Setting Up Grafana Dashboard with Docker


Prerequisites

Ensure Docker is installed on your system. If not, install Docker from the official Docker website.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Create a Docker Volume for Persistent Storage

Grafana stores its data (such as dashboards, configurations, and plugins) in a persistent volume to ensure that data is not lost when the container is stopped or removed.

docker volume create grafana-data

A command prompt window showing the above command run.

2. Run the Grafana Docker Container

Now, you can run the Grafana container. This command will start Grafana and map port 3000 on your host to port 3000 on the container, making Grafana accessible via http://localhost:3000.

docker run -d --name=grafana -p 3000:3000 -v grafana-data:/var/lib/grafana grafana/grafana:latest

The command prompt output of the above command.

Breakdown of the Command

  • docker run: Command to run a new container.

  • -d: Run the container in detached mode (in the background).

  • --name=grafana: Assign a name to the container.

  • -p 3000:3000: Map port 3000 of the host to port 3000 of the container.

  • -v grafana-data:/var/lib/grafana: Mount the Docker volume grafana-data to /var/lib/grafana inside the container. This ensures that Grafana's data is stored persistently.

  • grafana/grafana:latest: Specifies the Docker image to use, with latest indicating the latest version.

If it is successful, it will look like this in your Docker container:

The newly created docker container shown in the Docker Desktop window.

3. Access Grafana

Once the container is running, you can access the Grafana web interface by opening a web browser and navigating to: http://localhost:3000

4. Log In to Grafana

  • The default username is admin.

  • The default password is admin.

You will be prompted to change the default password upon first login for security reasons.

The Grafana login window with the username and password entered.

5. Configure Grafana

After logging in, you can start configuring Grafana by adding data sources, creating dashboards, and installing plugins as needed.

Additional Tips

Restarting Grafana

If you need to restart the Grafana container, use the following command:

docker restart grafana

Stopping and Removing the Grafana Container

To stop the Grafana container, use:

docker stop grafana

To remove the Grafana container, use:

docker rm grafana

Updating Grafana

To update Grafana to the latest version, first remove the existing container:

docker rm -f grafana

Then, pull the latest image and run the container again:

docker pull grafana/grafana:latest
docker run -d --name=grafana -p 3000:3000 -v grafana-data:/var/lib/grafana grafana/grafana:latest

You have now successfully installed and configured Grafana on Docker. You can start exploring Grafana's features and capabilities for monitoring and visualizing your data.