Lecture on Grafana

Introduction

• Presenter: Moss Norman
• Topic: Grafana
• Purpose: Overview of Grafana's functionality and architecture.

What is Grafana?

• Open-source web application.
• Used for data visualization.
• Capable of building charts, graphs, and dashboards.

Grafana Architecture

Data Producer

• Role: Produces data for visualization.
• Examples:
  • Jenkins CI server
  • Raspberry Pi
  • Virtual machines
  • Kubernetes pods
  • IoT sensors (e.g., weather instrumentation)

Data Source

• Function: Database that stores data.
• Examples:
  • Prometheus
  • InfluxDB
  • MySQL
• Data Interaction:
  • Pull Data: Data source retrieves data from producer.
  • Push Data: Data producer sends data to the source.
  • Prometheus Example: Uses HTTP endpoint for data scraping.

Grafana Server

• Role: Front-end for data visualization.
• Process:
  • Queries the data source.
  • Data source returns requested data.
  • Displays data on Grafana dashboard.

Categories of Data Visualized

Metrics

• Examples:
  • CPU load
  • Memory usage
  • Temperature (e.g., outside, CPU, GPU)

Logs

• Components:
  • Timestamp
  • Logging level (error, info, warning, debug)
  • Detailed information

Grafana Dashboards

• Features:
  • Interactive
  • Includes metrics such as memory, CPU, requests over time.
  • Allows zooming on specific time frames.
  • Updates according to user interactions.

Example Panels

• Metrics Panel: Time series data.
• Logs Panel: Shows log entries and histogram of logging levels.

Conclusion

• Summary: Overview of Grafana features and functionality.
• Upcoming: More Grafana videos are planned.
• Call to Action:
  • Support by liking and subscribing.
  • Encourage questions and feedback in comments.

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