Query Grafana Data as a SQL Server Database in Node.js

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Execute SQL Server queries against Grafana data from Node.js.

You can use CData Connect AI to query Grafana data through a SQL Server interface. Follow the procedure below to create a virtual database for Grafana in Connect AI and start querying using Node.js.

CData Connect AI provides a pure MySQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for Grafana, allowing you to easily query live Grafana data in Node.js — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you query data in Node.js, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Grafana, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Grafana data.

Configure Grafana Connectivity for NodeJS

Connectivity to Grafana from NodeJS is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Grafana data from NodeJS, we start by creating and configuring a Grafana connection.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
  2. Adding a Connection
  3. Select "Grafana" from the Add Connection panel
  4. Selecting a data source
  5. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Grafana.

    Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Grafana Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Grafana.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Grafana (see below).

    Grafana API Profile Settings

    In Grafana, navigate to Administration > Users and Access > Service accounts, create a service account, then click Add service account token to generate a token.

    Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  6. Click Save & Test
  7. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Grafana Connection page and update the User-based permissions. Updating permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

  1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
  2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. Creating a new PAT
  4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Grafana data from Node.js.

Query Grafana from Node.js

The following example shows how to define a connection and execute queries to Grafana with the SQL Server module. You will need the following information:

  • server: tds.cdata.com
  • port: 14333
  • user: a Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
  • password: the PAT for the above user
  • database: The connection you configured for Grafana (API1)

Connect to Grafana data and start executing queries with the code below:

var sql = require('mssql')
var config = {
	server: 'tds.cdata.com',
	port: 14333, 
	user: '[email protected]', //update me
	password: 'CONNECT_USER_PAT', //update me	
	options: {
		encrypt: true,
		database: 'API1'
	}
}

sql.connect(config, err => { 
    if(err){
        throw err ;
    }
    new sql.Request().query('SELECT * FROM Alert', (err, result) => {
        console.dir(result)
    })
        
});

sql.on('error', err => {
    console.log("SQL Error: " ,err);
})

Ready to get started?

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