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Automate Grafana Reports - Skedler

The Ultimate Guide to Automate Daily Grafana Reports

Wondering how to efficiently automate Grafana reports for streamlined business insights? Companies leverage Grafana not just for monitoring IT infrastructure but also for crafting essential operational insights crucial for daily business health assessments. Grafana’s visually engaging dashboards present business data in an easily digestible format.

Reporting with Grafana allows you to efficiently organize and share metrics, empowering stakeholders and internal teams to make informed, data-driven decisions. Crafting metrics for various projects can be complex, requiring multiple steps to consolidate data into a unified view. Automating the reporting process is essential to save valuable time and increase productivity. 

When considering the automation of daily Grafana reporting, two primary options stand out: Grafana Enterprise Reporting and Skedler. In the forthcoming sections of this article, we will conduct a comprehensive exploration of both these choices, providing an in-depth analysis of their respective advantages and disadvantages. This detailed examination will equip you with the insights needed to make an informed decision on which solution best aligns with your reporting requirements.

All About Grafana Reports: Unveiling the Possibilities

Can Grafana generate reports? 

Yes, but not in the open-source version. You can only generate reports if you have Grafana Cloud Pro or Advanced or in Grafana Enterprise versions. 

How do I export a Grafana report? How often is a report generated in Grafana? 

Grafana allows you to generate PDF reports from your dashboards and email them to stakeholders on a schedule. Scheduled reports can be sent once on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis, or even at custom intervals. you can configure company-wide report settings in the Settings tab on the reporting page. Grafana also lets you customise your reports

How do I get a Grafana Report?

3 major components of Grafana will help you implement and understand metrics: panels, dashboards, and reports.

The panel is the first and most important component in Grafana that represents data visualization. With a panel, you can create a graph/plot that visualizes the given metric or several metrics.

The dashboard is just a collection of different panels. Having a collection of different panels on a single dashboard will help you analyze related metrics together and understand how the business is doing.

You can then generate reports of these dashboards and share them with your stakeholders in a pdf format. This facility is available only in Grafana Cloud Pro and Advanced and in Grafana Enterprise.

You can configure template variables for the dashboard on the report page for each report. But this is only available in Grafana Enterprise version 7.5+. You can also include dynamic dashboards with panels or rows, set to repeat by a variable, into reports which are only available from Grafana Enterprise version 8.0+.

You can also attach a CSV file along with the PDF report email for the selected dashboard but this feature is available on Grafana Enterprise version 8.0+ provided you have installed an image rendering plugin.

 

Prerequisites

Before sending reports using Grafana, ensure you have configured your SMTP. Additionally, install the image rendering plugin. By default, reports utilize the time range of the dashboard, but you can modify the time range by saving adjustments to the dashboard or setting a custom time range via the Time Range field in the report form.

.Grafana Reporting

 

Can Grafana send Email Reports?

In Grafana Enterprise version 7.2 and beyond, you can send customized email reports to stakeholders. These reports can feature your company logo in the PDF, allowing for a branded email header and footer with custom URL links.

Limitations of Grafana Reporting

While Grafana Enterprise offers some great benefits, it has a few limitations:

  • Restricted Report Layouts: Grafana confines users to four basic report layouts: Simple Portrait, Simple Landscape, Grid Portrait, and Grid Landscape. This limited selection may restrict the visual representation of your data.

  • Notification Limitations: Notification options are confined to the email SMTP channel, limiting the avenues for alerting stakeholders or team members.

  • Basic Report Customization: Customizing reports in Grafana is a somewhat basic affair. The available customization options may not meet the diverse needs of users seeking more intricate and tailored reports.

  • Grafana Variable Support: While Grafana variables are supported in the Enterprise version 7.5 and above, their functionality is somewhat restricted. Users can override dashboard variables with custom values, but this feature may not cater to advanced use cases.

  • Absence of Burst Reporting: Grafana lacks support for burst reports, meaning you cannot generate multiple personalized reports for different recipients from a single dashboard. This limitation hinders the flexibility required for varied reporting needs.

  • Basic Scheduling Capability: Scheduling reports in Grafana is a relatively straightforward process. However, the tool lacks advanced scheduling options, such as scheduling reports exclusively on workdays or generating yearly reports.

