Custom Integrations | Integrations

Introduction

Grafana is a powerful open-source platform for monitoring and observability. It allows users to visualize data from various sources. However, sometimes the built-in integrations are not enough, and you may need to create custom integrations to meet specific requirements. This tutorial will guide you through the process of building custom integrations in Grafana.

Prerequisites

Before diving into custom integrations, ensure you have the following:

Basic understanding of Grafana and its interface.
Familiarity with JSON and REST APIs.
Access to the Grafana instance with admin privileges.
A coding environment set up, ideally with Node.js installed.

Understanding Grafana Plugins

Grafana uses plugins to extend its functionality. There are three main types of plugins:

Data Source Plugins: Connect Grafana to different data sources.
Panel Plugins: Create custom visualizations.
App Plugins: Combine multiple data sources and panels into a single application.

In this tutorial, we will focus on creating a custom data source plugin.

Setting Up Your Development Environment

To create a custom plugin, you need to set up your development environment:

1. Install Grafana:

sudo apt-get install grafana

2. Install Node.js and npm:

sudo apt-get install nodejs npm

3. Install the Grafana toolkit:

npm install -g @grafana/toolkit

Creating Your Custom Data Source Plugin

Follow these steps to create your plugin:

Run the plugin creation command:

grafana-toolkit plugin:create my-custom-datasource

Navigate to the plugin directory:

cd my-custom-datasource

Open src/DataSource.ts to define your data source logic.

Your custom logic for querying data will be implemented here. For example:

Here is a basic structure of the data source:

{
  name: 'My Custom Data Source',
  type: 'my-custom-datasource',
  jsonData: {
    apiUrl: 'https://api.example.com/data'
  }
}

Building and Installing Your Plugin

Once you have defined your data source, build the plugin:

npm run build

To install the plugin, copy it to the Grafana plugins directory:

sudo cp -r ./dist /var/lib/grafana/plugins/my-custom-datasource

Finally, restart Grafana to load your new plugin:

sudo systemctl restart grafana-server

Testing Your Custom Integration

After installation, log in to your Grafana instance, navigate to Configuration > Data Sources, and add your custom data source. You should see the name you provided earlier. Configure it as needed and test it to ensure it retrieves data correctly.

Conclusion

Custom integrations in Grafana allow you to tailor the platform to your specific data visualization needs. By following this tutorial, you have learned how to create a custom data source plugin that can pull data from an API. The possibilities are vast, and you can expand upon this foundation to create more complex integrations.

Custom Integrations Tutorial - Grafana