# Variable definition through query - why does it seem to be a HTTP POST with time range rather than a GET with query?

**URL:** <https://community.grafana.com/t/variable-definition-through-query-why-does-it-seem-to-be-a-http-post-with-time-range-rather-than-a-get-with-query/113642>\
**Category:** Graphite\
**Tags:** dashboard-variables\
**Created:** [February 4, 2024, 11:22pm UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/variable-definition-through-query-why-does-it-seem-to-be-a-http-post-with-time-range-rather-than-a-get-with-query/113642 "2024-02-04T23:22:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![leonidbrandes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@leonidbrandes](https://community.grafana.com/u/leonidbrandes)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2024, 11:22pm UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/variable-definition-through-query-why-does-it-seem-to-be-a-http-post-with-time-range-rather-than-a-get-with-query/113642/1 "2024-02-04T23:22:29Z")

</div>

- What Grafana version and what operating system are you using?  
8.3.3 in Ubuntu.

- **What** are you trying to achieve?  
Define a drop-down variable by querying metrics names. The query has wildcards. The result shall consists of thousands values.

- **How** are you trying to achieve it?  

- What happened?  
The NGINX log in the graphite server outputs the following:

```auto
{Grafana server IP} - - [04/Feb/2024:18:12:46 +0000] "POST /metrics/find?from=1706897504&until=1707070306 HTTP/1.1" 499 0 "-" "Grafana/8.3.3"

```

- What did you **expect** to happen?  
A query like this, which works locally from `curl`:

```auto
curl -k https://localhost:4040/metrics/find?query=a.*b*.c.d.*

```

this is how it looks in nginx log:

```auto
127.0.0.1 - - [01/Feb/2024:16:56:13 +0000] "GET /metrics/find?query=production.*catod*.catod.vpn_tunnels.* HTTP/1.1" 200 334349 "-" "curl/7.68.0"

```

- Can you copy/paste the configuration(s) that you are having problems with?  
I’m not sure it’s a specific configuration, at least I’m not aware of one. I’m not familiar with Grafana configurations (the \*.ini file). We use default in principle.

- Did you receive any errors in the Grafana UI or in related logs? If so, please tell us **exactly** what they were.  
In Grafana UI:  

```auto
Feb 4 23:14:57 grafana grafana[825]: t=2024-02-04T23:14:57+0000 lvl=eror msg="Data proxy error" logger=data-proxy-log userId=1 orgId=1 uname=admin path=/api/datasources/proxy/148/metrics/find remote_addr={some IP} referer="https://grafana-catoalpha.via.catonetworks.com/d/zWEHinvSk/leonid-playground?orgId=1&editview=templating" error="http: proxy error: context canceled"
Feb 4 23:14:57 grafana grafana[825]: t=2024-02-04T23:14:57+0000 lvl=eror msg="Request Completed" logger=context userId=1 orgId=1 uname=admin method=POST path=/api/datasources/proxy/148/metrics/find status=502 remote_addr={same some IP} time_ms=60001 size=0 referer="https://grafana-catoalpha.via.catonetworks.com/d/zWEHinvSk/leonid-playground?orgId=1&editview=templating"

```

- Did you follow any online instructions? If so, what is the URL?  
Not in particular