grafana Installation Guide Installation Guide

grafana is a free and open-source observability platform. Grafana provides visualization and observability platform for metrics

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 512MB minimum

Storage: 1GB for data

Network: HTTP/HTTPS access

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 3000 (default grafana port)

None

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install grafana
sudo dnf install -y grafana

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now grafana

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=3000/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
grafana --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install grafana
sudo apt install -y grafana

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now grafana

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 3000

# Verify installation
grafana --version

bash

# Install grafana
sudo pacman -S grafana

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now grafana

# Verify installation
grafana --version

bash

# Install grafana
apk add --no-cache grafana

# Enable and start service
rc-update add grafana default
rc-service grafana start

# Verify installation
grafana --version

bash

# Install grafana
sudo zypper install -y grafana

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now grafana

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=3000/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
grafana --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install grafana

# Start service
brew services start grafana

# Verify installation
grafana --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install grafana

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'grafana_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service grafana start

# Verify installation
grafana --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install grafana

# Or using Scoop
scoop install grafana

# Verify installation
grafana --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/grafana

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
grafana --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable grafana

# Start service
sudo systemctl start grafana

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop grafana

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart grafana

# Check status
sudo systemctl status grafana

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u grafana -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add grafana default

# Start service
rc-service grafana start

# Stop service
rc-service grafana stop

# Restart service
rc-service grafana restart

# Check status
rc-service grafana status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'grafana_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service grafana start

# Stop service
service grafana stop

# Restart service
service grafana restart

# Check status
service grafana status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start grafana
brew services stop grafana
brew services restart grafana

# Check status
brew services list | grep grafana

powershell

# Start service
net start grafana

# Stop service
net stop grafana

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service grafana
Stop-Service grafana
Restart-Service grafana

# Check status
Get-Service grafana

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream grafana_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:3000;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name grafana.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name grafana.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/grafana.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/grafana.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://grafana_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName grafana.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://grafana.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName grafana.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/grafana.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/grafana.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:3000/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:3000/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend grafana_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/grafana.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend grafana_backend

backend grafana_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server grafana1 127.0.0.1:3000 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R grafana:grafana /etc/grafana
sudo chmod 750 /etc/grafana

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=3000/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status grafana

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u grafana -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep grafana)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/grafana"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/grafana-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/grafana /var/lib/grafana

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/grafana-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop grafana

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/grafana/grafana-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start grafana

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u grafana -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/grafana/grafana.log

# Check configuration
grafana --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/grafana

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 3000

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 3000

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep grafana)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep grafana)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 3000

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  grafana:
    image: grafana:latest
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/grafana
      - ./data:/var/lib/grafana
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update grafana

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade grafana

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu grafana

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade grafana

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update grafana

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade grafana

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/grafana-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/grafana

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart grafana

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/grafana

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/grafana -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/grafana

Official Documentation: https://docs.grafana.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/grafana/grafana

Community Forum: https://forum.grafana.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.grafana.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources