How to list and import Graphite dashboards in Grafana?

mohit · May 19, 2017, 8:10am

I want to add Grafana as an alternate Dashboard to already existing Graphite. I have added Graphite as a data source in Grafana and can check graphite metrics. But, I don’t see any interface through which I can list and import already existing dashboards in Graphite. In import interface, only option is to import from json or Grafana dashboard. There seems to be no option for importing from Graphite.

daniellee · May 19, 2017, 8:40am

That was possible in older versions of Grafana but has been phased out due to no one using the feature anymore. Here is the feature request which was closed due to lack of interest.

There are some standard dashboards on Grafana.com that might be of some help.

Otherwise if you have a lot of dashboards, you will have to write your own importer. Grafana has an HTTP API that could be used with a library for generating the dashboard JSON (Uber’s grafana-dashboard-gen or Weavework’s grafanalib).

A tool like Wizzy might also be useful for moving/copying panels between dashboards.

mohit · May 19, 2017, 9:09am

Thanks Daniellee for the quick response…

Yes, we have a lot of dashboards. I’m planning to run both Grafana & Graphite dashboard parallely for sometime, till the folks here are familiar with the new interface. I’ll check out the tools you shared. I think I’ll end up in writing custom importer for this case.

One last question, why can’t I find that this feature is removed in the changelog. I also thought that this feature might have been removed but couldn’t find that written anywhere.

github.com

grafana/grafana/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md

# 5.0.0 (unreleased / master branch)

Grafana v5.0 is going to be the biggest and most foundational release Grafana has ever had, coming with a ton of UX improvements, a new dashboard grid engine, dashboard folders, user teams and permissions. Checkout out this [video preview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC_YRNpqj5k) of Grafana v5.

### New Features
- **Dashboards** Dashboard folders, [#1611](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/1611)
- **Teams** User groups (teams) implemented. Can be used in folder & dashboard permission list.
- **Dashboard grid**: Panels are now layed out in a two dimensional grid (with x, y, w, h). [#9093](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/9093).
- **Templating**: Vertical repeat direction for panel repeats.
- **UX**: Major update to page header and navigation
- **Dashboard settings**: Combine dashboard settings views into one with side menu, [#9750](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/9750)

## New Dashboard Grid

The new grid engine is major upgrade for how you can position and move panels. It enables new layouts and a much easier dashboard building experience. The change is backwards compatible. Grafana will automatically upgrade your dashboards to the new schema and position panels to match your existing layout. There might be minor differences in panel height.

Dashboard panels and rows are positioned using a gridPos object `{x: 0, y: 0, w: 24, h: 5}`. Units are in grid dimensions (24 columns, 1 height unit 30px). Rows and Panels objects exist (together) in a flat array directly on the dashboard root object. Rows are not needed for layouts anymore and are mainly there for backward compatibility. Some panel plugins that do not respect their panel height might require an update.

# 4.7.0 (unreleased / v4.7.x branch)

This file has been truncated. show original

Thank you so much.

Mohit

daniellee · May 19, 2017, 11:41am

Not all changes get included in the changelog otherwise it would be 10 times longer. I’m not sure but I guess this change was considered of little interest to most users and was therefore not included.

I think the link to the migration/Import from page got removed after version 3.0. So it might be worth installing v3.0, importing your dashboards and then upgrading to 4.2.0 again. Grafana automatically upgrades dashboards so that old dashboards will always work in the latest version of Grafana.

BTW, the page you are looking for is this one: https://github.com/grafana/grafana/blob/bcc3efffcf855994c51772dd95993cabb9aeb5c0/src/app/partials/import.html and I think it used to be in the settings menu somewhere.

mohit · June 1, 2017, 8:31am

Ok, sound like worth a shot. Thank you for all the help