Grafana rev 03

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Grafana is a monitoring and visualization frontend packaged as an LXC container Small Update for the storage server. Once installed, it provides interactive dashboards for system health, ZFS storage metrics, storage I/O statistics, and hardware sensor data collected from the appliance.

Note: Grafana is delivered as an optional Small Update (the xc-grafana module). This article describes revision 03. If your system was updated to a newer revision, refer to the matching Extension:Grafana_rev_NN article.

How it works

Grafana reads metrics from a Prometheus database (provided by the xc-prometheus companion module) that is continuously populated by the metrics exporters running on the storage server (provided by the x-metrics-exp module). Grafana itself does not collect metrics — it only queries and visualises them.

The full data flow is:

  • The storage server runs a Node Exporter (system and ZFS metrics) and an IPMI Exporter (hardware sensor metrics).
  • The exporters write metrics into the Prometheus database on the appliance.
  • Grafana reads from Prometheus and renders the dashboards in the browser.

All three modules (x-metrics-exp, xc-prometheus, and xc-grafana) must be installed for the dashboards to display data.

Accessing Grafana

From the GUI launchpad

Click the Grafana icon in the storage server GUI launchpad. The dashboard opens in a new browser tab at: 

 https://<storage-server-address>:3000/

Directly in a browser

Navigate to https://<storage-server-address>:3000/ in any browser. Accept the certificate warning if the storage server uses a self-signed certificate.

Signing in

Access to Grafana is protected by the storage server administrator login. The experience differs depending on whether the Two-Factor Authentication extension (oe_2fa) is also installed.

With Two-Factor Authentication installed

  1. The browser displays the storage server login screen.
  2. Enter the storage server administrator password and the current 6-digit TOTP code.
  3. After the credentials are verified, you are signed in to Grafana automatically as an administrator. No separate Grafana login is required.

Without Two-Factor Authentication

  1. The browser shows a Basic Auth prompt.
  2. Enter the storage server administrator username and password.
  3. After the password is accepted, you are signed in to Grafana automatically as an administrator.

In both cases, signing in lands you directly in Grafana with full administrator access. There is no separate Grafana account or password to manage.

Signing out

Click Sign out in the Grafana side menu. This returns you to the login screen. The session is managed by the authentication gate on the appliance, not by Grafana itself.

Available dashboards

Four dashboards are pre-provisioned and ready to use after installation:

Dashboard Description
Main Overall storage server health: CPU, memory, network, and filesystem utilisation.
ZFS Pool Metrics ZFS pool capacity, fragmentation, read/write throughput, IOPS, error counters, and per-vdev I/O latency distributions.
Storage I/O Statistics Block device I/O throughput and latency.
IPMI Exporter Hardware sensor readings via IPMI: temperatures, fan speeds, voltages, and power consumption.

Dashboards are read-only by default. Administrators may add panels or create additional dashboards, but changes to pre-provisioned dashboards cannot be saved in place — create a copy to preserve customisations.

Reference

Item Value
Access URL https://<storage-server-address>:3000/
Protocol HTTPS (uses the storage server GUI certificate)
Authentication Storage server administrator password (+ TOTP if Two-Factor Authentication is installed)
Grafana role after login Administrator
Metrics source Prometheus on the appliance (localhost:9090)
Dashboards location (inside container) /etc/grafana/provisioning/dashboards/
Grafana configuration (inside container) /etc/grafana/grafana.ini

Maintenance

Checking service status

From the storage server shell, check whether the Grafana container is running: 

 ssh localhost lxc-ls -f

The grafana container should show state RUNNING.

Viewing logs

Connect to the container console and inspect the Grafana service log: 

 journalctl -u grafana-server --no-pager -n 50

Updates

Do not run system package updates inside the container. Updates are delivered as new container revisions through the standard small-update mechanism.

Known issues and limitations

  • All three companion modules must be installed. Grafana requires both the x-metrics-exp (metrics exporters) and xc-prometheus (Prometheus database) Small Updates. If either is missing, the dashboards will show No data for all panels.
  • No in-container package updates. Running apt upgrade or similar inside the container is not supported due to disk space constraints. Updates are delivered as new container revisions.
  • Self-signed certificate warning. If the storage server uses a self-signed TLS certificate, the browser will display a certificate warning on the first visit. Accept the exception to proceed; the connection is still encrypted.
  • Dashboard customisations are not persistent across revisions. Changes made to pre-provisioned dashboards are reset when a new container revision is installed. Save any customisations as separate dashboard copies before updating.

Changelog

rev 03

  • New sign-in: access is protected by the storage server administrator login through the appliance authentication gate — administrator password, plus a TOTP code when the Two-Factor Authentication extension is installed. You are signed in to Grafana directly as administrator (single sign-on), and Sign out is now supported. The previous LDAP-based login was removed.
  • Now delivered as a Small Update.
  • Upgraded to Grafana v12.3.2.
  • Prometheus moved to its own xc-prometheus companion module (queried via localhost:9090); InfluxDB removed — the metrics stack now uses Prometheus exclusively.
  • Updated ZFS Pool Metrics dashboard (Prometheus datasource).

rev 02

  • Earlier revision of the Grafana monitoring container.

For further customization or troubleshooting, refer to the upstream Grafana documentation or contact Open-E support.

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