailed Reference

Overview

Data sources are connections between Grafana and the systems storing your data. Grafana ships with built-in support for many popular data sources and supports additional sources via plugins.

Only Organization Admins can add or remove data sources
Each data source has its own query editor
Data sources can be used in: Dashboard panels, Explore, Alert rules, Annotations

Managing Data Sources

Add a data source

Go to Connections > Data sources (or Configuration > Data sources in older versions)
Click Add new data source
Search for and select the data source type
Fill in connection details (URL, credentials, etc.)
Click Save & Test to verify the connection

Data source settings (common to all types)

Setting	Description
Name	Display name used in dashboards
Default	If checked, pre-selected in new panels
HTTP URL	The endpoint for the data source server
Auth	Basic auth, TLS, bearer token, API key options

Prometheus

Native support - no plugin required.

Configuration

URL: http://prometheus:9090
HTTP method: POST (recommended, supports longer queries)

Key options

Option	Description
Scrape interval	Default: 15s - should match your Prometheus scrape interval
Query timeout	Default: 60s
Exemplars	Enable to link metrics to traces
Ruler URL	For Prometheus-managed alert rules

Query editor

Metrics browser: Browse available metrics with autocomplete
Query type: Range query (time series) or Instant query (single value)
Legend: Customize series labels using {{label_name}} syntax

Template variables with Prometheus

# Variable type: Query
# Query examples:
label_values(metric_name, label_name)    # All values of a label for a metric
label_values(label_name)                  # All values across all metrics
metrics(prefix)                           # All metric names matching prefix
query_result(promql_expression)           # PromQL result as variable values

Exemplars

When enabled, Prometheus exemplars link high-cardinality trace IDs to metric data points. Requires a Tempo data source for trace drill-through.

Loki (Log Aggregation)

Configuration

URL: http://loki:3100
Maximum lines: 1000

Derived fields

Extract values from log lines and link to other systems.

Example - extract trace ID and link to Tempo:

Name: TraceID
Regex: traceID=(\w+)
URL: (internal link to Tempo data source)

Query editor (LogQL)

# Basic log stream selector
{job="nginx", namespace="production"}

# Filter by text
{job="nginx"} |= "error"
{job="nginx"} != "debug"

# Regex filter
{job="nginx"} |~ "status=5\d\d"

# Parse and filter structured logs
{job="api"} | json | level="error"
{job="api"} | logfmt | duration > 1s

# Metrics from logs
rate({job="nginx"} |= "error" [5m])
sum(rate({job="nginx"}[5m])) by (status_code)

Template variables with Loki

label_names()                          # All label names
label_values(label_name)               # All values for a label
label_values({job="nginx"}, pod)       # Label values filtered by stream selector

Tempo (Distributed Tracing)

Configuration

URL: http://tempo:3200

Key options

Option	Description
Trace to logs	Link traces to Loki logs via trace ID
Trace to metrics	Link trace spans to Prometheus metrics
Service graph	Enable service dependency graph
Node graph	Show trace as node graph

TraceQL (query language)

# Find traces with error spans
{status=error}

# Filter by service and duration
{.service.name="frontend" && duration > 1s}

# Structural queries
{.http.url=~"/api/.*"} >> {status=error}

Alertmanager

For connecting to an external Alertmanager.

URL: http://alertmanager:9093
# Implementation: Prometheus, Mimir, or Cortex

Elasticsearch / OpenSearch

Configuration

URL: http://elasticsearch:9200
Index name: logs-*
Time field name: @timestamp
Elasticsearch version: 8.x

MySQL

Built-in support for MySQL 5.7+ and compatible databases (MariaDB, Percona, Amazon Aurora MySQL, Azure Database for MySQL, Google Cloud SQL MySQL).

Configuration

Host: mysql:3306
Database: mydb
User: grafana
Password: secret
Max open connections: 100
Max idle connections: 100
Connection max lifetime: 14400

Time series queries

SELECT
  UNIX_TIMESTAMP(time_col) as time_sec,
  value_col as value,
  name_col as metric
FROM my_table
WHERE $__timeFilter(time_col)
ORDER BY time_col ASC

Macros

Macro	Description
`$__time(column)`	Converts column to Unix timestamp
`$__timeFilter(column)`	Adds WHERE clause for dashboard time range
`$__timeFrom()`	Start of dashboard time range as Unix timestamp
`$__timeTo()`	End of dashboard time range as Unix timestamp
`$__timeGroup(column, interval)`	Groups by time interval
`$__timeGroupAlias(column, interval)`	As above, aliases as "time"
`$__unixEpochFilter(column)`	Time filter for Unix epoch columns
`$__interval`	Auto-calculated interval for current time range

Example time series query

SELECT
  $__timeGroup(created_at, $__interval) AS time,
  status,
  count(*) AS cnt
FROM orders
WHERE $__timeFilter(created_at)
GROUP BY 1, 2
ORDER BY 1

Annotations

SELECT
  UNIX_TIMESTAMP(time) AS time,
  title AS text,
  tags
FROM events
WHERE $__timeFilter(time)

PostgreSQL

Configuration

Host: postgres:5432
Database: mydb
User: grafana
Password: secret
SSL mode: disable / require / verify-ca / verify-full

PostgreSQL time series

SELECT
  time_bucket('$__interval', time) AS time,
  avg(value)
FROM metrics
WHERE time BETWEEN $__timeFrom() AND $__timeTo()
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 1

Microsoft SQL Server

Configuration

Host: sqlserver:1433
Database: mydb
User: grafana
Password: secret
Encrypt: false / true / disable

InfluxDB

Supports InfluxDB 1.x (InfluxQL) and InfluxDB 2.x / 3.x (Flux).

