Grafana — Monitoring

Observability platform that visualizes metrics, logs, and traces in a single dashboard

Basic Information

What is this program?

Grafana is a platform that brings together metrics, logs, and traces scattered across multiple sources into a single dashboard for visualization. It can connect to dozens of data sources, including Prometheus, Elasticsearch, PostgreSQL, InfluxDB, and CloudWatch.

You can arrange server resource usage, application response times, and business metrics into real-time dashboards and send alerts when thresholds are exceeded. A self-hosted open-source edition is provided, allowing you to build an observability system without sending data to an external SaaS.

What problems does it solve?

• Situations where metrics scattered across multiple monitoring tools need to be viewed on a single screen
• Situations where server and service status must be shared with the team through a real-time dashboard
• Situations where observability must be operated self-hosted instead of paid SaaS such as Datadog

Key Features

Multi-data source connectivity

Connect multiple sources such as Prometheus, Loki, and Elasticsearch in one dashboard

• Use case: Integrated visualization of heterogeneous data
• Result: View metrics and logs on a single screen
• Limitations: Requires learning query language differences for each source

Dashboard building

Arrange panels with a palette and query data with PromQL, SQL, etc.

• Use case: Building customized monitoring screens
• Result: Team-shareable dashboard URL
• Limitations: Too many panels can actually reduce readability

Alert rules

Define alert rules based on thresholds and anomaly indicators

• Use case: Detecting failure signs in advance
• Result: Send alerts via email, webhooks, etc.
• Limitations: Managing alert fatigue is important

Plugin ecosystem

Extend with data source and visualization plugins

• Use case: Adding specialized sources or visualizations
• Result: Leverage community plugins
• Limitations: Requires checking plugin compatibility

Installation and Execution

Debian / Ubuntu (APT)

Install by adding the Grafana Labs APT repository.

sudo apt install -y grafana

Docker

Use the official container image.

docker run -d -p 3000:3000 --name grafana grafana/grafana

Linux binary

Run the downloaded binary with systemd.

sudo systemctl enable --now grafana-server

Real-world Usage Examples

Accessing the web console

Access the web interface on the default port 3000.

http://localhost:3000 (default account admin/admin)

Adding a Prometheus data source

Register the Prometheus URL in Configuration > Data Sources.

http://localhost:9090

Creating a dashboard

Add a panel and write a query in New Dashboard.

PromQL example: rate(node_cpu_seconds_total[5m])

Advantages and Limitations

Advantages

• Integrate various data sources into a single screen
• Self-hosting possible with the AGPL-3.0 open-source edition
• Rich dashboard and plugin ecosystem
• Natural integration with existing tools such as Prometheus and Zabbix

Considerations before use

• Without dashboard design, information overload is easy
• Alert rule management can become complex
• Advanced enterprise features are paid in Enterprise/Cloud

Comparison with Similar Programs

Official Resources and Further Learning

• Official homepage — https://grafana.com/
• Official documentation / knowledge base — https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/
• Official download — https://grafana.com/grafana/download
• Release notes — https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/whatsnew/
• Source / development resources — https://github.com/grafana/grafana

Version and supported environment information was checked on the official site as of 2026-10-18. Installation commands may vary depending on your distribution and version, so please also check the official installation documentation.

Actual Execution Screenshots

Synthetic example — not an actual execution result. The screen is a synthetic example and not an actual execution result.

!Example of Grafana container execution and health check

Actual production server

Source (HTML): https://games.aidebatehub.com/programs/apps/monitoring/grafana.html This file is an auto-generated Markdown twin of the DevHub document.