Top 7 Grafana Dashboard Examples

Have you ever felt lost in a sea of data, struggling to make sense of it all? You’re not alone. Many of us in DevOps, SRE, and other tech roles face this daily. We’re bombarded with metrics, logs, and alerts. It can feel like trying to drink from a fire hose. But what if there was a way to turn that chaos into clarity? Grafana dashboards offer a solution. They can take all that raw information and transform it into clear, actionable insights. In this article, we will walk you through the best Grafana dashboard examples for you to draw inspiration.

What Makes a Good Grafana Dashboard?

Before we dive into specific examples, let’s talk about what makes a Grafana dashboard truly effective. A great dashboard isn’t just a pretty picture; it’s a tool that helps you understand and respond to your systems and apps. Here are a few key elements:

• Clear Purpose: A good dashboard has a defined goal. It answers a specific question or tracks a set of related metrics. Avoid throwing everything onto one dashboard. Instead, focus each one on a clear purpose.
• Relevant Metrics: Only show metrics that matter to the dashboard’s goal. Avoid visual clutter. Each metric must give you clear data points that you need.
• Easy to Read: The layout must be simple. The text must be big enough. The colors must be easy on the eyes. It should be easy for anyone to grasp the data right away.
• Actionable Insights: The dashboard should show you where issues lie. It should also show you data trends to help you act. It’s not enough to see a problem; you need to know what to do next.
• Real-time Data: The information on the dashboard should be up to date. You need to know if a system is down right now, not an hour ago.
• Customizable: The best dashboards are those you can tweak to fit your needs. It may mean adding panels, or changing queries, or setting alerts.

With these points in mind, let’s get into the seven Grafana dashboard examples to help you level up your system monitoring.

1. The Infrastructure Overview Dashboard

Let’s start with the basics. The infrastructure overview dashboard is your go-to for a quick health check of your entire system. It’s like the cockpit of your IT operations, giving you a wide-angle view of all your core elements.

What to Include

• CPU Usage: Show the CPU load across all your machines. A spike in CPU use may mean a process is using too many resources. Or it could mean more users are accessing your apps.
• Memory Usage: Show how much RAM your machines are using. If your RAM is nearly full, your apps may run slow. Or your system may crash.
• Disk Space: Track how much space is left on your hard drives. When the space is almost used up, you may not be able to add new data.
• Network Traffic: Keep tabs on the amount of data going in and out of your network. This data can help you find if you’re experiencing a denial-of-service attack.
• Number of Active Servers: Show how many servers are online and running. If a server goes down, you’ll see it right away.
• Uptime: Show how long your servers have been running without a restart. Good uptime shows your system is stable.
• Alerts: Highlight critical alerts that need your notice. Use different colors to show the level of the alarm.

Why It’s Important

• Full View: You can see the state of your whole system in one place. It saves you time from having to check each element one by one.
• Quick Issues Spotting: You can quickly see if any server is running hot or if a drive is almost full.
• Plan for the Future: You can use trends from this board to plan your hardware needs. This helps you make sure you have enough resources to grow.

How to Build It

• Use the node_exporter to gather system-level metrics from each server.
• Use Grafana’s built-in panels to show the data.
• Use thresholds to highlight when metrics go outside safe levels.
• Use bar charts or gauges for quick views of values.
• Use time series graphs to see trends over time.
• Make sure you use different colors to show each machine’s or metric’s status to avoid confusions.
• Make it clear what each metric shows by using appropriate titles.

2. The Application Performance Dashboard

This type of dashboard goes deeper into the performance of your apps. It shows you how well your apps are working. It also helps you find out any bottlenecks that may slow things down.

What to Include

• Request Latency: How long it takes for your apps to reply to a user request. Slow replies mean a bad user experience.
• Error Rate: How often your apps return errors. A high error rate shows something is wrong in your code.
• Throughput: How many requests your apps can handle at once. Low throughput shows that your app can not handle many requests at a time.
• Database Queries: How fast your database can get the data your apps need. Slow queries mean slow apps.
• API Response Times: How long it takes for your APIs to send replies. Slow APIs can cause other services that rely on them to slow down.
• Number of Active Users: How many people are using your apps right now. You can use that metric to plan your resources to meet demand.
• Custom App Metrics: Show any special metrics that are specific to your app. This may be things like queue size, or job status.

