Getting started with Grafana and MS SQL Server

    Use the instructions in to:

    • Log in to Grafana.
    • Create your first dashboard.

    You can also configure a Grafana Cloud instance to display system metrics without having to host Grafana yourself.

    You can install MS SQL Server on the host running Grafana or on a remote server. To install the software from the , follow their setup prompts.

    If you are on a Windows host but want to use Grafana and MS SQL data source on a Linux environment, refer to the WSL to set up your Grafana development environment. This will allow you to leverage the resources available in GitHub repository. Here you will find a collection of supported data sources, including MS SQL Server, along with test data and pre-configured dashboards for use.

    To add MS SQL Server data source:

    1. In the Grafana side menu, hover your cursor over the Configuration (gear) icon and then click Data Sources.
    2. Filter by and select the Microsoft SQL Server option.
    3. Click Add data source in the top right header to open the configuration page.

    Optionally, play around this dashboard and customize it to:

    • Create different panels.
    • Change titles for panels.
    • Change frequency of data polling.
    • Change the period for which the data is displayed.
    • Rearrange and resize panels.

    Now that you have gained some idea of using the pre-packaged MS SQL data source and some test data, the next step is to setup your own instance of MS SQL Server database and data your development or sandbox area. In the previous steps, if you followed along the path of deploying your own instance of MS SQL Server, you are already on your way.

    Once you have a curated list of queries, create dashboards to render metrics from the SQL Server database. For troubleshooting, user permissions, known issues, and query examples, refer to .