Connect to Grafana with Terraform

This guide uses the official Grafana Terraform provider version 4.x or later.

Use the Grafana Terraform provider (opens in a new tab) to manage your Logit.io Grafana instance as infrastructure as code. This allows you to version control dashboards, create folders, and automate your observability setup.

Prerequisites

Terraform (opens in a new tab) v1.0 or later installed
Your Logit.io Grafana credentials from Profile Settings (opens in a new tab)

⚠️

You will need to update any placeholder variables with your Stack and Proxy Auth details.

Create Project Structure

Create a new directory for your Terraform configuration:

mkdir grafana-terraform && cd grafana-terraform

Create the following file structure:

grafana-terraform/
├── versions.tf
├── variables.tf
├── provider.tf
├── main.tf
└── dashboards/
    └── cpu-metrics.json

Configure Terraform Versions

Create versions.tf to specify the required providers:

versions.tf

terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.0"
 
  required_providers {
    grafana = {
      source  = "grafana/grafana"
      version = "~> 4.0"
    }
  }
}

Define Variables

Create variables.tf with your Logit.io credentials:

variables.tf

variable "grafana_url" {
  description = "Logit.io Grafana URL"
  type        = string
  default     = "https://grafana.logit.io/s/@metrics_id"
}
 
variable "grafana_auth" {
  description = "Grafana authentication in format 'username:password' or API token from Logit.io Profile Settings"
  type        = string
  sensitive   = true
  default     = "@proxyAuthSetting.username:@proxyAuthSetting.password"
}

Configure the Provider

Create provider.tf to configure the Grafana provider:

provider.tf

provider "grafana" {
  url  = var.grafana_url
  auth = var.grafana_auth
}

Create Resources

Create main.tf with your Grafana resources:

main.tf

# Create a folder to organize dashboards
resource "grafana_folder" "my_app" {
  title = "My Application Dashboards"
}
 
# Create a dashboard from a JSON file
resource "grafana_dashboard" "cpu_metrics" {
  folder      = grafana_folder.my_app.id
  config_json = file("${path.module}/dashboards/cpu-metrics.json")
}
 
# Output the dashboard URL
output "dashboard_url" {
  value = grafana_dashboard.cpu_metrics.url
}

Create a Dashboard JSON

Create dashboards/cpu-metrics.json with a sample dashboard:

dashboards/cpu-metrics.json

{
  "title": "CPU Metrics Dashboard",
  "tags": ["metrics", "cpu", "terraform"],
  "timezone": "browser",
  "schemaVersion": 38,
  "panels": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "title": "CPU Usage",
      "type": "timeseries",
      "gridPos": {
        "x": 0,
        "y": 0,
        "w": 12,
        "h": 8
      },
      "datasource": {
        "type": "prometheus",
        "uid": "${DS_PROMETHEUS}"
      },
      "targets": [
        {
          "expr": "100 - cpu_usage_idle{host=~\"$host\"}",
          "legendFormat": "{{host}}",
          "refId": "A"
        }
      ],
      "fieldConfig": {
        "defaults": {
          "unit": "percent",
          "min": 0,
          "max": 100
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "title": "CPU Usage by Core",
      "type": "timeseries",
      "gridPos": {
        "x": 12,
        "y": 0,
        "w": 12,
        "h": 8
      },
      "datasource": {
        "type": "prometheus",
        "uid": "${DS_PROMETHEUS}"
      },
      "targets": [
        {
          "expr": "100 - cpu_usage_idle{host=~\"$host\", cpu!=\"cpu-total\"}",
          "legendFormat": "{{host}} - {{cpu}}",
          "refId": "A"
        }
      ],
      "fieldConfig": {
        "defaults": {
          "unit": "percent",
          "min": 0,
          "max": 100
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "templating": {
    "list": [
      {
        "name": "host",
        "type": "query",
        "query": "label_values(cpu_usage_idle, host)",
        "refresh": 1,
        "multi": true,
        "includeAll": true
      }
    ]
  }
}

Initialize and Apply

Run Terraform to create your resources:

# Initialize Terraform
terraform init
 
# Preview changes
terraform plan
 
# Apply changes
terraform apply

Verify in Grafana

After applying, Terraform will output the dashboard URL. You can also find your new folder and dashboard in your Logit.io Grafana instance by clicking Launch Metrics from your dashboard.

Additional Resources

Import Existing Dashboards

To manage existing dashboards with Terraform, use the import command:

terraform import grafana_dashboard.existing "<DASHBOARD_UID>"

Useful Terraform Resources

Resource	Description
`grafana_folder`	Create folders to organize dashboards
`grafana_dashboard`	Create dashboards from JSON
`grafana_data_source`	Configure data sources
`grafana_notification_policy`	Set up alerting notification policies
`grafana_contact_point`	Configure alert contact points