Grafana datasource

The VictoriaLogs datasource plugin allows you to query and visualize VictoriaLogs data in Grafana.

Installation
Getting started development
How to make new release
Notes
License

Installation #

Installing VictoriaLogs datasource requires the following changes to Grafana’s grafana.ini config:

[plugins]
allow_loading_unsigned_plugins = victorialogs-datasource

If using grafana-operator, adjust config section in your kind=Grafana resource as below:

  config:
    plugins:
      allow_loading_unsigned_plugins: "victorialogs-datasource"

For detailed instructions on how to install the plugin in Grafana Cloud or locally, please checkout the Plugin installation docs.

Grafana Provisioning #

Provisioning of Grafana plugin requires creating datasource config file:

apiVersion: 1
datasources:
    # <string, required> Name of the VictoriaLogs datasource
    # displayed in Grafana panels and queries.
  - name: VictoriaLogs
    # <string, required> Sets the data source type.
    type: victorialogs-datasource
    # <string, required> Sets the access mode, either
    # proxy or direct (Server or Browser in the UI).
    access: proxy
    # <string> Sets URL for sending queries to VictoriaLogs server.
    # see https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/querying/
    url: http://victorialogs:9428
    # <string> Sets the pre-selected datasource for new panels.
    # You can set only one default data source per organization.
    isDefault: true

Please find the example of provisioning Grafana instance with VictoriaLogs datasource below:

Create a file at ./provisioning/datasources/vm.yml with datasource example file.

Define Grafana installation via docker-compose:

 version: '3.0'
 services:
    grafana:
      image: grafana/grafana:11.0.0
      environment:
      - GF_INSTALL_PLUGINS=https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/victorialogs-datasource/releases/download/v0.8.0/victorialogs-datasource-v0.8.0.zip;victorialogs-datasource
      - GF_PLUGINS_ALLOW_LOADING_UNSIGNED_PLUGINS=victorialogs-datasource
      ports:
      - 3000:3000/tcp
      volumes:
      - ./provisioning:/etc/grafana/provisioning

Run docker-compose file:

docker-compose -f docker-compose.yaml up

After Grafana starts successfully, datasource should be available in the datasources tab

Install in Kubernetes #

Grafana helm chart #

Example with Grafana helm chart:

Option 1. Using Grafana provisioning:

env:
  GF_INSTALL_PLUGINS: "https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/victorialogs-datasource/releases/download/v0.8.0/victorialogs-datasource-v0.8.0.zip;victorialogs-datasource"
  GF_PLUGINS_ALLOW_LOADING_UNSIGNED_PLUGINS: "victorialogs-datasource"

Option 2. Using Grafana plugins section in values.yaml:

plugins:
  - https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/victorialogs-datasource/releases/download/v0.8.0/victorialogs-datasource-v0.8.0.zip;victorialogs-datasource

Option 3. Using init container:

extraInitContainers:
  - name: "load-vm-ds-plugin"
    image: "curlimages/curl:7.85.0"
    command: [ "/bin/sh" ]
    workingDir: "/var/lib/grafana"
    securityContext:
      runAsUser: 472
      runAsNonRoot: true
      runAsGroup: 472
    args:
     - "-c"
     - |
       set -ex
       mkdir -p /var/lib/grafana/plugins/
       ver=$(curl -s -L https://api.github.com/repos/VictoriaMetrics/victorialogs-datasource/releases/latest | grep -oE 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | head -1)
       curl -L https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/victorialogs-datasource/releases/download/$ver/victorialogs-datasource-$ver.tar.gz -o /var/lib/grafana/plugins/vl-plugin.tar.gz
       tar -xf /var/lib/grafana/plugins/vl-plugin.tar.gz -C /var/lib/grafana/plugins/
       rm /var/lib/grafana/plugins/vl-plugin.tar.gz       
    volumeMounts:
      # For grafana-operator users, change `name: storage` to `name: grafana-data`
      - name: storage
        mountPath: /var/lib/grafana

For grafana-operator users, the above configuration should be done for the part /spec/deployment/spec/template/spec/initContainers of your kind=Grafana resource.

This example uses init container to download and install plugin. To allow Grafana using this container as a sidecar set the following config:

sidecar:
  datasources:
    initDatasources: true
    enabled: true

See more about chart settings here

Option 4. would be to build custom Grafana image with plugin based on same installation instructions.