Why It’s Important

• User Experience: You can make sure that your apps are fast for your users.
• Pinpoint Issues: You can find the exact place where a bottleneck may occur in your app. This saves you time to debug.
• Improve Performance: You can use the info to find areas where you can improve the efficiency of your apps.

How to Build It

• Use a service like Prometheus to get metrics from your apps.
• Use Grafana’s line graphs to show how metrics change over time.
• Use the heat maps to find patterns and time-based issues.
• Make sure to use alerts to know when the performance of the app is not on par.
• Use the single stat panels to track the current value of vital metrics.
• Use custom queries to get data that is tailored to your apps needs.

3. The Container Monitoring Dashboard

If you are using containers, this dashboard is very important. It helps you see how well your containers are working. It also helps you make sure they are not using too many resources.

What to Include

• CPU Usage (Per Container): Shows how much CPU each container is using. This is useful to make sure that your containers are not consuming all resources in the server.
• Memory Usage (Per Container): Shows how much RAM each container is using. Like with CPU, this metric allows you to make sure that your containers are behaving within boundaries.
• Disk I/O: Shows how often your containers are reading and writing to disks. If the I/O is too high, you need to find out what exactly your container is doing.
• Network Usage (Per Container): Shows how much network data each container is sending and receiving. Like I/O, it can help you track down if a container is misbehaving.
• Number of Running Containers: Shows how many containers are running in your system.
• Container Status: Shows the current status of each container. If a container fails, you’ll see it at a glance.
• Restart Count: Shows how many times a container has been restarted. High numbers may mean there are problems.

Why It’s Important

• Resource Control: Makes sure your containers are not using too many resources.
• Spot Problems: Finds containers that are failing or are having problems.
• Plan Capacity: Helps plan your container capacity based on resource needs.

How to Build It

• Use cAdvisor or a similar tool to get container metrics.
• Use Grafana’s table panels to display all the container metrics.
• Use bar charts to see the use of resources by container in a simple way.
• Use the gauge to see how far the container is from their resource limits.
• Use alerts to know when containers go over limits.
• Make sure to label the data well to see which container is what.

4. The Database Performance Dashboard

If your system uses databases, it’s crucial to keep an eye on their health. This dashboard gives you the information you need to keep your databases working well.

What to Include

• Query Time: How long it takes for your database to run queries. Long query times can slow your app.
• Number of Queries Per Second: How many queries your database is doing at one time. If you see high numbers, you need to plan to scale the database.
• Active Connections: How many users are connected to your database right now. A high amount can strain your database.
• Cache Hit Rate: How often your database gets data from the cache. A low hit rate means the database may be slow.
• Disk I/O: How fast data is being read from and written to your disk. High I/O can slow down the database.
• Database Size: How much space your database is using. If space is low, you need to scale it before it is completely full.
• Error Logs: Show database errors so that you can address the issues promptly.

Why It’s Important

• App Speed: Helps to make sure your app is fast by keeping the database healthy.
• Find Issues: Shows areas where your database may have issues.
• Plan Resources: Helps plan when you may need to scale the database.

How to Build It

• Use tools like PostgreSQL exporter or MySQL exporter to get database data.
• Use the time series graph to show trends in query time.
• Use the heat map to find patterns in error logs.
• Use alerts to know when slow queries happen.
• Use the single stat panels to show the current values.
• Make sure to give your graphs clear titles so you know what data each one is showing.

5. The Log Analysis Dashboard

Logs are a goldmine of information. But they are very hard to read by themselves. This dashboard takes your logs and turns them into something useful, making it easy for you to understand.

