Announcing Grafana 13 Support in Azure Managed Grafana

Grafana 13 brings a host of exciting enhancements that simplify the creation, reuse, and management of dashboards at scale. With these features, teams can craft richer observability experiences while minimising redundancy and ensuring consistency across different environments. Key updates include Dynamic Dashboards, Saved Queries, improved filtering and grouping options, dashboard templates, and various usability tweaks, all aimed at making dashboard creation and discovery more efficient. From better dashboard authoring and reusable queries to Git-based management for dashboard lifecycles, Grafana 13 empowers teams to build and maintain observability solutions more effectively, even at larger scales.

One of the standout features in Grafana 13 is Git Sync. This allows organisations to manage their Grafana dashboards via Git workflows. By storing dashboards as JSON files in a Git repository, teams can easily track versions, review updates, and automate changes in a way that aligns with their existing engineering practices.

With Git Sync, teams can:

• Monitor dashboard alterations through source control.
• Review revisions via pull requests.
• Incorporate dashboard rollouts into CI/CD pipelines.
• Collaborate on dashboard creation using favourite Git processes.

Git Sync offers bidirectional synchronization, meaning that any adjustments made in Grafana can be pushed back to the repository, while updates from the repository will auto-sync to Grafana.

Configuration of this function occurs directly through the Grafana user interface. Authentication can be handled via a GitHub App or a Personal Access Token. For those managing extensive observability systems, Git Sync integrates seamlessly into existing infrastructure-as-code and platform engineering workflows. Visit MSLearn to learn more about Git Sync on Azure Managed Grafana.

Another significant update in Grafana 13 is the integration of Prometheus with Azure authentication. From now on, standard Azure authentication will no longer be compatible with the open-source Prometheus data source. Instead, it can only be accessed through the Azure Monitor Managed Service for Prometheus plugin. This change aligns with Grafana Labs’ revised strategy and guidance for Prometheus data sources.

Fortunately, customers don’t need to tweak their existing dashboards during this transition. All dashboards are compatible with both plugin types, and existing visualisations, as well as imports, exports, and dashboard definitions, will continue working seamlessly. Any connectivity or queries directed at Azure Monitor Workspaces or Managed Service for Prometheus will leverage the Azure-specific plugin that supports Azure authentication.

Prometheus data sources set up with non-Azure authentication methods remain unaffected, so they will continue to function without any changes.

You can get started with Grafana 13 today by creating a new Azure Managed Grafana workspace and selecting Grafana 13. We encourage users to dive into the fresh dashboarding features introduced in this version and review their Prometheus settings to see how Azure-authenticated data sources transition to the Azure Monitor Managed Service for Prometheus plugin.

Existing dashboards operate without requiring any changes. Customers do not need to:

• Create new dashboards.
• Adjust visualisations.
• Edit dashboard JSON definitions.
• Reconfigure imports or exports.

For more detailed information, check out the Azure Managed Grafana documentation.

If you’re looking for further insights into Grafana 13, take a look at the official Grafana Labs release announcement and release notes.