observabilitysyntheticPractitioner

Provisioning Grafana: Mastering Synthetic Monitoring

5 min read Grafana DocsApr 23, 2026

Practitioner — Hands-on experience recommended

Provisioning Grafana is essential for automating the setup and management of your observability tools. It allows you to define data sources and configurations in a structured way, reducing manual overhead and ensuring consistency across environments. This is particularly important in production, where a misconfigured data source can lead to gaps in monitoring and alerting.

Grafana utilizes a provisioning system that reads configuration files from specific directories. You can manage data sources by placing YAML files in the provisioning/datasources directory. Grafana reads its default configuration from <WORKING DIRECTORY>/conf/defaults.ini and custom configuration from <WORKING DIRECTORY>/conf/custom.ini. You can override the custom configuration path using the --config option. Notably, if you set prune: true in your provisioning file, Grafana will automatically delete data sources that are no longer listed, keeping your environment tidy. This is a powerful feature that helps prevent clutter from outdated configurations.

In production, remember to use environment variables judiciously. They can be used for configuration values but should not be relied upon for keys or larger parts of your configuration structure. Also, be aware that the default installation paths for configuration files may differ based on your package manager. For example, the Deb and RPM packages place the configuration file at /etc/grafana/grafana.ini. This can affect how you set up your provisioning system, especially in environments with strict configuration management practices.

Key takeaways

→Utilize YAML configuration files in the provisioning/datasources directory for managing data sources.
→Enable the prune feature to automatically delete unlisted data sources and maintain a clean environment.
→Use environment variables for configuration values, but avoid them for sensitive keys or complex structures.
→Override the default configuration path with the --config option to customize your setup.
→Be mindful of the installation paths for configuration files based on your package manager.

Why it matters

Effective provisioning in Grafana ensures that your observability stack is always in sync with your infrastructure. This minimizes downtime and enhances your ability to respond to incidents quickly.

Code examples

YAML

1datasources:
2  - name: Graphite
3    url: http://localhost:$PORT
4    user: $USER
5    secureJsonData:
6      password: $PASSWORD

YAML

1# Configuration file version
2apiVersion: 1
3
4# List of data sources to delete from the database.
5deleteDatasources:
6  - name: Graphite
7    orgId: 1
8
9# Mark provisioned data sources for deletion if they are no longer in a provisioning file.
10# It takes no effect if data sources are already listed in the deleteDatasources section.
11prune: true
12
13# List of data sources to insert/update depending on what's
14# available in the database.
15datasources:
16  - name: Graphite
17    type: graphite
18    access: proxy
19    orgId: 1
20    uid: my_unique_uid
21    url: http://localhost:8080
22    user:
23    database:
24    basicAuth:
25    basicAuthUser:
26    withCredentials:
27    isDefault:
28    jsonData:
29      graphiteVersion: '1.1'
30      tlsAuth: true
31      tlsAuthWithCACert: true
32    secureJsonData:
33      tlsCACert: '...'
34      tlsClientCert: '...'
35      tlsClientKey: '...'
36      password:
37      basicAuthPassword:
38    version: 1
39    editable: false

YAML

1datasources:
2  - name: Graphite
3    secureJsonData:
4      password1: $PASSWORD # Resolved as Pa$sw0rd
5      password2: ${PASSWORD} # Resolved as Pa
6      password3: 'Pa$$sw0rd' # Resolved as Pa$sw0rd
7      password4: 'Pa$sw0rd' # Resolved as Pa

When NOT to use this

The official docs don't call out specific anti-patterns here. Use your judgment based on your scale and requirements.

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Provisioning Grafana: Mastering Synthetic Monitoring

Key takeaways

Why it matters

Code examples

When NOT to use this

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