InfluxDB 1.x (InfluxQL)

URL: http://influxdb:8086
Database: telegraf

Query example:

SELECT mean("value") FROM "measurement"
WHERE $timeFilter
GROUP BY time($interval), "host"

InfluxDB 2.x (Flux)

URL: http://influxdb:8086
Organization: myorg
Token: <api-token>
Default bucket: mydata

Flux query example:

from(bucket: "mydata")
  |> range(start: v.timeRangeStart, stop: v.timeRangeStop)
  |> filter(fn: (r) => r._measurement == "cpu")
  |> filter(fn: (r) => r._field == "usage_idle")
  |> aggregateWindow(every: v.windowPeriod, fn: mean)

AWS CloudWatch

Configuration

# Auth options:
# - AWS SDK Default (instance role, ~/.aws/credentials, env vars)
# - Access & secret key (explicit credentials)
# - Assume role ARN

Default region: us-east-1

Required IAM permissions:

cloudwatch:GetMetricData
cloudwatch:ListMetrics
logs:* (for CloudWatch Logs)

CloudWatch Logs Insights

fields @timestamp, @message
| filter level = "ERROR"
| sort @timestamp desc
| limit 100

Azure Monitor

Requires Azure App Registration with:

Tenant ID, Client ID, Client Secret
Monitoring Reader role on target subscriptions/resource groups

Google Cloud Monitoring

Uses Google Cloud service account credentials (JSON key file or workload identity).

TestData (built-in)

A built-in data source for generating test/demo data without a real backend.

Use cases: Testing visualizations, demo dashboards, development without a real data source. Scenarios: Random walk, CSV metric values, streaming data, etc.

Graphite

URL: http://graphite:8080

Query examples:

target(servers.*.cpu)
averageSeries(servers.*.cpu)
groupByNode(servers.*.cpu, 1, 'averageSeries')

Jaeger (Tracing)

URL: http://jaeger:16686

Zipkin (Tracing)

URL: http://zipkin:9411

Pyroscope (Continuous Profiling)

URL: http://pyroscope:4040

Data Source Permissions (Enterprise)

By default, all org users can query any data source. With RBAC:

Assign specific users/teams to specific data sources
Configure at Data source settings > Permissions

Provisioning Data Sources (as Code)

# /etc/grafana/provisioning/datasources/prometheus.yaml
apiVersion: 1

datasources:
  - name: Prometheus
    type: prometheus
    access: proxy
    url: http://prometheus:9090
    isDefault: true
    version: 1
    editable: false
    jsonData:
      timeInterval: "15s"
      queryTimeout: "60s"
      httpMethod: POST

  - name: Loki
    type: loki
    access: proxy
    url: http://loki:3100
    jsonData:
      maxLines: 1000
      derivedFields:
        - datasourceUid: tempo
          matcherRegex: "traceID=(\\w+)"
          name: TraceID
          url: "${__value.raw}"

  - name: MySQL Production
    type: mysql
    url: mysql:3306
    database: mydb
    user: grafana
    secureJsonData:
      password: "$GRAFANA_MYSQL_PASSWORD"
    jsonData:
      maxOpenConns: 100
      maxIdleConns: 100
      connMaxLifetime: 14400

Place YAML files in the provisioning directory; Grafana loads on startup and watches for changes.

Plugin Data Sources

Install additional data sources via:

Connections > Add new connection (search the plugin catalog)
grafana-cli plugins install <plugin-id>
Docker: set GF_INSTALL_PLUGINS environment variable

Popular plugin data sources:

grafana-opensearch-datasource - OpenSearch
grafana-bigquery-datasource - Google BigQuery
grafana-mongodb-datasource - MongoDB (Enterprise)
grafana-splunk-datasource - Splunk
grafana-datadog-datasource - Datadog

9.8 KiB Raw Blame History

Grafana Data Sources - Detailed Reference

Overview

Managing Data Sources

Add a data source

Data source settings (common to all types)

Prometheus

Configuration

Key options

Query editor

Template variables with Prometheus

Exemplars

Loki (Log Aggregation)

Configuration

Derived fields

Query editor (LogQL)

Template variables with Loki

Tempo (Distributed Tracing)

Configuration

Key options

TraceQL (query language)

Alertmanager

Elasticsearch / OpenSearch

Configuration

MySQL

Configuration

Time series queries

Macros

Example time series query

Annotations

PostgreSQL

Configuration

PostgreSQL time series

Microsoft SQL Server

Configuration

InfluxDB

InfluxDB 1.x (InfluxQL)

InfluxDB 2.x (Flux)

AWS CloudWatch

Configuration

CloudWatch Logs Insights

Azure Monitor

Google Cloud Monitoring

TestData (built-in)

Graphite

Jaeger (Tracing)

Zipkin (Tracing)

Pyroscope (Continuous Profiling)

Data Source Permissions (Enterprise)

Provisioning Data Sources (as Code)

Plugin Data Sources

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