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📊 Grafana Setup for Monitoring Stack

This guide explains how to configure Grafana to visualize data from your monitoring stack:

  • Set up the Prometheus datasource
  • Import dashboards from Grafana Labs
  • Import a custom SD card monitoring dashboard from JSON

✅ Grafana may run outside this stack, but must have access Prometheus via http://<host>:9090.

Prometheus datasource Prometheus datasource Prometheus datasource

🔗 1. Add Prometheus Data Source​

  1. Open Grafana in your browser:
    http://<your-grafana-host>:3000

  2. Log in (default is admin / admin unless changed)

  3. In the left menu, go to:
    ⚙️ → Data Sources → Add data source

  4. Select Prometheus

  5. Set the URL to:

http://<your-docker-host>:9090
  1. Click Save & Test
    Prometheus datasource

📥 2. Import Dashboards from Grafana Labs​

How to Import a Dashboard by ID:​

  1. In Grafana, go to + (Create) → Import
  2. Enter the dashboard ID (from the list below)
  3. Click Load
  4. Choose your Prometheus datasource
  5. Click Import

Prometheus datasource Prometheus datasource

Dashboard NameGrafana Labs ID
Node Exporter Full1860
Docker Monitoring (cAdvisor)11074
Prometheus 2.0 Stats4282
Host Resource Usage (Node)8321

These dashboards provide detailed insights into your system, containers, and Prometheus itself.

📁 3. Import SD Card Monitoring Dashboard (from JSON)​

You can use the included grafana-dashboard.json file to visualize metrics from the sdcard-exporter.
Prometheus datasource

To Import:​

  1. Go to + (Create) → Import

  2. Click Upload JSON file

  3. Select the file: Monitoring/SDcardHealth/grafana-dashboard.json

  4. Choose your Prometheus datasource

  5. Click Import

✅ Result​

You should now have a Grafana dashboard suite with:

  • System-level stats (Node Exporter)
  • Docker/container metrics (cAdvisor)
  • Prometheus internal metrics
  • SD card health stats from your custom exporter

You can now customize alerts, panels, and create a full monitoring UI.

🧩 Tips​

  • To make dashboards dynamic, use variables like instance or job in panel queries.
  • You can set refresh intervals and time ranges at the top right of each dashboard.
  • Exported dashboards can be versioned with Git for easy updates.