Configuration

The Grafana back-end has a number of configuration options that can be specified in a .ini configuration file or specified using environment variables.

Note. Grafana needs to be restarted for any configuration changes to take effect.

Comments In .ini Files

Semicolons (the ; char) are the standard way to comment out lines in a .ini file.

A common problem is forgetting to uncomment a line in the custom.ini (or grafana.ini) file which causes the configuration option to be ignored.

Config file locations

  • Default configuration from $WORKING_DIR/conf/defaults.ini
  • Custom configuration from $WORKING_DIR/conf/custom.ini
  • The custom configuration file path can be overridden using the —config parameter

Note. If you have installed Grafana using the deb or rpm packages, then your configuration file is located at /etc/grafana/grafana.ini. This path is specified in the Grafana init.d script using —config file parameter.

Using environment variables

All options in the configuration file (listed below) can be overridden using environment variables using the syntax:

  1. GF_<SectionName>_<KeyName>

Where the section name is the text within the brackets. Everything should be upper case, . should be replaced by _. For example, given these configuration settings:

  1. # default section
  2. instance_name = ${HOSTNAME}
  4. [security]
  5. admin_user = admin
  7. [auth.google]
  8. client_secret = 0ldS3cretKey

Then you can override them using:

  1. export GF_DEFAULT_INSTANCE_NAME=my-instance
  2. export GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_USER=true
  3. export GF_AUTH_GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=newS3cretKey

instance_name

Set the name of the grafana-server instance. Used in logging and internal metrics and in clustering info. Defaults to: ${HOSTNAME}, which will be replaced with environment variable HOSTNAME, if that is empty or does not exist Grafana will try to use system calls to get the machine name.

[paths]

data

Path to where Grafana stores the sqlite3 database (if used), file based sessions (if used), and other data. This path is usually specified via command line in the init.d script or the systemd service file.

temp_data_lifetime

How long temporary images in data directory should be kept. Defaults to: 24h. Supported modifiers: h (hours), m (minutes), for example: 168h, 30m, 10h30m. Use 0 to never clean up temporary files.

logs

Path to where Grafana will store logs. This path is usually specified via command line in the init.d script or the systemd service file. It can be overridden in the configuration file or in the default environment variable file.

plugins

Directory where grafana will automatically scan and look for plugins

provisioning

Folder that contains provisioning config files that grafana will apply on startup. Dashboards will be reloaded when the json files changes

[server]

http_addr

The IP address to bind to. If empty will bind to all interfaces

http_port

The port to bind to, defaults to 3000. To use port 80 you need to either give the Grafana binary permission for example:

  1. $ sudo setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' /usr/sbin/grafana-server

Or redirect port 80 to the Grafana port using:

  1. $ sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 3000

Another way is put a webserver like Nginx or Apache in front of Grafana and have them proxy requests to Grafana.

protocol

http,https or socket

Note Grafana versions earlier than 3.0 are vulnerable to POODLE. So we strongly recommend to upgrade to 3.x or use a reverse proxy for ssl termination.

socket

Path where the socket should be created when protocol=socket. Please make sure that Grafana has appropriate permissions.

domain

This setting is only used in as a part of the root_url setting (see below). Important if you use GitHub or Google OAuth.

enforce_domain

Redirect to correct domain if host header does not match domain. Prevents DNS rebinding attacks. Default is false.

root_url

This is the full URL used to access Grafana from a web browser. This is important if you use Google or GitHub OAuth authentication (for the callback URL to be correct).

Note This setting is also important if you have a reverse proxy in front of Grafana that exposes it through a subpath. In that case add the subpath to the end of this URL setting.

serve_from_sub_path

Available in 6.3 and above

Serve Grafana from subpath specified in root_url setting. By default it is set to false for compatibility reasons.

By enabling this setting and using a subpath in root_url above, e.g. root_url = http://localhost:3000/grafana, Grafana will be accessible on http://localhost:3000/grafana.

static_root_path

The path to the directory where the front end files (HTML, JS, and CSS files). Default to public which is why the Grafana binary needs to be executed with working directory set to the installation path.

enable_gzip

Set this option to true to enable HTTP compression, this can improve transfer speed and bandwidth utilization. It is recommended that most users set it to true. By default it is set to false for compatibility reasons.

cert_file

Path to the certificate file (if protocol is set to https).

cert_key

Path to the certificate key file (if protocol is set to https).

router_logging

Set to true for Grafana to log all HTTP requests (not just errors). These are logged as Info level events to grafana log.

