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Version: 0.6.5

Trace analytics with Grafana

In this tutorial, we will set up a Grafana Dashboard showing Quickwit traces using Docker Compose.

You only need a few minutes to get Grafana working with Quickwit and build meaningful dashboards.

Create a Docker Compose recipe​

Let's add a Quickwit instance with the OTLP service enabled.

version: '3.0'
services:
  quickwit:
    image: quickwit/quickwit
    environment:
      QW_ENABLE_OPENTELEMETRY_OTLP_EXPORTER: "true"
      OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT: "http://localhost:7281"
    ports:
      - 7280:7280
    command: ["run"]

Then we create a Grafana service with the Quickwit Datasource plugin.

  grafana:
    image: grafana/grafana-oss
    container_name: grafana
    ports:
      - "${MAP_HOST_GRAFANA:-127.0.0.1}:3000:3000"
    environment:
      GF_INSTALL_PLUGINS: https://github.com/quickwit-oss/quickwit-datasource/releases/download/v0.3.0-beta.2/quickwit-quickwit-datasource-0.3.0-beta.2.zip;quickwit-quickwit-datasource
      GF_AUTH_DISABLE_LOGIN_FORM: "true"
      GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ENABLED: "true"
      GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ORG_ROLE: Admin

Save and run the recipe:

$ docker compose up

You should be able to access Quickwit's UI on http://localhost:7280/ and Grafana's UI on http://localhost:3000/.

Setting up the datasource​

In Grafana, head to Data Sources. If the plugin is installed correctly you should be able to find Quickwit in the list.

We're going to set up a new Quickwit data source lookig at Quickwit's own OpenTelemetry traces, let's configure the datasource with the following parameters:

  • URL : http://quickwit:7280/api/v1/ This uses the docker service name as the host
  • Index ID : otel-traces-v0_6
  • Timestamp field : span_start_timestamp_nanos
  • Timestamp output format : unix_timestamp_nanos

Save and test, you should obtain a confirmation that the datasource is correctly set up.

Quickwit Plugin configuration success

Creating a dashboard​

You can then create a new dashboard and add a visualization : you should be able to choose our new quickwit datasource here.

Quickwit sends itself its own traces, so you should already have data to display. Let's configure some panels !

  • a Table counting span_names
    • Panel type : Table
    • Query: empty
    • Metric : Count
    • Group by : Terms : span_name : order by Count
  • a Bar Chart showing the amount of tantivy searches per hour :
    • Panel type: Time Series
    • Query : "span_name:tantivy_search"
    • Metric: Count
    • Group by : Date Histogram : span_start_timestamp_nanos : Interval 1h
  • a Bar Chart showing the amount of ERROR logs per hour for the last 6 hours :
    • Panel type: Bar Chart
    • Query: "service_name:quickwit AND events.event_attributes.level:ERROR"
    • Metric: Count
    • Group by : Terms : span_start_timestamp_nanos : Interval 1h
  • another query on the same Bar Chart for WARN logs

The result​

Here's what your first dashboard can look like :

Quickwit Panel in Grafana Dashboard