New in Grafana 6.4: Loki Annotations

Grafana 6.4 introduced the ability to use Loki, a log aggregation system, as an annotations query source, enhancing the platform's capability to overlay events on graphs for better insights into system behavior. This update allows users to visualize not only logs but also less frequent events by either filtering existing log streams or manually sending events to Loki. Users can start by running a local Loki instance and using a bash script to push events, which are then visualized as annotations in Grafana dashboards. This integration provides a lightweight solution for adding valuable events to dashboards, offering deeper insights into application performance and system behavior. The process involves setting up Loki as a data source, using LogQL for querying, and configuring annotation queries in Grafana to display the desired events.