How to Install Grafana on Oracle Linux 8

Grafana is a free and open-source data visualization and monitoring tool used for monitoring and visualizing metrics from remote machines. It can be used with Prometheus, InfluxDB, Graphite, and ElasticSearch to gather metrics and display them on the user-friendly dashboard. Grafana allows you to share the generated graphs as snapshots with other users. You can also write your own plugins from scratch to integrate several different data sources.

In this post, we will show you how to install Grafana on Oracle Linux 8.

Step 1 – Add a Grafana Repo

By default, the Grafana package is not included in the Oracle Linux default repo, so you will need to create a new one for Grafana. You can create it with the following command:

nano /etc/yum.repos.d/grafana.repo

Add the following lines:

[grafana]
name=grafana
baseurl=https://packages.grafana.com/oss/rpm
repo_gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://packages.grafana.com/gpg.key
sslverify=1
sslcacert=/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt

Save and close the file, then verify the added repo using the following command:

dnf repolist

You should see the following output:

repo id                                    repo name
grafana                                    grafana
ol8_UEKR6                                  Latest Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 6 for Oracle Linux 8 (x86_64)
ol8_appstream                              Oracle Linux 8 Application Stream (x86_64)
ol8_baseos_latest                          Oracle Linux 8 BaseOS Latest (x86_64)

Next, verify the Grafana package information using the following command:

dnf info grafana -y

You should see the following output:

Name         : grafana
Version      : 9.0.2
Release      : 1
Architecture : aarch64
Size         : 72 M
Source       : grafana-9.0.2-1.src.rpm
Repository   : grafana
Summary      : Grafana
URL          : https://grafana.com
License      : AGPLv3
Description  : Grafana

Step 2 – Install Grafana

Now, run the following command to install the Grafana package on your server.

dnf install grafana -y

Once the Grafana is installed, start the Grafana service and enable it to start at system reboot:

systemctl start grafana-server
systemctl enable grafana-server

You can also check the status of the Grafana service with the following command:

systemctl status grafana-server

You should see the following output:

● grafana-server.service - Grafana instance
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/grafana-server.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2022-06-29 11:36:18 EDT; 2s ago
     Docs: http://docs.grafana.org
 Main PID: 7063 (grafana-server)
    Tasks: 9 (limit: 11409)
   Memory: 40.0M
   CGroup: /system.slice/grafana-server.service
           └─7063 /usr/sbin/grafana-server --config=/etc/grafana/grafana.ini --pidfile=/var/run/grafana/grafana-server.pid --packaging=rpm cf>

Jun 29 11:36:18 oraclelinux8 grafana-server[7063]: logger=secrets t=2022-06-29T11:36:18.063037318-04:00 level=info msg="Envelope encryption s>
Jun 29 11:36:18 oraclelinux8 grafana-server[7063]: logger=query_data t=2022-06-29T11:36:18.073652671-04:00 level=info msg="Query Service init>
Jun 29 11:36:18 oraclelinux8 grafana-server[7063]: logger=live.push_http t=2022-06-29T11:36:18.092321266-04:00 level=info msg="Live Push Gate>
Jun 29 11:36:18 oraclelinux8 grafana-server[7063]: logger=infra.usagestats.collector t=2022-06-29T11:36:18.384731818-04:00 level=info msg="re>
Jun 29 11:36:18 oraclelinux8 grafana-server[7063]: logger=server t=2022-06-29T11:36:18.385337145-04:00 level=info msg="Writing PID file" path>
Jun 29 11:36:18 oraclelinux8 systemd[1]: Started Grafana instance.
Jun 29 11:36:18 oraclelinux8 grafana-server[7063]: logger=http.server t=2022-06-29T11:36:18.405279335-04:00 level=info msg="HTTP Server Liste>
Jun 29 11:36:18 oraclelinux8 grafana-server[7063]: logger=ngalert t=2022-06-29T11:36:18.407968692-04:00 level=info msg="warming cache for sta>
Jun 29 11:36:18 oraclelinux8 grafana-server[7063]: logger=grafanaStorageLogger t=2022-06-29T11:36:18.42281796-04:00 level=info msg="storage s>
Jun 29 11:36:18 oraclelinux8 grafana-server[7063]: logger=ngalert.multiorg.alertmanager t=2022-06-29T11:36:18.424110181-04:00 level=info msg=>

By default, Grafana listens on port 3000. You can check it with the following command:

ss -antpl | grep 3000

You should see the following output:

LISTEN 0      128                *:3000            *:*    users:(("grafana-server",pid=7063,fd=9))

Step 3 – Configure Nginx as a Reverse Proxy for Grafana

It is recommended to configure Nginx as a reverse proxy so you can access the Grafana without specifying port 3000.

First, install the Nginx server with the following command:

dnf install nginx -y

Once the Nginx package is installed, create an Nginx virtual host configuration file for Grafana:

nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/grafana.conf

Add the following lines:

server {
        server_name grafana.example.com;
        listen 80 ;
        access_log /var/log/nginx/grafana.log;

        location / {
                proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
                proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host:$server_port;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        }
}

Save and close the file, then edit the Nginx main configuration file:

nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Add the following line below http {:

server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;

Save and close the file, then verify the Nginx configuration file:

nginx -t

If your configuration is correct, you will see the message output ‘syntax is ok’ as below.

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

Finally, start and enable the Nginx service:

systemctl start nginx
systemctl enable nginx

You can also check the Nginx status using the following command:

systemctl status nginx

You will get the following output:

● nginx.service - The nginx HTTP and reverse proxy server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2022-06-29 11:38:43 EDT; 5s ago
  Process: 26015 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 26014 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/nginx -t (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 26012 ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/rm -f /run/nginx.pid (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 26017 (nginx)
    Tasks: 2 (limit: 11409)
   Memory: 3.7M
   CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service
           ├─26017 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx
           └─26018 nginx: worker process

Jun 29 11:38:43 oraclelinux8 systemd[1]: Starting The nginx HTTP and reverse proxy server...
Jun 29 11:38:43 oraclelinux8 nginx[26014]: nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
Jun 29 11:38:43 oraclelinux8 nginx[26014]: nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

Step 4 – Access Grafana Dashboard

At this point, Grafana is installed and running. You can now access the Grafana dashboard using the URL http://grafana.example.com. You should see the Grafana login page:

Provide the default username and password as admin then click on the Log in button. You should see the change password screen:

Change your default admin password and click on the Change Password button. You should see the Grafana dashboard on the following page:

Conclusion

In this post, we explained how to install Grafana with Nginx as a reverse proxy on Oracle Linux 8. You can now add external data sources to Grafana and start monitoring them from the web-based interface. For more information, visit the Grafana documentation page. Give it a try on your dedicated server from Atlantic.Net!