Create a Dashboard
Custom dashboards allow you to curate specific datasets into a single, cohesive view. Whether you are monitoring high-level infrastructure health or debugging a specific microservice, dashboards provide the visual context needed to make informed decisions.
Note
Custom dashboard creation is available on all OpsPilot plans.
Before you start
- Permissions - ensure your user profile has the necessary permissions to create and edit dashboards.
- Query knowledge - familiarise yourself with the query language of your target data source (LogQL for logs, PromQL for metrics, or TraceQL for traces).
Steps
Step 1 - On the All Dashboards page, click + New dashboard.
Step 2 - The new dashboard opens empty, with three ways to start:
- + Add visualization - add a panel: pick a data source, query your data, and choose a chart type.
- + Add library panel - reuse a visualization shared across other dashboards.
- Import dashboard - import a dashboard from a file or grafana.com.
The dashboard header also carries Add (add panels and rows), Settings, Save dashboard, the time picker, and Refresh.
Step 3 - Click + Add visualization.
Step 4 - In the dialog box that opens, do one of the following:
- Select one of your existing data sources.
- Select one of the built-in special data sources.
- Click Configure a new data source to set up a new one (Admins only).
Info
The Edit panel view initially displays your chosen data source. You can modify the panel data source at any time using the drop-down in the Query tab.
Step 5 - Construct a query in the query language of your data source.
Step 6 - Select the Refresh dashboard icon to query the data source.
Step 7 - In the visualization list, select a visualization type.
Step 8 - Under Panel options, enter a title and description for your panel.
Step 9 - Adjust panel settings as needed. Refer to the following for options:
- Configure value mappings
- Visualization-specific options
- Override field values
- Configure thresholds
- Configure standard options
Step 10 - Click Save dashboard in the header to open the Save dashboard dialog.
Step 11 - On the Details tab, enter a Title and an optional Description, and choose a Folder. The Changes tab shows what you have changed since the last save.
Step 12 - Click Save.
Step 13 - To add more panels, click Add in the dashboard header and select Visualization.
Visualization types
OpsPilot offers a variety of visualizations to support different use cases.
Graphs & charts
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Timeseries | Default graph visualization for time-based data. |
| State timeline | For state changes over time. |
| Status history | For periodic state over time. |
| Bar chart | Shows any categorical data. |
| Histogram | Calculates and shows value distribution in a bar chart. |
| Heatmap | Visualizes data in two dimensions, typically for magnitude of a phenomenon. |
| Pie chart | Typically used where proportionality is important. |
| Candlestick | Typically for financial data where the focus is price/data movement. |
Stats & numbers
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Stat | Big stat display with optional sparkline. |
| Bar gauge | Horizontal or vertical bar gauge. |
Learn more
See the Grafana visualization docs for the full list of available types.
Need more help?
Contact support in the chat bubble and let us know how we can assist.