How to automatically send snapshot alert via email

Grafana Alerting
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To regularly send snapshots of Grafana dashboards via email (e.g., daily), you can achieve this using a combination of Grafana’s built-in features and external tools. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you implement this functionality:

1. Using Grafana’s Snapshot Feature

Grafana provides a Snapshot feature, which can be used to create a static, shareable version of your dashboards. However, Grafana’s snapshot feature doesn’t have a direct option to send snapshots via email automatically. But you can combine snapshots with external tools to automate email sending.

Steps:

  1. Create a Snapshot :
  • Open your dashboard and click the Share button in the top-right corner.
  • Select Snapshot and click Create Snapshot.
  • This will generate a static link to the snapshot, which you can share.
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  1. Automating Snapshot Creation :
  • You can use Grafana’s API to automate snapshot creation. The API endpoint POST /api/snapshots allows you to create snapshots programmatically.
  • Schedule a cron job or a task using a tool like cURL or Postman to hit the Grafana API at a specific time (e.g., daily).

Example cURL request:

curl -X POST “http://your-grafana-instance/api/snapshots” -H “Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY” -d '{

“dashboard”: {“id”: 1}, “expires”: 3600

}’

2. Using the Grafana Alerting System (for sending emails with snapshot links)

Grafana has an alerting feature that can be configured to send emails when certain thresholds are met. While it is primarily designed for alert notifications, you can configure it to send an email daily with a dashboard snapshot or a link.

Steps:

Set Up an Email Channel:

  1. Go to Alerting > Notification Channels in Grafana.
  2. Configure an Email notification channel by providing the SMTP details of your email provider.

Create an Alert:

  1. Set up a simple time-based alert that triggers daily at a specific time, even if no conditions are met.
  2. In the Alert settings, set the Send to field to the Email channel you’ve configured.

Include Snapshot URL in the Alert:

  1. Use a URL to the snapshot in the alert message so that users can view the snapshot in their email.

3. Using External Tools for Scheduling and Sending Emails

For full flexibility, you can integrate with external tools like cron jobs or Grafana Alerting via API combined with mailing scripts. Here’s how:

Automate Snapshot Generation:

  1. Use the Grafana API to create a snapshot as described earlier.

Send via Email using a Script:

  1. Write a script (e.g., in Python or bash) to automate sending the snapshot link via email. You can use tools like sendmail, SMTP libraries in Python, or Mailgun to send emails.

Example Python script:

import smtplib
from email.mime.text import MIMEText

Define email details
sender = “your-email@example.com”
recipient = “recipient@example.com”
subject = “Daily Grafana Snapshot”
body = “Here is your daily Grafana snapshot: [Snapshot URL]”

Create email message
msg = MIMEText(body)
msg[‘From’] = sender
msg[‘To’] = recipient
msg[‘Subject’] = subject

Send email via SMTP server
with smtplib.SMTP(‘smtp.example.com’, 587) as server:
server.starttls()
server.login(“your-email@example.com”, “your-email-password”)
server.sendmail(sender, recipient, msg.as_string())

Set up a Cron Job to Run the Script:

  1. Schedule the Python script to run daily (or at the desired frequency) using cron on Linux:
crontab -e

Add the following line to execute the Python script every day at midnight:

0 0 * * * /usr/bin/python3/path/to/your/script.py

4. Grafana Plugins

If you’re looking for plugins, here are a few that might be helpful:

  • Grafana Scheduler Plugin: This plugin allows you to schedule and send reports. It can help you automate the process of sending dashboard snapshots to users. You can find this plugin in the Grafana Plugin Marketplace.
  • Grafana Reports Plugin: This plugin enables scheduling of reports in PDF format, which you can send via email.

You can check out the plugin documentation and install it from the Grafana Marketplace.

Conclusion

To send Grafana dashboard snapshots via email, you can either use Grafana’s built-in features like the Snapshot API, set up email alerts with snapshot links, or automate the entire process using external tools like cron jobs and email scripts. If you need more advanced scheduling and reporting features, consider using plugins like the Grafana Scheduler Plugin.

Let me know if you need any further help with configuration!

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