Grafana Snapshots

Create Grafana snapshots including data(!).

The application uses the Grafana HTTP API and its Python client grafana-client.

The aim of this tool is to:

1. Easily build snapshots from existing Grafana dashboard.
2. Export the snapshots to a local storage in JSON format so it can be sent, imported an visualized to a remote Grafana.
3. Import a snapshot in JSON format to a Grafana.

The development of this tool began when we discovered that there was no solution to automate the creation of snapshots from Grafana; only the functionality from the GUI was operational. That was a sticking point for us since it prevented us from being able to provide reports other than mannually build dashboards with statics screenshots. With this tool, we are able to build static dashboards, also called snapshots, that can be shared and visualized in grafana. It can be also used to store particular situation even if the data window is out of the scope of the retention of the datasource.

Install package

Install from PyPI.

pip3 install grafana-snapshots

Install from repository.

pip install git+https://github.com/grafana-toolbox/grafana-snapshots.git

Requirements:

• bash
• python >3.6
• python modules:
  • python_dateutil
  • setuptools
  • PyYaml
  • jinja2
  • grafana-client 2.0.0 what will pull the dependencies
    • requests
    • idna
    • urllib3
    • certifi
    • chardet
• Access to a Grafana API server.
• A Token of an Admin role (grafana APIKey).

Configuration

The configuration is stored in a YAML file.

It contains 3 parts:

• general: for script env.
  • debug: enable verbose (debug) trace (for dev only...)
  • snapshot_suffix: when generating or exporting a dashboard to snapshot, append that suffix to the snapshot name or file name. The suffix can contain plain text and pattern that is translated with strftime command.
  • output_path: where to store the exported snapshots.
• grafana: for grafana access settings
  • label: a label to refer a grafana server. There must be at least 'default' label. It is used to reference several Grafana server so you can generate from one and to import to another using different 'label'.
    • protocol, host, port: use to build the access url
    • verify_ssl: to check ssl certificate or not
    • token: APIKEY with admin right from Grafana to access the REST API.
    • search_api_limit: the maximum element to retrieve on search over API.
• context: to define default values for dashboards, time_from, time_to and values for variables that the data exposed in the dashboard are depending from. It is an object. Add a sub-object identified by the dashboard name, for each dashboard you want to add default value. Each object can contain:
  • time_from and time_to
  • an object called vars: the definitions of each variable with it's corresponding value.

Usages

build a directory structure:

• grafana-snapshosts/
  • conf/grafana-snapshots.json where your main configuration file is
  • snapshots/ where your exported snapshots will be stored.

usage:

grafana-snapshots -h
usage: grafana-snapshots [-h] [-b BASE_PATH] [-c CONFIG_FILE]
                         [-d DASHBOARD_NAME] [-F GRAFANA_FOLDER]
                         [-f TIME_FROM] [-g GRAFANA_LABEL] [-i IMPORT_FILE]
                         [-o CONTEXT_NAME] [-p] [-s SNAPSHOT_NAME]
                         [-t TIME_TO] [-v] [-V]
                         [ACTION]

then enter into your directory and type in you commands.

Example:

• generate a snapshot for the dashboard 'My dashboard' with default values for 'from' (now - 5 min) to 'now':

$ grafana-snapshots -d "My dashboard"
OK: new snapshot 'My_dashboard_202010241750.json' created.

then you can go into Grafana Gui and find the snapshot in dashboard/Manage/Snapshots part.

• export the dashboard 'My dashboard' with data from: 'now-1d' to 'now':

$ grafana-snapshots -d "My dashboard" -f "now-1d" export
OK: snapshot exported to './snapshots/My_dashboard_202010241750.json' exported.

then you can find the created file in the "snapshots" dir.

• import the file './snapshots/My_dashboard_202010241750.json' into Grafana

$ grafana-snapshots -f './snapshots/My_dashboard_202010241750.json' import
OK: snapshot './snapshots/My_dashboard_202010241750.json' imported.

then you can go into Grafana Gui and find the snapshot in dashboard/Manage/Snapshots part.

TODO - Known Limitations:

• actual snapshots can only contain a single set of variables/values.
• currently snapshots for Table doesn't work.
• repeat is not supported
• overrides are not used to modify values !
• changes with new version of Grafana (>7.5) have several impacts on the rendering of panels; a code review is required to improve the result.