February 2019 Summaries

Grafana v6.0 introduces significant advancements, including a new React platform for panels and plugins, enhancing the framework's future potential. Key features include the Explore tool for ad-hoc data exploration and troubleshooting, integration with Grafana Loki for log aggregation, and a redesigned panel editor for improved user experience. The release also sees Google Stackdriver as a core datasource and the Azure Monitor plugin becoming a built-in feature, supporting major cloud services. Additionally, enhancements in security, such as replacing user sessions with short-lived tokens and addressing CSRF and XSS vulnerabilities, make Grafana easier to deploy and operate. The update also includes a new Gauge panel, named color options for better accessibility, and support for provisioning alert notifiers through configuration files. The release aims to improve Grafana's usability, security, and integration capabilities across various data sources and environments.

Oracle has made its Cloud Infrastructure service data and metrics accessible for analysis using open-source tools, specifically highlighting the integration with Grafana, a leading open-source platform for analytics and monitoring. This integration addresses concerns about vendor lock-in and cloud sprawl by allowing users to visualize data from multiple sources on a single dashboard. The Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Data Source plugin for Grafana, developed in collaboration with the Grafana team, enables users to create detailed dashboards using both native and custom metrics from Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. To utilize this plugin, users must authenticate with Oracle's API through the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure CLI and configure Grafana to pull in and visualize the data. This setup facilitates a consolidated and dynamic view of cloud resources, aiding developers and enterprises in managing and monitoring their cloud environments more effectively.

TimeShift Issue 80, authored by Trent White, highlights the upcoming GrafanaCon in Los Angeles, offering limited general admission tickets and featuring sessions on real-time analytics, cloud-native observability, and SQL business analytics, alongside hands-on workshops. The newsletter also announces the stabilization of Grafana v6.0 Beta2, including minor fixes and enhancements, and encourages users to review the release notes for detailed information. Additionally, it spotlights a talk from GrafanaCon AMS 2018 on using Grafana for energy market forecasting and risk quantification, discusses a CERN article on Apache Spark performance dashboards, and provides a brief guide on monitoring Kubernetes clusters with Prometheus and Grafana. The newsletter also promotes a video tutorial for setting up a weather tracking station on a Raspberry Pi, offers updates on the Plotly panel and Zabbix App plugins, and invites potential hires to explore open positions at Grafana Labs. Feedback is welcomed through various social media channels and community forums.

Energy Weather, a German company that acts as an intermediary between meteorological data and the energy market, utilizes Grafana for visualizing weather forecasts to predict energy supply and demand fluctuations. During GrafanaCon 2018, Steffen Knott and Max von Roden discussed their application of Grafana in transforming complex weather data into comprehensible visualizations that aid energy producers and grid operators. The company processes weather forecasts using C# and creates time series data that are visualized through Grafana dashboards, facilitating real-time monitoring and forecasting for renewable energy production and market prices. Energy Weather's implementation of Grafana has evolved from internal analysis to a customer-facing solution, offering about 130 user-friendly dashboards that enhance decision-making in energy generation and market planning. Despite challenges with data volume, continuous updates to Grafana and InfluxDB have improved performance, allowing the company to expand its forecasting capabilities effectively.

TimeShift issue 79 highlights the upcoming GrafanaCon in Los Angeles, featuring sessions on real-time analytics, cloud-native observability, and SQL business analytics, alongside workshops on developing Grafana and its plugins. The release of Grafana v6.0 Beta1 introduces features like the Explore tool for ad-hoc metric queries, Google Hangouts Chat notifications for alerts, and enhanced support for Elasticsearch and InfluxDB. The blog section covers various use cases and integrations, such as visualizing heart rate data at a conference, using Prometheus and Grafana for monitoring, and integrating Couchbase with Grafana. The newsletter encourages participation in the Grafana community, highlights job opportunities at Grafana Labs, and showcases a tweet featuring impressive Grafana dashboards.

Grafana v6.0 Beta1 has been released, featuring significant updates such as a new data exploration interface, support for log data, and enhancements including alert notifications via Google Hangouts Chat, Elasticsearch pipeline aggregations, and time zone support for InfluxDB. The release is part of a broader ecosystem update that includes the upcoming GrafanaCon LA, where attendees can engage in talks and workshops on Grafana and its integrations with tools like Prometheus, Graphite, and Kubernetes. Additionally, the blog highlights the Grafana Loki project, automated monitoring practices, and the use of Grafana for displaying Octopus Deploy data, while also offering insights into plugin updates and career opportunities at Grafana Labs. The community is encouraged to provide feedback to improve the TimeShift newsletter and stay connected through social media platforms.