grafana-azure

name	grafana-azure
description	Deploy Grafana OSS to Azure Container Apps. Use when deploying Grafana for metrics, logs, and traces visualization with optional PostgreSQL backend.

Grafana Azure Deployment Skill

Deploy Grafana OSS to Azure Container Apps using Bicep and Azure Developer CLI (azd).

Reproducibility Verified: This deployment has been tested multiple times from scratch. Deploy time: ~2 minutes.

Overview

Grafana is an open-source observability platform for metrics, logs, and traces visualization. This skill deploys Grafana OSS (not Azure Managed Grafana) to Azure Container Apps.

Prerequisites and Portability

Require Azure CLI, Azure Developer CLI 1.28.0 or later, and Node.js 24 LTS or later for portable verification. Don't require OpenSSL, Bash command substitution, or host-specific shell scripts. See ../../../docs/tool-installation.md.

Critical: Infrastructure Generation

This skill provides Grafana-specific configuration only. Infrastructure (Bicep, azure.yaml) should be generated fresh each time by the official azure-prepare → azure-validate → azure-deploy pipeline. Do NOT rely on pre-existing infra code.

Critical: Subscription Context

ALWAYS set AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID explicitly before running azd up. Read it with az account show --query id -o tsv, then pass the returned value to azd env set AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID <subscription-id>.

Without this, azd and Azure MCP tools will fail silently or produce incomplete deployments. The azure_deploy_app_logs tool also requires subscription context.

Critical: Bicep Output Naming

Bicep outputs MUST use SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE (e.g., GRAFANA_URL, GRAFANA_FQDN) for azd to map them into environment values. Without this, azd env get-value returns "key not found".

Architecture

graph TB
    subgraph RG["Azure Resource Group"]
        LA["Log Analytics Workspace"]
        subgraph CAE["Container Apps Environment"]
            GF["Grafana Container App<br/>Port 3000 · SQLite (default)<br/>Scale 0-3 replicas"]
        end
    end

    LA -->|logs & metrics| CAE

Quick Start (Verified)

# 1. Register providers (one-time per subscription)
az provider register --namespace Microsoft.App
az provider register --namespace Microsoft.OperationalInsights

# 2. Create environment
azd env new my-grafana-env

# 3. Set required variables (replace placeholders)
azd env set AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID "<subscription-id>"
azd env set AZURE_LOCATION "westus"
azd env set GRAFANA_ADMIN_PASSWORD "<securely-generated-secret>"

# 4. Deploy (~2 minutes)
azd up

# 5. Access Grafana
azd env get-value GRAFANA_URL
# Login: admin / <your GRAFANA_ADMIN_PASSWORD>

Deployment time breakdown:

• Resource Group: ~4s
• Log Analytics: ~25s
• Container Apps Environment: ~38s
• Grafana Container App: ~10s
• Total: ~2 minutes

Environment Variables

Grafana is configured via environment variables in the Container App:

Variable	Description	Value
GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_USER	Admin username	From parameter
GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_PASSWORD	Admin password	From secret
GF_SERVER_HTTP_PORT	HTTP port	3000
GF_SERVER_ROOT_URL	Public URL	Auto-configured
GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ENABLED	Anonymous access	false

See config/environment-variables.md for full list.

Health Probes

Type	Path	Port	Interval
Liveness	/api/health	3000	30s
Readiness	/api/health	3000	10s
Startup	/api/health	3000	10s (30 failures allowed)

Outputs

After deployment:

• GRAFANA_URL: Public HTTPS URL
• GRAFANA_FQDN: Container App FQDN
• GRAFANA_ADMIN_USER: Admin username

Verification

Generate a portable scripts/verify-grafana.mjs that reads GRAFANA_URL and the admin password through azd, requires HTTP 200 from /api/health, asserts database: "ok", then verifies authenticated access to /api/org. Invoke it with node scripts/verify-grafana.mjs and never print the password.

Scaling

• Min replicas: 0 (scale to zero when idle)
• Max replicas: 3
• Scaling rule: HTTP concurrent requests (10 per replica)

Storage Considerations

By default, Grafana uses SQLite which stores data in the container. For production:

1. Add Azure Files for persistent storage
2. Or use PostgreSQL/MySQL backend

Tear Down

azd down --force --purge

Note: Teardown takes 3-5 minutes (Container Apps environment deletion is slow).

Azure MCP Tools

Use these Azure MCP Server tools for Grafana deployments:

Tool	When to Use
azure_bicep_schema	Get latest schemas for Microsoft.App/containerApps and Microsoft.App/managedEnvironments
azure_deploy_architecture	Generate Mermaid architecture diagrams for the Grafana deployment
azure_deploy_plan	Validate the deployment plan before azd up — use target=ContainerApp
azure_deploy_app_logs	Fetch container logs from Log Analytics when troubleshooting startup or 502 issues

Troubleshooting

See troubleshooting.md for common issues and lessons learned.