July 2018 Summaries

TimeShift's 54th issue highlights the release of Grafana v5.2.2, which includes bug fixes for Prometheus graphs, dashboard links, SQL connection leaks, and external plugin loading, among other improvements. It introduces the new Grafana Flux plugin, which allows users to monitor weather data using the openweathermap API. The newsletter delves into topics such as Docker daemon metrics collection, integrating ServiceNow's table API with Grafana, and using Raspberry Pi for temperature monitoring in brewing. It also discusses the updated OpenNMS Helm App, offering new features like "fallback" attribute support and query timeout configurations. Additionally, the issue previews upcoming events such as PromCon 2018 and the Sensu Summit, with Grafana Labs participating in talks and sponsorships. The section encourages community engagement and offers employment opportunities at Grafana Labs, inviting readers to share feedback and follow the company on social media.

Flux, a new functional query processing engine for InfluxDB, has been introduced, offering a more versatile and powerful approach to handling time series data compared to the previously utilized SQL-like query language. This development, spearheaded by InfluxData's co-founder Paul Dix, aims to unify the query language and API, simplifying the user experience by integrating batch processing and query execution into a single, consistent framework. The design of Flux prioritizes readability, flexibility, and ease of contribution, allowing for enhanced feature deployment and scalability. It is optimized for complex data manipulation, featuring advanced functionalities like anonymous functions and named parameters, and supports integration with Grafana through a newly developed plugin requiring Grafana v5.1 or higher. As part of InfluxDB's API 2.0 efforts, Flux enhances the ability to create multi-tenant environments with its stateless, containerizable query processors, and it is now available with the enterprise version of InfluxDB, with commercial support to follow.

TimeShift's Issue 53 from July 2018 highlights new updates and features for Grafana, including Elasticsearch alerting and native ARM builds, as well as a case study by PingCAP on using Grafana for troubleshooting TiDB clusters. The newsletter discusses enhancements to Docker images, Prometheus, and InfluxDB, and introduces new plugins such as the Akumuli data source and TrafficLight Panel. It also features tutorials on using Grafana for various applications, from monitoring ArangoDB to home automation with Raspberry Pi. Additionally, the issue promotes upcoming events like PromCon 2018 in Munich and the Sensu Summit in Portland, while also advertising open engineering positions at Grafana Labs and engaging with the community through social media and feedback platforms.

TimeShift Issue 52, authored by Trent White, highlights several significant developments and informative articles related to Grafana and its ecosystem. The latest stable release, Grafana 5.2.1, introduces new features such as Elasticsearch alerting, native builds for ARM platforms, Docker image improvements, and enhanced security options. The issue also explores various applications of Grafana, including visualizing Ballerina service metrics, enabling team autonomy with data, and analyzing the world's fastest internet connection using Grafana and Prometheus. Furthermore, it discusses the integration of SQL and NoSQL databases for monitoring, particularly using PostgreSQL and TimescaleDB. The newsletter promotes upcoming events, including conferences focused on Kubernetes monitoring and Prometheus monitoring mixins, and invites readers to engage with the Grafana community through social media and forums.

In this guest blog post by Anjana Fernando, readers are guided through the process of visualizing metrics from a Ballerina service using Grafana, highlighting the installation and configuration steps necessary for this integration. Ballerina, a cloud-native programming language designed for microservice development, is known for its observability features, which are crucial for understanding system deployment states. The post explains how Ballerina utilizes Prometheus for metrics collection and how Grafana, a leading analytics visualization tool, is employed to create dashboards that display these metrics. Additionally, the post details how to set up a simple Ballerina service, configure Prometheus for metrics collection, and use Docker to run both Prometheus and Grafana. The visualization process is enhanced by Grafana's ability to query and display data from multiple sources, making it a robust solution for monitoring Ballerina services. The blog also mentions an invitation to the upcoming Ballerinacon event, offering Grafana community members access with a free ticket.

At GrafanaCon EU, a panel discussion featuring representatives from prominent Time Series Database (TSDB) projects, including Timescale, Graphite, InfluxDB, and Prometheus, explored the state of TSDBs and the evolution of their query languages. The panelists, moderated by Grafana Labs co-founder Raj Dutt, debated the merits of SQL versus functional query languages, with InfluxDB's Paul Dix highlighting the elegance of functional approaches for advanced use cases, while recognizing SQL's accessibility for beginners. The discussion also covered the widespread adoption of PromQL due to its balance of conciseness and expressiveness, despite Prometheus lacking commercial backing, which Tom Wilkie from Prometheus argued fosters ecosystem development. The panelists acknowledged that different query languages have unique strengths, making it essential to select the right tool for each task, and emphasized the importance of interoperability and collaboration among different TSDB projects, with ongoing efforts to enhance features like continuous update queries.