July 2016 Summaries

Grafana 3.1.0 has been released, introducing several key features and improvements, including the ability to export and import dashboards in a more portable format, making sharing and importing easier without manual updates to data source names or metric prefixes. The release also ensures that the current time range and template variable values are always synced with the URL, facilitating easier sharing of specific views. A new feature allows users to send metrics about Grafana itself, configurable in the settings, with a dedicated dashboard available for internal metrics. The update includes changes to the logging format for better filtering and drops support for Graphite PNGs in favor of Grafana's native PNGs. Users are encouraged to share dashboards on Grafana.net, with detailed descriptions to enhance community collaboration. The release acknowledges contributions from the Grafana user community, emphasizing the collaborative effort in its development.

Raj Dutt, co-founder and CEO of raintank, Inc., discusses the company's commitment to reviving and supporting Graphite, a time series database originally developed by Chris Davis. Despite its age and some limitations, Graphite remains admired for its powerful query capabilities and open-source nature. However, concerns about its health and progress have surfaced, prompting raintank to collaborate with the Grafana community to rejuvenate the project. Efforts include improving the existing code base, launching a new website, offering enterprise support, and organizing community events. Jason Dixon, known for his dedication to Graphite, has joined raintank to focus on these initiatives. Additionally, raintank plans to introduce a hosted Graphite-compatible service and enhance performance by potentially rewriting parts of its API in Go. The company aims to ease the installation, tuning, and scaling challenges associated with large Graphite clusters and aligns these efforts with its mission to democratize metrics, emphasizing the need for community involvement to sustain Graphite's future.