What to Include

• Error Counts: How many errors are in your logs. High error counts mean there is something you need to look at right away.
• Warning Counts: How many warnings are in your logs. Warnings may mean future problems.
• Log Levels Over Time: Shows how many logs at different levels occur over time. This is useful to see if errors are rising at a certain time.
• Keyword Search: A search box to find specific log entries. This is useful to debug.
• Top Error Messages: Lists the most common error messages in your logs. This will allow you to start fixing the most common ones first.
• Log Distribution: Shows the time distribution of the logs to see patterns.

Why It’s Important

• Find Errors: Helps you find errors and warnings in your system.
• Debug Quickly: Lets you debug problems more efficiently.
• See Trends: You can see patterns in log data.

How to Build It

• Use tools like Loki or Elasticsearch to store logs.
• Use Grafana’s logs panel to show log entries.
• Use the graph panel to show how errors and warnings change over time.
• Use filters to search for logs based on terms.
• Use alerts based on a number of errors.
• Use a clear format so that you know what exactly each entry means.

6. The Security Monitoring Dashboard

Security is key for any system. This dashboard helps you see security threats and problems, so you can take action before any damage happens.

What to Include

• Failed Login Attempts: Tracks failed attempts to log in to the system. Too many may mean a brute-force attack.
• Unauthorized Access: Highlights any time someone tries to access parts of the system without permission.
• Firewall Activity: Shows if your firewall is blocking attacks. This also will show you what kind of attacks are occurring.
• Suspicious Network Traffic: Tracks unusual network traffic that may be dangerous.
• Security Alerts: Highlights security alerts you need to look at right away.
• User Activity: Shows what users are doing in your system. This will let you see if someone is trying to act malicious.
• Vulnerability Scans: Shows the results of your vulnerability scans.

Why It’s Important

• Security Threats: Finds security threats before they harm your system.
• React Quickly: Lets you respond fast to security incidents.
• Plan for Security: Helps you improve your overall security policy.

How to Build It

• Use tools like Suricata or Snort to get security data.
• Use Grafana’s table panel to show security alerts.
• Use the graph panels to see trends in security logs over time.
• Use alerts for high priority security events.
• Use heat maps to show patterns in attacks.
• Use filters so that you can search for specific events.

7. The Business Metrics Dashboard

This dashboard is not all about systems. It helps you see how your tech efforts affect the business. It is useful to track progress and make data-driven decisions.

What to Include

• Revenue: Tracks how much money your system is making.
• Conversion Rates: Shows how often users do what you want. It may be a purchase, or it may be a login.
• User Engagement: Tracks how much users are interacting with your app.
• Customer Satisfaction: Tracks how happy your users are with your app.
• Cost of Infrastructure: Tracks how much your servers and other systems cost.
• Growth Rate: Shows how much your business is growing over time.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Show any special metrics that are related to your business goals.

Why It’s Important

• Business Growth: You can see how tech affects growth.
• Data-Driven Decisions: Allows you to make choices based on data, not hunches.
• Optimize Spend: Helps find areas to cut costs, and areas to invest more money.

How to Build It

• Use data from your business tools or databases.
• Use the graph panels to see how revenue and other key metrics change over time.
• Use the single stat panels to show current values.
• Use alerts to know when business goals are missed.
• Use thresholds to show when metrics go outside of your target.
• Make sure that the data you show helps the business and not just the tech team.

Which Dashboard Is Right for You?

Choosing the right dashboards is an art and a science. Start simple. You do not need to start with every dashboard all at once. The infrastructure overview board is a solid place to begin. Then, based on your needs and challenges, add the dashboards that make the most sense.

Think about these questions when picking a dashboard:

• What’s the main thing you need to track or understand?
• What data do you already have?
• How will you use this information to make changes?
• What does your team need to know?

Remember, these dashboard examples are a starting point. You will need to change and improve them to fit your needs. A good dashboard should evolve as your system changes.

Leveling Up Your Data Game

Grafana dashboards can help you make sense of all that data. With a little bit of thought and planning, you can create amazing dashboards that will help you to understand your systems. Use this article as a guide to start your dashboard journey. Remember to start simple, focus on clarity, and adjust as needed. Your data will start to tell a story. And you will be able to make better choices in your tech projects.