July 2017 Summaries

In this edition of timeShift, the focus is on introducing new plugins and updating existing ones for Grafana, a popular analytics platform. The edition highlights new plugins such as the Annunciator Panel, which enhances data visualization by summarizing timeseries data with colored thresholds, and GLPi, an asset management and ticketing system that integrates into Grafana. Updates have been made to plugins like Hawkular, which now features a new tag query language, SimpleJson with enhanced credential support, and Zabbix with a direct database connection and new functions for data aggregation. Additionally, the newsletter acknowledges contributions from developers like Mitsuhiro Tanda for their enhancements to Grafana's Cloudwatch data source, and features an innovative user-created dashboard integrating Battlefield game stats into Grafana. Readers are encouraged to provide feedback and engage with the Grafana community through various platforms.

In this edition of timeShift, a weekly newsletter focused on the Grafana community, readers are introduced to a range of topics including building custom plugins, setting up dashboards, and configuring alerting features. Highlights include an exploration of useful Grafana dashboards for monitoring Kubernetes, insights into creating server-less Grafana adapters using AWS Lambda and API Gateway, and a guide to monitoring JMeter Non-GUI results with minimal setup. Additionally, the newsletter showcases community contributions, such as a new bubble chart panel plugin and updates to the Zabbix data source, while also recognizing contributors like Dhia for their work on the Elasticsearch data source. The issue also features a tweet from a community member about a newly updated load testing dashboard and promotes an upcoming event on IoT and home automation in Warsaw. The newsletter encourages feedback from readers to improve content and engagement.

The latest issue of timeShift features a variety of articles and insights related to Grafana, including a presentation by Grafana Labs software developer Alexander Zobnin on the evolution of Grafana and its features like templating and scripted dashboards. The newsletter also covers Kubernetes and Prometheus integration for autoscaling and monitoring, backing up Grafana dashboards using the grafcli Python tool, and scaling Graphite on AWS. Tutorials on integrating InfluxDB and Grafana for smart home monitoring and updating Matomy's monitoring stack for improved performance are highlighted. Readers are encouraged to explore Grafana's plugin ecosystem, which includes a new finance data source plugin, and are invited to share feedback and engage with the community through social media and upcoming events.

In the third issue of timeShift, Trent White discusses the release of Grafana v4.4, which introduces dashboard history and version control, thanks to contributions from Walmart Labs. The issue highlights a variety of Grafana-related articles, including a piece by Ariel Pisetzky from Taboola on choosing a reliable synthetic monitoring solution, as well as guides on visualizing smog sensor data, monitoring JMeter results, and utilizing Grafana with InfluxDB and cAdvisor for monitoring DC/OS nodes. The article also notes the success of Grafana's plugin architecture, with over 100,000 installations, and showcases several new plugins and dashboards that enhance performance metrics visualization. Additionally, the post recognizes Ryan McKinley as the Most Valuable Contributor for his contributions to Grafana and his development of multiple plugins. The issue concludes by inviting reader feedback to improve future editions and to engage with the Grafana community.

Grafana v4.4 introduces several new features and enhancements, most notably the Dashboard History feature co-developed with Walmart Labs, which adds version control to dashboards by saving copies each time they are modified. This allows for version comparisons and restorations, with a detailed JSON diff available for more comprehensive analysis. Other enhancements include improved functionalities for Elasticsearch, Sensu, CSV export formatting, and the Table Panel, as well as the addition of a DingDing Alert Notifier. Various minor enhancements and bug fixes, such as resolving issues with negative values in graph histograms, are also included in this release. Users are encouraged to download the update and explore more details in the Changelog, with gratitude expressed to the community for their contributions.