Configure an Azure Data Explorer datasource

Article
02/21/2024

Azure Data Explorer is a logs & telemetry data exploration service. In this guide, you learn how to add an Azure Data Explorer data source to Grafana and you learn how to configure Azure Data Explorer using each authentication option available for this data source.

Prerequisites

An Azure Managed Grafana instance in the Standard plan.
An Azure Data Explorer database

Add an Azure Data Explorer data source

Add an Azure Data Explorer data source to Grafana by following the steps below.

Open an Azure Managed Grafana instance in the Azure portal.
In the Overview section, open the Endpoint URL.
In the Grafana portal, deploy the menu on the left and select Connections > Connect data.
Select Azure Data Explorer Datasource from the list, and add it to Grafana by selecting Create a Azure Data Explorer Datasource data source.

Configure an Azure Data Explorer data source

Enter Azure Data Explorer configuration settings.

In the Settings tab, optionally edit the data source Name.
Under Connection Details, enter the Azure Data Explorer database Cluster URL.
Select your preferred authentication option between Managed Identity or Current User (user-based authentication).
- Managed identity
- Current user
Authenticate with a managed identity without using explicit credentials.

Add a new permission
1. In the Azure portal, open your Azure Data Explorer cluster.
2. In the Overview section, select the database that contains your data.
3. Select Permissions > Add > Viewer.
4. In the search box, enter your Azure Managed Grafana workspace name, select the workspace and then choose Select. A success notification appears.
Configure the data source in Grafana
1. Back in Grafana, under Authentication Method, select Managed Identity.
2. Select Save & test. The "Success" notification displayed indicates that Grafana is able to fetch data from the database.
Use the user-based authentication method, leveraging the current Grafana user's Microsoft Entra ID credentials in the configured data source.

When you configure an Azure Data Explorer data source with the Current User authentication method, Grafana queries Azure Data Explorer using the user's credentials.

Caution

User-based authentication in Grafana data sources is experimental.

Caution

This feature is incompatible with use cases that requires always-on machine access to the queried data, including Alerting, Reporting, Query caching and Public dashboards. The Current User authentication method relies on a user being logged in, in an interactive session, for Grafana to reach the database. When user-based authentication is used and no user is logged in, automated tasks can't run in the background. To leverage automated tasks for Azure Data Explorer, we recommend setting up another Azure Data Explorer data source using another authentication method.

Add a new permission

Add a new permission for your user account to access the database.
1. In the Azure portal, open the Azure Data Explorer Database resource, and select Permissions > Add > Viewer.
2. Enter your name or email address in the search bar, select your user account and choose Select.
3. A notification confirms that the permission has been added to the database.
Configure the data source in Grafana
1. In Grafana, under Authentication Method, select Current User.
2. Select Save & test. The "Success" notification displayed indicates that Grafana is able to fetch data from the database.

Create an Azure Data Explorer data source

In the Azure CLI, add and configure an Azure Data Explorer data source, by running the az grafana data-source create command. Choose your preferred authentication method and refer to the corresponding tab below for details.

When running these commands, replace all placeholders with your own information.

Managed identity
Current user

Authenticate with a managed identity without using explicit credentials.

az grafana data-source create --name <azure-managed-grafana-workspace> --definition '{
  "name": "<data-source-name>",
  "type": "grafana-azure-data-explorer-datasource",
  "access": "proxy",
  "jsonData": {
    "clusterUrl": "<cluster-url>",
    "dataConsistency": "strongconsistency",
    "azureCredentials": {
      "authType": "msi"
    }
  }
}'

Authenticate with the current user method. This method leverages the current Grafana user's Microsoft Entra ID credentials in the configured data source.

When you configure an Azure Data Explorer data source with the Current User authentication method, Grafana queries Azure Data Explorer using the user's credentials.

Note

Rollout of the user-based authentication in Azure Managed Grafana is in progress and will be complete in all regions by the end of 2023.

Caution

User-based authentication in Grafana data sources is experimental.

Caution

This feature is incompatible with use cases that requires always-on machine access to the queried data, including Alerting, Reporting, Query caching and Public dashboards. The Current User authentication method relies on a user being logged in, in an interactive session, for Grafana to reach the database. When user-based authentication is used and no user is logged in, automated tasks can't run in the background. To leverage automated tasks for Azure Data Explorer, we recommend setting up another Azure Data Explorer data source using another authentication method.

az grafana data-source create --name <azure-managed-grafana-workspace> --definition '{
  "name": "<data-source-name>",
  "type": "grafana-azure-data-explorer-datasource",
  "access": "proxy",
  "jsonData": {
    "clusterUrl": "<cluster-url>",
    "dataConsistency": "strongconsistency",
    "azureCredentials": {
      "authType": "currentuser"
    }
  }
}'

Update an Azure Data Explorer data source

To update an Azure Data Explorer data source, follow the steps below. When running these commands, replace all placeholders with your own information.

Get the ID of the Azure Data Explorer data source to update with az grafana data-source list.

az grafana data-source list --resource-group <azure-managed-grafana-resource-group> --name <azure-managed-grafana-workspace> --query "[?type=='grafana-azure-data-explorer-datasource'].id"

Run the az grafana data-source update command to update the data source.

For example, update the name and cluster URL of the Azure Data Explorer data source with the following command.

az grafana data-source update --resource-group <azure-managed-grafana-workspace-resource-group> --name <azure-managed-grafana-workspace> --data-source-id <data-source-id> --set name="<new-name>" url="<new-url>

Next step

Create a dashboard