Grafana Admin cheat sheet

Grafana Administration Fundamentals

• Default configuration file path: /etc/grafana/grafana.ini; environment overrides use GF_

  _ with underscores replacing dots (e.g., GF_SERVER_HTTP_PORT).

• Default HTTP port is 3000; default database is SQLite3 at /var/lib/grafana/grafana.db; production deployments should switch to MySQL or PostgreSQL via [database] settings.

• Grafana CLI (grafana-cli or grafana server) supports admin password reset, plugin install/update, and database migration commands; use grafana-cli admin reset-admin-password .

• Provisioning directories: /etc/grafana/provisioning/datasources for datasource YAML and /etc/grafana/provisioning/dashboards for dashboard provider YAML; files are read at startup and on a configurable polling interval.

• Organization model: each org has isolated dashboards, datasources, and users; a user can belong to multiple orgs with different roles; server admin can switch orgs and manage all orgs.

• Role hierarchy: Viewer < Editor < Admin within an organization; Server Admin is a global flag in the user table and grants access to all orgs and server configuration.

• Configuration precedence: defaults < grafana.ini < environment variables < command-line flags; changes require service restart except for provisioning reload and some live settings.

• Logging is configured in [log] with mode (console, file, syslog) and level (debug, info, warn, error); default level is info and default mode is console.

• Snapshot sharing: [snapshot] section controls external and internal snapshot enablement; external snapshots upload to raintank.io by default and should be disabled in secure environments.