[database]

Grafana needs a database to store users and dashboards (and other things). By default it is configured to use sqlite3 which is an embedded database (included in the main Grafana binary).

url

Use either URL or the other fields below to configure the database Example: mysql://user:secret@host:port/database

type

Either mysql, postgres or sqlite3, it’s your choice.

path

Only applicable for sqlite3 database. The file path where the database will be stored.

host

Only applicable to MySQL or Postgres. Includes IP or hostname and port or in case of unix sockets the path to it. For example, for MySQL running on the same host as Grafana: host = 127.0.0.1:3306 or with unix sockets: host = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock

name

The name of the Grafana database. Leave it set to grafana or some other name.

user

The database user (not applicable for sqlite3).

password

The database user’s password (not applicable for sqlite3). If the password contains # or ; you have to wrap it with triple quotes. Ex """#password;"""

ssl_mode

For Postgres, use either disable, require or verify-full. For MySQL, use either true, false, or skip-verify.

ca_cert_path

The path to the CA certificate to use. On many linux systems, certs can be found in /etc/ssl/certs.

client_key_path

The path to the client key. Only if server requires client authentication.

client_cert_path

The path to the client cert. Only if server requires client authentication.

server_cert_name

The common name field of the certificate used by the mysql or postgres server. Not necessary if ssl_mode is set to skip-verify.

max_idle_conn

The maximum number of connections in the idle connection pool.

max_open_conn

The maximum number of open connections to the database.

conn_max_lifetime

Sets the maximum amount of time a connection may be reused. The default is 14400 (which means 14400 seconds or 4 hours). For MySQL, this setting should be shorter than the wait_timeout variable.

log_queries

Set to true to log the sql calls and execution times.

cache_mode

For “sqlite3” only. Shared cache setting used for connecting to the database. (private, shared) Defaults to private.

[remote_cache]

type

Either redis, memcached or database default is database

connstr

The remote cache connection string. Leave empty when using database since it will use the primary database. Redis example config: addr=127.0.0.1:6379,pool_size=100,db=grafana Memcache example: 127.0.0.1:11211

[security]

admin_user

The name of the default Grafana admin user (who has full permissions). Defaults to admin.

admin_password

The password of the default Grafana admin. Set once on first-run. Defaults to admin.

login_remember_days

The number of days the keep me logged in / remember me cookie lasts.

secret_key

Used for signing some datasource settings like secrets and passwords, the encryption format used is AES-256 in CFB mode. Cannot be changed without requiring an update to datasource settings to re-encode them.

disable_gravatar

Set to true to disable the use of Gravatar for user profile images. Default is false.

data_source_proxy_whitelist

Define a white list of allowed ips/domains to use in data sources. Format: ip_or_domain:port separated by spaces

Set to true if you host Grafana behind HTTPS. Default is false.

Sets the SameSite cookie attribute and prevents the browser from sending this cookie along with cross-site requests. The main goal is mitigate the risk of cross-origin information leakage. It also provides some protection against cross-site request forgery attacks (CSRF), read more here. Valid values are lax, strict and none. Default is lax.

allow_embedding

When false, the HTTP header X-Frame-Options: deny will be set in Grafana HTTP responses which will instruct browsers to not allow rendering Grafana in a <frame>, <iframe>, <embed> or <object>. The main goal is to mitigate the risk of Clickjacking. Default is false.

strict_transport_security

Set to true if you want to enable http Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS) response header. This is only sent when HTTPS is enabled in this configuration. HSTS tells browsers that the site should only be accessed using HTTPS. The default value is false until the next minor release, 6.3.

strict_transport_security_max_age_seconds

Sets how long a browser should cache HSTS in seconds. Only applied if strict_transport_security is enabled. The default value is 86400.

strict_transport_security_preload

Set to true if to enable HSTS preloading option. Only applied if strict_transport_security is enabled. The default value is false.

strict_transport_security_subdomains

Set to true if to enable the HSTS includeSubDomains option. Only applied if strict_transport_security is enabled. The default value is false.

x_content_type_options

Set to true to enable the X-Content-Type-Options response header. The X-Content-Type-Options response HTTP header is a marker used by the server to indicate that the MIME types advertised in the Content-Type headers should not be changed and be followed. The default value is false until the next minor release, 6.3.

x_xss_protection

Set to false to disable the X-XSS-Protection header, which tells browsers to stop pages from loading when they detect reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. The default value is false until the next minor release, 6.3.

