[HN Gopher] Grafana 8.0
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       Grafana 8.0
        
       Author : botayhard
       Score  : 349 points
       Date   : 2021-06-08 11:13 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | richardwhiuk wrote:
       | This is the first release under AGPL - feels like a major
       | licensing change should be called out in the changelog.
        
         | Thaxll wrote:
         | https://grafana.com/blog/2021/04/20/grafana-loki-tempo-relic...
        
       | sirius87 wrote:
       | Hmmm. Grafana Live looks interesting. Does this mean Grafana now
       | hosts and serves timeseries data [1], like InfluxDB? Or is this
       | only temporal, only for events, alerts, etc?
       | 
       | [1] https://grafana.com/tutorials/stream-metrics-from-
       | telegraf-t...
        
         | leeoniya wrote:
         | see also https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/28097
         | 
         | right now it is streamed to the UI (not persisted), though we
         | have hooks in place to allow persisting the live data into
         | Grafana cloud offerings.
         | 
         | a few days ago our PR for websocket output in telegraf was
         | merged, and available in v1.19.0-rc0 :)
         | 
         | https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/pull/9188
         | 
         | https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/releases/tag/v1.19.0-...
        
         | koodijaba wrote:
         | From what I understood, the data is not persisted anywhere, but
         | just pushed to currently open dashboards. I could be wrong
         | though..
         | 
         | https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/live/
        
           | sirius87 wrote:
           | Thanks. Yes, that does seem to be the case. I found this old
           | design doc [1] and discussion. Nifty feature for IoT to have
           | more responsive alerts.
           | 
           | [1] https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/4355#issuecomme
           | nt-...
        
       | mrkurt wrote:
       | The uPlot change is amazing. The canvas based stuff seems so
       | fast.
        
         | leeoniya wrote:
         | uPlot ended up being a perfect fit for dashboards with tons of
         | timeseries charts. who would've thought? ;)
         | 
         | i'm very happy they hired me, maybe due to extreme lack of
         | uPlot documentation :D
         | 
         | the previous library Grafana was using (Flot) is also canvas
         | based and actually still quite fast [1], but the way it was
         | integrated put a heavy load on other dependencies, like Moment
         | which is not fast at all.
         | 
         | [1] https://github.com/leeoniya/uPlot#performance
        
       | maxbaines wrote:
       | I find the new panels really useful, not sure I like the color
       | changes to the navbar and panel backgrounds though.
        
         | torkelo wrote:
         | Do you prefer the more darker grays in v7.x?
        
           | maxbaines wrote:
           | Yes exactly that, the new colors just feel a little washed
           | out for me.
        
       | scottfingerhut wrote:
       | in case people want to see Torkel talking Grafana 8 - check it
       | out. go here and hit play, he's on now.
       | https://grafana.com/about/events/grafanacon/2021/
        
       | cduzz wrote:
       | A better list of new features in 8.0:
       | 
       | https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/whatsnew/whats-new-i...
       | 
       | I like grafana.
       | 
       | It's the de facto realtime graph consolidation platform where I
       | work; if the thing you want to use for monitoring doesn't
       | interact with grafana, you shouldn't bother trying to deploy it
       | because the rest of the org will be blind to it.
        
       | 5e92cb50239222b wrote:
       | I somewhat regret upgrading my system, which is pulling data out
       | of InfluxDB 2.
       | 
       | -- categories now have "_value" in their names, I can't find how
       | to fix this without adding hundreds of overrides.
       | 
       | -- two-axis line charts have merged into a single axis and I
       | can't find how to revert this. One series shows the CO2 level and
       | the other one shows the particulates. They have very different
       | ranges. The PM line is now unreadable. I guess I'll have to split
       | them into two separate charts.
       | 
       | -- the time series chart seems to be a rewrite of what was
       | already working fine -- but now I can't easily reorder the Total,
       | Min, Max, and other columns without removing and re-adding them;
       | and they don't seem to be sortable (you could sort the legend in
       | the old line chart and it remembered your preferences across page
       | reloads)
       | 
       | -- the legend rows can't be clicked with my vim-like navigation
       | plugin (vimium) anymore. If anyone from Grafana is reading this,
       | it's very easy to fix and should help with accessibility:
       | 
       | https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/A...
       | 
       | On the other hand, the "Connect null values" feature is a
       | lifesaver. My data sources are very unreliable (and I can't fix
       | them because they are provided by a third party) and there were
       | huge gaps there that were filled with meaningless interpolated
       | data. (If it were +20degC outside a day ago and now it's +30degC,
       | that doesn't mean that it was +25degC in the middle of the night
       | when the sensor wasn't working). Now they look like proper empty
       | gaps. Huge thank you to whoever came up with that feature!
        
       | sciurus wrote:
       | Link discussing new features in more detail:
       | https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/whatsnew/whats-new-i...
        
         | darkwater wrote:
         | Biggest change in the release, IMO:
         | https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/alerting/unified-ale...
        
           | dig1 wrote:
           | Does the new alerting engine support template variables in
           | queries [1]? Many complained about this.
           | 
           | [1] https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/6557
        
             | KyleBrandt wrote:
             | It does not support template variables because alerts have
             | been moved out of Dashboards so that would not really fit.
             | 
             | However, it does now support queries like `host=*` with
             | multiple alerts instances per host from one rule/query.
             | E.g. https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/7832#issueco
             | mment-...
        
               | danlimerick wrote:
               | As Kyle says, we are sidestepping the template variables
               | problem by decoupling alerts from dashboards. You can
               | instead link from an alert to a dashboard or panel (or
               | run book) and get a similar experience to the old
               | alerting.
               | 
               | When you get a notification, you have a link to the
               | appropriate dashboard and it is also easy to create an
               | alert from a query in a dashboard. You can see the linked
               | alert rule in the panel edit mode.
        
