3.2 Tasks: Grafana dashboards

Task 3.2.1: Import a dashboard

As a first Task we import an existing dashboard to our grafana. There is a huge collection of predefined dashboards available on https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards .

In this task we learn how to import existing dashboards, which we can also use as reference to write our own queries and dashboards.

Choose one or more of the preexisting dashboards from https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards and import them into your grafana. Use the daterange, interval picker on the top right to change the timerange (between 5 minutes and 10 minutes) of the displayed mertics.

Note

You can import the following dashboards

Node Exporter Full dashboard, which will present you useful metrics about your linux servers
Prometheus Overview . This gives you an overivew of your prometheus instance.
Kubestate Metrics Information about your Kubernetes Cluster
…

Hints

Navigate to dashboard site and copy the dashboard ID
On your Grafana web UI
- Navigate to Dashboards (Icon with the four squares on the left navigation menu) > New > Import
- Add the copied ID to the Import via grafana.com field
- Hit Load
Choose your thanos-querier data source and hit Import

Open the dashboard time control (to the upper right)
- Set From to now-10m
- Set To to now-5m
- Hit Apply time range

Task 3.2.2: Create your first dashboard

In this task you’re going to create your first own dashboard happy_little_dashboard. You will add the panel CPU Utilisation based on the following query:

sum(rate(container_cpu_usage_seconds_total{container="example-web-python", image!="", namespace="<user>"}[$__rate_interval])) by (pod)

Hints

Navigate to Dashboards (Icon with the four squares on the left navigation menu)> New > New Dashboard
- Select Add visualization

Select the thanos-querier data source

In general, metrics can be built using the Grafana Query Builder or using “plain” PromQL queries. You can easily switch between these two at the top right of the query window. Going forward, we will use plain PromQL queries.
Add the expression from above into the text field right next to the Metrics Browser dropdown
Set the panel title to CPU Utilisation under Panel options > Title (you may need to open the options pane with the < button on the right hand side just below the Apply button)
Save the dashboard and give it the name happy_little_dashboard

Task 3.2.3: Add a Gauge panel to the dashboard

Task description:

Add another panel to the existing happy_little_dashboard with the panel name Memory Used. Display the following query:

sum(container_memory_working_set_bytes{namespace="<user>", pod=~"example-web-python.*", image!=""}) / sum(kube_pod_container_resource_limits{namespace="<user>", pod=~"example-web-python.*", resource="memory"}) 

Also, change the panel type to `Gauge` and display it in %. Define the following thresholds:
```bash
0% (green)
60% (orange)
80% (red)

Hints

Hit Add (top navigation menu) > Visualization

Select the thanos-querier data source
Add the expression from above into the text field right next to the Metrics Browser dropdown
Set the panel title to Memory Used under Panel options > Title (you may need to open the options pane with the < button on the right hand side just below the Apply button)

Define unit under Standard options > Unit > Misc / Percent (0-100)
Choose Gauge in the dropdown menu just below the Apply button

Add 60 and 80 thresholds under Thresholds and switch to Precentage
- Choose Greem for Base
- Choose Orange for 60
- Choose Red for 80

Save the dashboard

Task 3.2.4: Add a Stat panel that uses a variable to the dashboard

Add another panel to the existing happy_little_dashboard with the panel name Disk Available that uses a variable. Name the variable disk and label it Select disk. To calculate the available disk space of a certain mountpoint in percent, use the following query:

100 - ((node_filesystem_avail_bytes{mountpoint="$disk", instance="10.0.0.10:9100"} * 100) / node_filesystem_size_bytes{mountpoint="$disk", instance="10.0.0.10:9100"})

Also, change the panel type to Stat and display the value in %. Define the following thresholds:

0% (red)
10% (orange)
25% (green)

Hints

First, we create the variable. Hit the little gear icon on the top right corner of the dashboard
- Select Variables in the menu on the left > Add Variable
- As we want the available values for the variable to be calculated dynamically, we will use a PromQL query for this as well. Thus, choose Query in the dropdown menu for variable type
- Set Name to disk
- Set Label to Select disk
- Select the thanos-querier data source
- Set Query Type to Label values
- Choose the label mountpoint
- As we are only interested in the mountpoint label of our linux VM, enter the metric node_filesystem_avail_bytes{instance="10.0.0.10:9100"}
- The preview at the bottom should now already show the different mountpoints of the server
- Leave everything else as is, apply and navigate back to the dashboard
Now, let’s use the variable in a new panel. Hit Add (top navigation menu) > Visualization
- Select the thanos-querier data source
- Add the query 100 - ((node_filesystem_avail_bytes{mountpoint="$disk", instance="10.0.0.10:9100"} * 100) / node_filesystem_size_bytes{mountpoint="$disk", instance="10.0.0.10:9100"}) to the Metrics browser field
- Set the panel title to Disk Available under Panel options > Title (you may need to open the options pane with the < button on the right hand side just below the Apply button)
- Define unit under Standard options > Unit > Misc / Percent (0-100)
- Choose Stat in the dropdown menu just below the Apply button
- Add 10 and 25 thresholds under Thresholds
  - Choose Red for Base
  - Choose Orange for 10
  - Choose Green for 25
Save the dashboard

Task 3.2.5: Save your dashboard to GIT

In a git provisioned Grafana Setup the dashboards will only be persisted in your GIT repo. Manually clicked dashboards get deleted everytime Grafana restarts. Therefore, let us make sure that your dashboard will not be lost.

Save your dashboard in a configmap to your user-demo directory

Hints

On your Grafana web UI
- Navigate to your Dashboard happy_little_dashboard
- Click the share icon, to the right of the dashboard name
- Select export, then view JSON
- And hit Copy to Clipboard
- Copy the JSON content and save the file charts/user-monitoring/templates/training_dashboard.yaml:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  labels:
    dashboard: 'true'
  name: training-dashboard
data:
  training-dashboard.json: |-
    {
      Your dashboard JSON definition
    }

Note

Pay attention to YAML syntax, especially indentation.

  training-dashboard.json: |-
    {
      "annotations": {
        "list": [
          {
...

Commit and push the dashboard.

To ensure that the dashboard provisioning works as specified, try deleting the dashboard using the Grafana user interface.

On your Grafana web UI
- Navigate to your Dashboard happy_little_dashboard
- Select Dashboard settings (Icon on the top navigation menu that looks like a gear)
- Click on Delete Dashboard

You should see a warning message that prevents deleting provisioned dashboards.

Last modified April 29, 2026: Merge 16c2cf49af91125a95fbffd0197a473293446d89 into bab7e50cc1efa022e59121d708c7de54c6d4d4ce (1ef1573)