Datasources and Folders

Datasource Types

Grafana connects to multiple backend data sources simultaneously. Each dashboard can use one or more datasources. The most common are Prometheus for metrics, Loki for logs, Tempo for traces, and Elasticsearch for full-text search.

Prometheus Datasource

The Prometheus datasource is the most commonly used. Configure the URL, access method, and scraping interval. Grafana uses the datasource settings to query Prometheus and render panels.

apiVersion: 1

datasources:
  - name: Prometheus
    type: prometheus
    access: proxy
    url: http://prometheus:9090
    isDefault: true
    jsonData:
      timeInterval: "15s"
      httpMethod: POST
    editable: false

Multi-Datasource Setup

Production Grafana instances typically have multiple datasources. You might have separate Prometheus instances for metrics and long-term storage, a Loki instance for logs, and a Tempo instance for traces. Each gets its own datasource configuration.

datasources:
  - name: Prometheus
    type: prometheus
    url: http://prometheus:9090
    isDefault: true

  - name: Prometheus-LongTerm
    type: prometheus
    url: http://thanos-query:9090

  - name: Loki
    type: loki
    url: http://loki:3100

  - name: Tempo
    type: tempo
    url: http://tempo:3200
    jsonData:
      tracesToLogsV2:
        datasourceUid: Loki

Folders and Permissions

Folders organize dashboards and control access. Assign folder permissions to teams so only authorized users can view or edit dashboards. Folders also appear in the Grafana sidebar for navigation.

apiVersion: 1

providers:
  - name: "Infrastructure"
    orgId: 1
    folder: "Infrastructure"
    type: file
    disableDeletion: false
    editable: true
    options:
      path: /var/lib/grafana/dashboards/infrastructure

Datasource Provisioning

Provision datasources using YAML files in /etc/grafana/provisioning/datasources/. Grafana loads these on startup and keeps them synchronized. This ensures consistent datasource configuration across environments.