  • Error Handling Challenges: Grafana’s reporting functionality lacks robust error handling. In the event that a report fails to generate, there is no notification or error message provided to help users identify and address the root cause promptly.

  • High Licensing Cost: Last but not least, the cost of a Grafana Enterprise Stack license is quite significant.

Automate Grafana Reports with Skedler

Skedler streamlines the process of generating professional reports and distributing them to stakeholders. Download Skedler, follow the step-by-step installation guide, and configure it effortlessly in VMs or containers. In configuring and generating reports with Skedler, start by selecting a Grafana dashboard; Skedler will automatically discover all existing dashboards for you.

Now, we will take you through configuring and generating reports with Skedler. The Grafana dashboard forms the basis of the scheduled report. Skedler will automatically discover all the existing Grafana dashboards for you. You just need to select one dashboard for your report.

  • Fill in your Grafana URL and authentication data to connect Skedler to your Grafana.Grafana Reporting Tool Skedler
  • Create a report by clicking the top right button in the main dashboard and selecting Visual Report to create PDF reports
Grafana report automation: Create Grafana reports with Skedler
  • Drag and drop a chart, the size that the chart/graph pops up in what we call “True Size”, the size of the chart in the Grafana dashboard. You can easily move and resize them as well. 
How to automate grafana reports: create customized reports
  • Schedule your report

You can schedule your reports to get generated daily, weekly monthly, or even for a custom time frame as per your requirement. You can also choose from a variety of report formats from PDF, CSV, PNG, or HTML

Schedule your reports with Skedler
  • The next step is to distribute your reports to your stakeholders. Choose if you want to create an email notification channel or a Slack notification channel.
Select Mail or slack as notification channels with Skedler

Fill in the respective information for the email or Slack channels, and click save in the bottom right corner. You can customize who receives the report, subject, and message that accompanies the report.

The Advantages of Skedler Reports

  • Effortless Installation and Configuration: Skedler boasts a swift installation process and user-friendly configuration, ensuring a seamless setup.

  • Compatibility Across Grafana Versions: Regardless of your Grafana version, Skedler seamlessly integrates to enhance your reporting capabilities.

  • Comprehensive Format Support: Skedler goes beyond boundaries, supporting various formats including PDF, Excel/CSV/HTML, and PNG reports for versatile reporting options.

  • Customizable Layouts with Rich Templates: Elevate the value of your data by customizing layouts with Skedler’s rich templates, tailored to suit your unique reporting needs.

  • Branding Integration: Infuse your brand identity into every report with Skedler’s branding feature, ensuring a professional and cohesive representation.

  • Personalized Reports from a Single Dashboard: Craft personalized reports for different recipients efficiently, all from a single, user-friendly dashboard.

  • Flexible Scheduling and Distribution: Experience unparalleled flexibility in scheduling and distribution, allowing you to tailor reporting processes to your specific organizational requirements.

  • Versatile Deployment Options: Skedler supports multiple deployment options, including Docker, offering flexibility in adapting to diverse IT environments.

  • Compatibility with Grafana On-Prem and Grafana Cloud: Whether On-Prem or on the Cloud, Skedler seamlessly collaborates with Grafana to cater to your preferred deployment environment.

  • Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Skedler ensures data security with Role-Based Access Control, allowing you to monitor and control user access effectively.

  • Robust Error Handling and Notification Mechanisms: Skedler prioritizes reliability, featuring robust error handling and notification mechanisms to keep you informed and in control.

To know more about Grafana reporting using Skedler, check this reporting guide. 

Conclusion

So, we’ve covered how Grafana paints a neat picture for visualizing and tracking metrics, offering scheduled PDF reports for stakeholders. But here’s the scoop – it’s a bit pricey and it has some limitations. Skedler is the best option if you are looking for a solution to automate your Grafana reports.

Not only does Skedler match Grafana’s prowess in reporting, but it elevates the experience to new heights. Burst reporting, diverse distribution channels, and robust error handling converge to streamline the report creation process seamlessly. Its efficiency is complemented by an economic appeal, ensuring your financial considerations remain intact.

Are you ready for an upgrade? Immerse yourself in the Skedler experience and say goodbye to the intricacies of reporting. Explore our refined Skedler for tailored Grafana reports – where the cost is justified, and the features are enhanced. 

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