Lightstep Datasource for Streams

In August 2023, Lightstep became ServiceNow Cloud Observability. To ease the transition, all code artifacts will continue to use the Lightstep name. You don't need to do anything to keep using this plugin.

Lightstep datasource for streams in Grafana.

Looking for Lightstep metrics in Grafana? Check out the Lightstep Observability Datasource.

Requirements

• Grafana 7 (v1.1.9 or earlier) or Grafana 8 (v1.2.0 or later)
• Datasource configured with proxy mode (not direct).
• Unsigned plugin permissions for: lightstep-app,grafana-lightstep-datasource,grafana-lightstep-graph
• Lightstep streams
• Lightstep API Key with viewer role

Installing

1. Download the latest zip archive from the Releases page. Note that v1.2.0 and later are only compatible with Grafana 8.

2. Install the plugin from the zip archive, see Grafana documentation here.

3. Modify the allow_loading_unsigned_plugins property in grafana.ini to the following value (or set using the env var GF_PLUGINS_ALLOW_LOADING_UNSIGNED_PLUGINS):

[plugins]
allow_loading_unsigned_plugins = lightstep-app,grafana-lightstep-datasource,grafana-lightstep-graph

1. Provision the data source using a file or the Grafana UI. An example file for provisioning the plugin with a sample datasource can be found in the provisioning directory of this repository. Note that the API key, once set, is no longer visible in the UI.

2. Click "Save and Test" in the data source configuration page to confirm you can receive data from Lightstep.

Templating

See the Templating documentation for an introduction to the templating feature and the different types of template variables.

Query variable

The Lightstep datasource provides the following queries that you can specify in the Query field in the Variable edit view of Grafana.

Name	Description
attributes(name) attributes(stream_query)	Returns the Name or the Stream Query of all Streams. This is can be used with the Regex field in Grafana to build a dropdown
stream_ids(stream_query=~"regex") stream_ids(stream_query!=~"regex") stream_ids(stream_query="value") stream_ids(stream_query!="value")	Returns the Stream ID of all matching Streams. The datasource uses the Stream ID to request the timeseries data in the various panel/visualization.
stream_ids(name=~"regex") stream_ids(name!=~"regex") stream_ids(name="value") stream_ids(name!="value")	Returns the Stream ID of all matching Streams. The datasource uses the Stream ID to request the timeseries data in the various panel/visualization.

Using interval and range variables

It's possible to use some global built-in variables in the Resolution field. Currently, only $__range and $__interval are supported.

Testing

Running on docker for development and testing

It's possible to use the docker-compose.yml file in this repo to quickly install this plugin in a new instance of Grafana for development in testing. The docker-compose.yml configuration automatically provisions the plugin and creates a default datasource using the files in the provisioning directory.

  # install dependencies
  $ make install

  # build assets from source
  $ make build

  # create volume so you don't lose your config across container start/stops
  $ docker volume create grafana-data-lgp 

  $ edit `provisioning/datasources/lightstep.yaml` to point to your project/org

  # bring up docker connected to your API key
  $ export LIGHTSTEP_API_KEY=your_api_key
  $ docker-compose up

  # grafana is now running on localhost:3000

Using the CLI

  # Note: you will still need to manually provision the datasource and edit your grafana.ini file to allow unsigned plugins
  $ make release
  $ grafana-cli --pluginUrl ./lightstep-grafana-plugin-release.zip plugins install lightstep-app