Grafana: Syllabus

Mastering Grafana: Real-Time Monitoring and Intelligent Dashboards

Grafana is a powerful open-source observability platform that enables real-time monitoring, interactive data visualization, and intelligent dashboard creation. This book provides a hands-on approach to mastering Grafana, covering dashboard design, data source integration, alerting, and real-world applications.

Module 1: Introduction to Grafana and Data Visualization

  • What is Grafana? Key features and use cases
  • Understanding data visualization principles
  • Installing and setting up Grafana
  • Navigating the Grafana UI and Dashboard Editor

Module 2: Connecting Data Sources to Grafana

  • Adding and managing data sources in Grafana
  • Integrating Grafana with PostgreSQL for SQL-based monitoring
  • Connecting Trino for big data analysis and federated queries
  • Working with Prometheus for time-series monitoring
  • Configuring cloud-based data sources (AWS, GCP, Azure)

Module 3: Designing Intelligent Dashboards

  • Understanding Grafana panels and visualizations
  • Creating custom dashboards for different use cases
  • Using transformations and queries to manipulate data
  • Best practices for designing intuitive and efficient dashboards

Module 4: Real-Time Monitoring and Alerting

  • Setting up real-time data streaming in Grafana
  • Creating alerts with threshold-based and anomaly detection methods
  • Configuring notifications (Slack, Email, Webhooks)
  • Implementing event-driven monitoring with alerts

Module 5: Advanced Data Visualization Techniques

  • Creating heatmaps, histograms, and time-series charts
  • Implementing drill-downs and interactivity in dashboards
  • Using annotations and templating for dynamic dashboards
  • Correlating multiple data sources for deeper insights

Module 6: Performance Optimization and Security

  • Optimizing queries and caching for better dashboard performance
  • Implementing role-based access control (RBAC) for Grafana users
  • Securing dashboards with authentication and authorization
  • Logging and auditing user activity in Grafana

Module 7: Deploying Grafana in Production

  • Running Grafana on Docker and Kubernetes
  • Configuring high availability and load balancing
  • Automating dashboard deployments with Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC)
  • Monitoring and troubleshooting Grafana in production environments

Module 8: Integrating Grafana with Observability Stacks

  • Using Grafana with Prometheus for full-stack monitoring
  • Combining Loki for log aggregation and analysis
  • Implementing Jaeger for distributed tracing
  • Creating unified observability dashboards

Hands-On Projects

Project 1: Real-Time System Monitoring with PostgreSQL and Grafana

  • Connect PostgreSQL to Grafana for real-time database monitoring
  • Build dashboards to visualize query performance and server metrics
  • Implement alerting for high CPU and memory usage

Project 2: Data Analytics Dashboard with Trino and Grafana

  • Integrate Trino as a federated query engine for big data analytics
  • Design an intelligent analytics dashboard with multiple data sources
  • Optimize queries and dashboard performance

Project 3: Building a Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring Dashboard

  • Connect Grafana to AWS CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, or Google Cloud Monitoring
  • Set up real-time alerts for cloud resource utilization
  • Implement security monitoring dashboards for compliance tracking

Project 4: Implementing Full-Stack Observability with Grafana, Prometheus, and Loki

  • Set up a complete observability stack with Grafana, Prometheus, and Loki
  • Monitor infrastructure, logs, and applications in a unified dashboard
  • Implement anomaly detection and historical log analysis

Project 5: Deploying Grafana in a Scalable Kubernetes Environment

  • Deploy Grafana on Kubernetes with Helm
  • Configure persistent storage and high availability
  • Automate dashboard deployment with Terraform

References