Link to Grafana on metrics dashboard
Problem to solve
Our current metrics dashboard cannot solve all use cases, or support all data sources. We should support a button to link off to a Grafana instance to provide a more fully featured dashboard until we can support all cases.
Target audience
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Sasha, Software Developer, https://design.gitlab.com/research/personas#persona-sasha
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Devon, DevOps Engineer, https://design.gitlab.com/research/personas#persona-devon
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Sidney, Systems Administrator, https://design.gitlab.com/research/personas#persona-sidney
Further details
Proposal
There are two things to consider here:
- Where to place the button/text to open Grafana
- How to configure the URL for Grafana
We should offer users a link to Grafana directly on the metrics dashboard, if one has been configured. This should be in the upper right corner, similar to what we do for Error Tracking:
Design
Users will need to add the URL of the dashboard they want to link to on the Operations > Settings page:
Once this link has been added, a button will appear on the metrics dashboard that links to the specified external dashboard. We are in the process of re-arranging the space above the charts on the metrics dashboard, and introducing a filter bar. Depending on when these changes get implemented, the positioning of the button will shift slightly.
If this change is implemented in the short-term (ie, before the filter bar is introduced):
- Button can be placed in the right-hand side of the page, as shown
- Placing it here would mean shifting the time window selection dropdown to the left side of the page
If this change implemented in the longer-term (ie, after the filter bar is introduced):
- Button would be the last in the button group, as shown
What does success look like, and how can we measure that?
You can easily get to a Grafana instance from a GitLab dashboard.