Docker - Grafana Container Setup

Here I describe my setup of the Docker Grafana container. With Grafana you can create beautiful dashboards. For example, I use it to show interesting stocks but also to visualize data from Home Assistant sensors. Within Grafana I configured data sources for MariaDB (MySQL) and InfluxDB.

I run this Docker container on a Ubuntu VM that runs via [[ Proxmox VE ]]. I perform the following on the CLI.

Docker pull command:

docker pull grafana/grafana

Within my home folder I have created a Docker folder where I create a subfolder for each container:

cd ~
mkdir -p docker/grafana
cd docker/grafana

Also create a folder where the Grafana data files can be stored:

mkdir data

I use the Nano text editor to create a shell script:

sudo nano grafana_run.sh

With this shell script we are going to create the container. Copy the following into grafana_run.sh:

IDu=$(id -u $(logname)) # Saves the logged in user id in the IDu variable

docker run -d \
 --user $IDu \
 --name=grafana \
 --hostname=grafana \
 -p 3000:3000 \
 -v $PWD/data:/var/lib/grafana \
 -e TZ=Europe/Amsterdam \
 -e "GF_ANALYTICS_REPORTING_ENABLED=false" \
 -e "GF_INSTALL_PLUGINS=grafana-clock-panel,grafana-simple-json-datasource,grafana-googlesheets-datasource" \
 --restart unless-stopped \
 grafana/grafana

If necessary, adjust the following:

-p 3000:3000
Choose a port that is still available. Check this with netstat

-v $PWD/data:/var/lib/grafana
Choose the location for the Grafana data. In this example it is the data map we created

-e TZ=Europe/Amsterdam
Pick the right timezone

-e “GF_ANALYTICS_REPORTING_ENABLED=false”
With this environment variable you can override the default configuration. This setting will disable the sending of anonymous usage statistics

-e “GF_INSTALL_PLUGINS=grafana-clock-panel,grafana-simple-json-datasource,grafana-googlesheets-datasource”
Replace with the plugins you want to install. Some examples are the Clock Panel, Simple JSON Datasource and the Google Sheets Datasource

Exit Nano (CTRL-X) and save the changes.

Now create the container:

sudo sh grafana_run.sh

Check if the container is running properly.

See also my notes about updating containers with Portainer or via the CLI. With Synology’s Docker Application, updating a container is also very easy.

Using Grafana

Grafana can now be accessed via the following URL:

http://<IP DOCKER HOST>:3000/

Log in with the default username and password:

• Username: admin
• Password: admin
  Then you can change the password.

Now start configuring your data sources under Configuration!

Read other notes