               | mikewave wrote:
               | I just wanted to extend my thanks for this new feature,
               | it will be really, really appreciated. We have Grafana
               | monitoring everything from your usual cloud stuff, down
               | to the temperatures of cryogenic fridges. Being able to
               | configure alerts more dynamically and clearly is going to
               | make my job a lot easier.
               | 
               | Can't wait to fire this up and start re-doing all my
               | alerts.
        
       | AcerbicZero wrote:
       | I love using grafana however I abhor creating dashboards and
       | trying to pull data, but that's mostly because of a lack of
       | documentation.
        
       | hokkos wrote:
       | The relatively new Node graph visualization can't be used with
       | any datasource, even if you select the data to fit the model of
       | the two nodes and edges data frames, because it needs a special
       | meta property to work.
       | 
       | EDIT: it seems it is no longer the case, I will test it :
       | 
       | https://github.com/grafana/grafana/pull/35163/files#diff-148...
       | 
       | Also it would be nice if an embedded panel could select its own
       | time range.
        
         | aocenas wrote:
         | Yes that limitation was removed and you should be able to use
         | the node graph in dashboards with any datasource providing you
         | can query the data in the right format. In Explore though such
         | query will still show the data in a table if the meta property
         | isn't present. We hope to improve that later on.
        
       | bitcharmer wrote:
       | Over the years I've evaluated multiple other solutions like
       | Grafana but none of them came even near the feature set and
       | simplicity of Grafana.
       | 
       | Awesome work, huge thanks to all contributors.
        
         | aequitas wrote:
         | In the years before Grafana the situation was not much better
         | either. Graphite's render endpoint was decent and functional,
         | but Grafana was the first that would let you easily make nice
         | looking graphs and dashboard. I remember there was Giraffe[0]
         | which came close and some other alternatives[1], most of them
         | are dead now. I'm really looking forward to using the Library
         | panels, a feature I always found lacking.
         | 
         | I always found it a nice gesture by Raintank that they took in
         | the Graphite project and are maintaining it to this day.
         | 
         | [0] https://github.com/kenhub/giraffe [1]
         | https://graphite.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tools.html#visuali...
        
           | dc2447 wrote:
           | Also Gdash[1] and many others
           | 
           | I agree with your sentiment though.
           | 
           | [1] https://github.com/ripienaar/gdash
        
       | slashdot2008 wrote:
       | Will grafana displace industrial historian and HMI software?
       | historians just store time series data and allow you to plot it
       | and cost $30k for a license? The HMI software suites usually have
       | worse time series plotting and trending analysis than a historian
       | but they allow you to put buttons on the screen to control your
       | process, and come with some type of alarm display system.
        
         | torkelo wrote:
         | We hope so, a UI for placing buttons and hooking up graphics to
         | metrics is in the works.
        
           | slashdot2008 wrote:
           | great. Ignition from inductive automation is good, but old
           | players like Allen Bradley / Rockwell Factory Talk, Citect,
           | Wonderware, need a kick in the pants to get with the times.
        
           | cge wrote:
           | That would be great. A few months ago in our (biophysics-ish)
           | lab, I set up Grafana and InfluxDB to display output from
           | some of our equipment during experiments as a bit of a
           | gimmick, since I had just figured out how to extract real-
           | time data from the machines and had used Grafana for
           | monitoring my own servers. But rather than remaining a
           | gimmick, while at times we've run into cases that feel a bit
           | outside of Grafana's intended use, it has actually become our
           | preferred way of watching the experiments, and far more
           | useful than the manufacturer's software. With buttons and an
           | ability to include some basic control interfaces, Grafana
           | could well replace our everyday need for the manufacturer's
           | software entirely.
        
       | xiconfjs wrote:
       | Are there any new development for replacing our Cacti weathermap?
       | Would love to bury it forever.
        
       | yakata wrote:
       | I don't understand the duplication of alerting with
       | Grafana/Alertmanager. Is it not better to keep all alert
       | configuration central in prometheus alerting rules ?
        
         | danlimerick wrote:
         | Internally (in the Grafana team), we call it unified alerting
         | because it is a unified UI for non-Prometheus data sources
         | together with Prometheus alerting (and Loki/Cortex/Grafana
         | Cloud alerting) and allows you to see all your alerts together.
         | 
         | - For Prometheus, can view and search for alerts.
         | 
         | - For Loki and Cortex, can create and edit alert rules. See
         | Alertmanager data source:
         | https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/datasources/alertman...
         | 
         | - For non-Prometheus data sources, uses the Grafana alerting
         | engine but also has an embedded Alertmanager. Can use the same
         | routing, grouping, deduping and silencing features that
         | Alertmanager provides but for data sources like InfluxDB or
         | MySQL.
        
         | crad wrote:
         | I use a combination of:
         | 
         | - Graphite
         | 
         | - InfluxDB
         | 
         | - PostgreSQL
         | 
         | - Timescale
         | 
         | - CloudWatch
         | 
         | - Prometheus
         | 
         | The alerting in Grafana supporting all those variations is a
         | godsend.
        
         | buro9 wrote:
         | If you use Prometheus and have everything that you want to
         | alert on instrumented with Prometheus then of course that makes
         | sense.
         | 
         | But if you want to alert on other data sources, and especially
         | to see and manage all alerts in one place, then this is what
         | Grafana Alerting now enables.
         | 
         | Example I encountered a while ago: Alert on billing throughput
         | within a third party (not instrumented with Prometheus) billing
         | system that has a RDBMS backend. The alert can be written in
         | SQL and with the changes in Grafana 8 could be acted upon and
         | routed just like the Prometheus alerts were.
        
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       (page generated 2021-06-08 23:01 UTC)