[users]

allow_sign_up

Set to false to prohibit users from being able to sign up / create user accounts. Defaults to false. The admin user can still create users from the Grafana Admin Pages

allow_org_create

Set to false to prohibit users from creating new organizations. Defaults to false.

auto_assign_org

Set to true to automatically add new users to the main organization (id 1). When set to false, new users will automatically cause a new organization to be created for that new user.

auto_assign_org_id

Set this value to automatically add new users to the provided org. This requires auto_assign_org to be set to true. Please make sure that this organization does already exists.

auto_assign_org_role

The role new users will be assigned for the main organization (if the above setting is set to true). Defaults to Viewer, other valid options are Admin and Editor. e.g. :

auto_assign_org_role = Viewer

viewers_can_edit

Viewers can edit/inspect dashboard settings in the browser. But not save the dashboard. Defaults to false.

editors_can_admin

Editors can administrate dashboards, folders and teams they create. Defaults to false.

login_hint

Text used as placeholder text on login page for login/username input.

password_hint

Text used as placeholder text on login page for password input.

[auth]

Grafana provides many ways to authenticate users. The docs for authentication has been split in to many different pages below.

[dataproxy]

logging

This enables data proxy logging, default is false.

timeout

How long the data proxy should wait before timing out default is 30 (seconds)

send_user_header

If enabled and user is not anonymous, data proxy will add X-Grafana-User header with username into the request, default is false.

[analytics]

reporting_enabled

When enabled Grafana will send anonymous usage statistics to stats.grafana.org. No IP addresses are being tracked, only simple counters to track running instances, versions, dashboard & error counts. It is very helpful to us, so please leave this enabled. Counters are sent every 24 hours. Default value is true.

google_analytics_ua_id

If you want to track Grafana usage via Google analytics specify your Universal Analytics ID here. By default this feature is disabled.

check_for_updates

Set to false to disable all checks to https://grafana.com for new versions of installed plugins and to the Grafana GitHub repository to check for a newer version of Grafana. The version information is used in some UI views to notify that a new Grafana update or a plugin update exists. This option does not cause any auto updates, nor send any sensitive information. The check is run every 10 minutes.

[dashboards]

versions_to_keep

Number dashboard versions to keep (per dashboard). Default: 20, Minimum: 1.

[dashboards.json]

This have been replaced with dashboards provisioning in 5.0+

enabled

true or false. Is disabled by default.

path

The full path to a directory containing your json dashboards.

[smtp]

Email server settings.

enabled

defaults to false

host

defaults to localhost:25

user

In case of SMTP auth, defaults to empty

password

In case of SMTP auth, defaults to empty

cert_file

File path to a cert file, defaults to empty

key_file

File path to a key file, defaults to empty

skip_verify

Verify SSL for smtp server? defaults to false

from_address

Address used when sending out emails, defaults to admin@grafana.localhost

from_name

Name to be used when sending out emails, defaults to Grafana

ehlo_identity

Name to be used as client identity for EHLO in SMTP dialog, defaults to instance_name.

[log]

mode

Either “console”, “file”, “syslog”. Default is console and file Use space to separate multiple modes, e.g. “console file”

level

Either “debug”, “info”, “warn”, “error”, “critical”, default is “info”

filters

optional settings to set different levels for specific loggers. Ex filters = sqlstore:debug

[metrics]

enabled

Enable metrics reporting. defaults true. Available via HTTP API /metrics.

basic_auth_username

If set configures the username to use for basic authentication on the metrics endpoint.

basic_auth_password

If set configures the password to use for basic authentication on the metrics endpoint.

interval_seconds

Flush/Write interval when sending metrics to external TSDB. Defaults to 10s.

[metrics.graphite]

Include this section if you want to send internal Grafana metrics to Graphite.

address

Format <Hostname or ip>:port

prefix

Graphite metric prefix. Defaults to prod.grafana.%(instance_name)s.

