Visualize Hydrolix Data in Grafana

You can use Grafana to visualize data stored in your Hydrolix Cluster. The following instructions first create a new instance of Grafana in EC2, then install the Clickhouse plugin to communicate with Hydrolix, then connect Grafana to Hydrolix.

Create Grafana Instance

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Already Running Grafana?

If you already have an instance of Grafana running, you can skip this section. However, you should configure your Grafana instance to allow communication with Hydrolix.

First, you'll need a VPC with public access and access to Hydrolix (either through a load balancer or via a public IP).

1. Within that VPC, launch an EC2 instance with the following attributes:

   Parameter	Setting
   OS	Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS (HVM), SSD Volume Type
   Instance type	t2.micro
   Subnet	Choose "public" and assign a public IP.
   Security group	Default SSH access. Add access to the default Grafana port, 3000.
   Access	Choose a key pair.

   Use the default option for all other settings.

2. Click Launch instance to create your EC2 instance.

   

3. After you launch your instance, you can connect to it and use it. Once the instance is in the running state, connect to it via SSH:

   Shell

   ssh <my-instance-url>
   

4. Update the package list:

   Shell

   sudo apt-get update
   

   Then, upgrade the packages to the latest available version with the built-in package manager

   Shell

   sudo apt-get upgrade
   

5. Next, we'll install prerequisite software required to install Grafana:

   First, apt-transport-https:

   Shell

   sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https
   

   Second, software-properties-common and wget:

   Shell

   sudo apt-get install software-properties-common wget
   

6. Use wget to download Grafana's GPG key:

   Shell

   wget -q -O - https://packages.grafana.com/gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
   echo "deb https://packages.grafana.com/oss/deb stable main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/grafana.list
   

   And update the package list again:

   Shell

   sudo apt-get update
   

7. Finally, install Grafana:

   Shell

   sudo apt-get install grafana
   

Install Clickhouse Plugin

1. Run the following command to install the Clickhouse plugin required to connect to Hydrolix:

   Shell

   sudo grafana-cli plugins install vertamedia-clickhouse-datasource
   

2. Before Grafana runs the plugin, you must add it to the grafana.ini configuration file. Open the file with administrator permissions:

   Shell

   sudo vim /etc/grafana/grafana.ini
   

   Add the following text at the end of the [plugins] block:

   grafana.ini

   allow_loading_unsigned_plugins=vertamedia-clickhouse-datasource
   

3. Restart Grafana:

   Shell

   sudo systemctl restart grafana-server
   

   You can verify that Grafana is running with the following command:

   Shell

   sudo systemctl status grafana-server
   

Connect Grafana to Hydrolix

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Admin Access Required

You must have administrator access to your Grafana instance for this step.

Follow the instructions in the Grafana documentation to add a new data source. In the list of available data source types, select the Clickhouse plugin.

In the HTTP section, enter your Hydrolix instance's URL with the path suffix /query/. For example, if your Hydrolix instance uses the URL https://my.hydrolix.io, you would enter the following URL: https://my.hydrolix.io/query/

Click Save and Test to verify the connection.

Add a Dashboard

1. Select the Clickhouse data source you created in the previous section.

2. Configure your query. Replace timestamps with $from AND $to.