Grafana operator #

Example with Grafana operator:

apiVersion: grafana.integreatly.org/v1beta1
kind: Grafana
metadata:
  name: grafana-vm
spec:
  persistentVolumeClaim:
    spec:
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 200Mi
  deployment:
    spec:
      template:
        spec:
          initContainers:
            - name: "load-vm-ds-plugin"
              image: "curlimages/curl:7.85.0"
              command: [ "/bin/sh" ]
              workingDir: "/var/lib/grafana"
              securityContext:
                runAsUser: 472 
                runAsNonRoot: true
                runAsGroup: 472 
              args:
                - "-c"
                - |
                  set -ex
                  mkdir -p /var/lib/grafana/plugins/
                  ver=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/VictoriaMetrics/victorialogs-datasource/releases/latest | grep -oE 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | head -1)
                  curl -L https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/victorialogs-datasource/releases/download/$ver/victorialogs-datasource-$ver.tar.gz -o /var/lib/grafana/plugins/vl-plugin.tar.gz
                  tar -xf /var/lib/grafana/plugins/vl-plugin.tar.gz -C /var/lib/grafana/plugins/
                  rm /var/lib/grafana/plugins/vl-plugin.tar.gz                  
              volumeMounts:
                - name: grafana-data
                  mountPath: /var/lib/grafana
  config:
    plugins:
      allow_loading_unsigned_plugins: victorialogs-datasource

See Grafana operator reference to find more about Grafana operator. This example uses init container to download and install plugin.

Dev release installation #

To download plugin build and move contents into Grafana plugins directory:

ver=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/VictoriaMetrics/victorialogs-datasource/releases/latest | grep -oE 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | head -1)
curl -L https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/victorialogs-datasource/releases/download/$ver/victorialogs-datasource-$ver.tar.gz -o /var/lib/grafana/plugins/vl-plugin.tar.gz
tar -xf /var/lib/grafana/plugins/vl-plugin.tar.gz -C /var/lib/grafana/plugins/
rm /var/lib/grafana/plugins/vl-plugin.tar.gz

Restart Grafana

Getting started development #

1. Configure Grafana #

Installing dev version of Grafana plugin requires to change grafana.ini config to allow loading unsigned plugins:

# Directory where Grafana will automatically scan and look for plugins
plugins = {{path to directory with plugin}}

[plugins]
allow_loading_unsigned_plugins = victorialogs-datasource

2. Run the plugin #

In the project directory, you can run:

# install dependencies
yarn install

# run the app in the development mode
yarn dev

# build the plugin for production to the `victorialogs-datasource` folder and zip build
yarn build:zip

3. How to build backend plugin #

From the root folder of the project run the following command:

make victorialogs-backend-plugin-build

This command will build executable multi-platform files to the victorialogs-datasource folder for the following platforms:

linux/amd64
linux/arm64
linux/arm
linux/386
amd64
arm64
windows

4.How to build frontend plugin #

From the root folder of the project run the following command:

make victorialogs-frontend-plugin-build

This command will build all frontend app into victorialogs-datasource folder.

5. How to build frontend and backend parts of the plugin: #

When frontend and backend parts of the plugin is required, run the following command from the root folder of the project:

make victorialogs-datasource-plugin-build

This command will build frontend part and backend part or the plugin and locate both parts into victorialogs-datasource folder.

How to make new release #

Make sure there are no open security issues.
Create a release tag:
- git tag -s v1.xx.y in master branch
Run TAG=v1.xx.y make build-release to build and package binaries in *.tar.gz release archives.
Run git push origin v1.xx.y to push the tag created v1.xx.y at step 2 to public GitHub repository
Go to https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/victorialogs-datasource/releases and verify that draft release with the name TAG has been created and this release contains all the needed binaries and checksums.
Remove the draft checkbox for the TAG release and manually publish it.

Notes #

In the plugin.json file of our plugin, the metrics field is set to true. This is not to support metric queries in the classical sense but to ensure our plugin can be selected in the Grafana panel editor.

For more information on the fields in plugin.json, please refer to the Grafana documentation.

License #

This project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.

Grafana datasource #