Proxmox Grafana Dashboard

Read time 2 minutes

InfluxDB

First we have to create a time series database to store the metrics.

Proxmox only supports Graphite and InfluxDB.

I will run InfluxDB via Docker tagged to v1.8 for now.

docker run -d \
--name influxdb \
--hostname influxdb \
--net lan --ip 192.168.1.110 \
-v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro \
-v /srv/influxdb/data/:/var/lib/influxdb \
-v /srv/influxdb/conf/:/etc/influxdb \
--cpus=".5" --memory="512m" --memory-swap="1024m" \
--restart always \
influxdb:1.8 -config /etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf

To create a default config run influxd.

docker run --rm influxdb:1.8 influxd config > /srv/influxdb/conf/influxdb.conf

Proxmox only supports UDP to send metrics which is not enabled by default.

We create a UDP listener and specify the database name “proxmox”.

cat << 'EOF' >> /srv/influxdb/conf/influxdb.conf
[[udp]]
   enabled = true
   bind-address = "0.0.0.0:8089"
   database = "proxmox"
   batch-size = 10000
   batch-timeout = "60s"
EOF

I disabled the logging of http requests and database queries.

sed -i "s/logging-enabled = true/logging-enabled = false/g" /srv/influxdb/conf/influxdb.conf
sed -i "s/query-log-enabled = true/query-log-enabled = false/g" /srv/influxdb/conf/influxdb.conf
sed -i "s/log-enabled = true/log-enabled = false/g" /srv/influxdb/conf/influxdb.conf

InfluxDB recommends to increase the system UDP buffer.

cat << 'EOF' >> /etc/sysctl.conf
net.core.rmem_max=26214400
net.core.rmem_default=26214400
EOF

sysctl -w net.core.rmem_max=26214400
sysctl -w net.core.rmem_default=26214400

With that InfluxDB is setup.

docker restart influxdb

Proxmox Feed Metrics to InfluxDB

Navigate to “Datacenter -> Metric Server -> Add -> InfluxDB”

# Name: proxmox
# Server: 192.168.1.110
# Port: 8089

Grafana

docker run -d \
--name grafana \
--hostname grafana \
--net lan --ip 192.168.1.120 \
-v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro \
-v /srv/grafana/data/:/var/lib/grafana \
-v /srv/grafana/conf/:/etc/grafana \
-e "GF_INSTALL_PLUGINS=grafana-clock-panel" \
--cpus="1" --memory="512m" --memory-swap="1024m" \
--restart always \
grafana/grafana:7.3.4

Grafana does not allow to specify user mappings but uses a user with id 472 by default. So we have to fix some permissions first.

This changed with versions over time so check https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/installation/docker/#migrate-from-previous-docker-containers-versions first.

You can always verify the id with.

docker exec -it grafana id

Fix volume permissions.

touch /srv/grafana/conf/grafana.ini
chown -R 472:root /srv/grafana/

docker restart grafana

Disable authentication for dashboard viewing.

cat << 'EOF' >> /srv/grafana/conf/grafana.ini
[auth.anonymous]
enabled = true
org_name = Main Org.
org_role = Viewer
EOF

Restart the container to apply changes.

docker restart grafana

Open the Grafana web interface http://192.168.1.120:3000/login

Username and password are “admin”.

You will be asked to change the password next.

Navigate to “Configuration -> Data Sources -> Add -> InfluxDB”

# Name: proxmox
# URL: http://192.168.1.110:8086
# Database: proxmox

Dashboards

I created several dashboards for Proxmox.

Navigate to “Dashboards -> Manage -> Import -> json”

Kiosk Playlist

Create a playlist for kiosk mode.

Navigate to “Dashboards -> Playlists -> New playlist”

# Name: proxmox
# Interval: 20s
# Dashboards: add all from above
# Order: Host Summary, Hardware Summary, Host CPU and Memory Usage, Virtual Machine Stats, Container Stats

Setup Kiosk

Setup a raspberry pi to show the playlist on a TV.

https://herold.space/raspberry-pi-grafana-dashboard