Grafana Variables

Introduction

You can implement variables in the DataSet Grafana integration. These are useful because they allow you to create more interactive and dynamic dashboards. Instead of hard-coding things like path, cluster, and host names within your dashboard queries, you can utilize defined parameters. This is similar to using substitution tokens within a DataSet dashboard. Variables are displayed as dropdown lists at the top of the dashboard. 

Instructions

This guide expands upon the example dashboard that we configured in the Grafana Data Source Plugin article.

1. Update dashboard settings - From the dashboard, click the configuration icon at the upper right
2. On the "Settings" page, click the "Variables" link and the "Add Variable" button
   
3. Set up a variable as follows:
   
   1. Specify a name for your variable -- logfile_list was chosen for this example
   2. Select the "Custom" type
   3. In the "Custom options -> Values separated by comma" field, add the values you wish to use, delimited by commas
   4. Select the "Include All" option if you want the graph to display combined results
   5. The "Custom all value" allows you to specify the values which are included. In this case, I used a value of * (the equivalent of your_parameter=* within a DataSet search or graph query)
4. Update the query associated with your dashboard panel(s):
   
   1. The forlogfile field now references the selected value of the Grafana logfile_list variable we just defined
   2. The forlogfile field does not use a quote / double quote for its value, since:
      1. We included the quotes within the logfile_list variable, and
      2. No quotes are used with the * wildcard (ex. forlogfile=*)
5. For general information on Grafana variables see the Grafana documentation
   1. Queries support all Grafana variable substitution syntaxes, for example:

      $varname
      [[varname]]
      ${varname:option}

   2. For multi-value variables there is a custom default substitution method, the values will be quoted and separated with commas, for example:

      "value1","value2","value3"

   3. The expected use of multi-value variables is for in queries, for example:

      serverHost=($host)

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