A Better Dashboard for Big Screens

We explored how to create a dashboard with a graph and a single stat (semaphore). Both are based on similar queries, and the significant difference is in the way they display the results. We’ll assume that the primary purpose of the dashboard we started building is available on a big screen, visible to many, and not as something we keep open on our laptops. At least, not continuously.

Importing a dashboard #

What should be the primary purpose of such a dashboard? Before I answer that question, we’ll import a dashboard I created for this chapter.

Please click the + button from the left-hand menu and select Import. Type 9132 as the Grafana.com Dashboard and press the Load button. Select a Prometheus data source. Feel free to change any of the values to suit your needs. Nevertheless, you might want to postpone that until you get more familiar with the dashboard. In any case, click the Import button once you’re finished.