[snapshots]

external_enabled

Set to false to disable external snapshot publish endpoint (default true)

external_snapshot_url

Set root url to a Grafana instance where you want to publish external snapshots (defaults to https://snapshots-origin.raintank.io)

external_snapshot_name

Set name for external snapshot button. Defaults to Publish to snapshot.raintank.io

snapshot_remove_expired

Enabled to automatically remove expired snapshots

[external_image_storage]

These options control how images should be made public so they can be shared on services like slack.

provider

You can choose between (s3, webdav, gcs, azure_blob, local). If left empty Grafana will ignore the upload action.

[external_image_storage.s3]

bucket

Bucket name for S3. e.g. grafana.snapshot

region

Region name for S3. e.g. ‘us-east-1’, ‘cn-north-1’, etc

path

Optional extra path inside bucket, useful to apply expiration policies

bucket_url

(for backward compatibility, only works when no bucket or region are configured) Bucket URL for S3. AWS region can be specified within URL or defaults to ‘us-east-1’, e.g. - http://grafana.s3.amazonaws.com/ - https://grafana.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/

access_key

Access key. e.g. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Access key requires permissions to the S3 bucket for the ‘s3:PutObject’ and ‘s3:PutObjectAcl’ actions.

secret_key

Secret key. e.g. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[external_image_storage.webdav]

url

Url to where Grafana will send PUT request with images

public_url

Optional parameter. Url to send to users in notifications. If the string contains the sequence ${file}, it will be replaced with the uploaded filename. Otherwise, the file name will be appended to the path part of the url, leaving any query string unchanged.

username

basic auth username

password

basic auth password

[external_image_storage.gcs]

key_file

Path to JSON key file associated with a Google service account to authenticate and authorize. Service Account keys can be created and downloaded from https://console.developers.google.com/permissions/serviceaccounts.

Service Account should have “Storage Object Writer” role. The access control model of the bucket needs to be “Set object-level and bucket-level permissions”. Grafana itself will make the images public readable.

bucket

Bucket Name on Google Cloud Storage.

path

Optional extra path inside bucket

[external_image_storage.azure_blob]

account_name

Storage account name

account_key

Storage account key

container_name

Container name where to store “Blob” images with random names. Creating the blob container beforehand is required. Only public containers are supported.

[alerting]

enabled

Defaults to true. Set to false to disable alerting engine and hide Alerting from UI.

execute_alerts

Makes it possible to turn off alert rule execution.

error_or_timeout

Available in 5.3 and above

Default setting for new alert rules. Defaults to categorize error and timeouts as alerting. (alerting, keep_state)

nodata_or_nullvalues

Available in 5.3 and above

Default setting for how Grafana handles nodata or null values in alerting. (alerting, no_data, keep_state, ok)

concurrent_render_limit

Available in 5.3 and above

Alert notifications can include images, but rendering many images at the same time can overload the server. This limit will protect the server from render overloading and make sure notifications are sent out quickly. Default value is 5.

evaluation_timeout_seconds

Default setting for alert calculation timeout. Default value is 30

notification_timeout_seconds

Default setting for alert notification timeout. Default value is 30

max_attempts

Default setting for max attempts to sending alert notifications. Default value is 3

[panels]

disable_sanitize_html

If set to true Grafana will allow script tags in text panels. Not recommended as it enable XSS vulnerabilities. Default is false. This settings was introduced in Grafana v6.0.

[plugins]

enable_alpha

Set to true if you want to test alpha plugins that are not yet ready for general usage.

Removed options

Please note that these options have been removed.

[session]

Removed starting from Grafana v6.2. Please use remote_cache option instead.

provider

Valid values are memory, file, mysql, postgres, memcache or redis. Default is file.

provider_config

This option should be configured differently depending on what type of session provider you have configured.

  • file: session file path, e.g. data/sessions
  • mysql: go-sql-driver/mysql dsn config string, e.g. user:password@tcp(127.0.0.1:3306)/database_name
  • postgres: ex: user=a password=b host=localhost port=5432 dbname=c sslmode=verify-full
  • memcache: ex: 127.0.0.1:11211
  • redis: ex: addr=127.0.0.1:6379,pool_size=100,prefix=grafana. For unix socket, use for example: network=unix,addr=/var/run/redis/redis.sock,pool_size=100,db=grafanaPostgres valid sslmode are disable, require, verify-ca, and verify-full (default).

The name of the Grafana session cookie.

Set to true if you host Grafana behind HTTPS only. Defaults to false.

session_life_time

How long sessions lasts in seconds. Defaults to 86400 (24 hours).