> The datasource is currently a beta feature and is subject to change.
Grafana ships with built-in support for Google Stackdriver. Just add it as a datasource and you are ready to build dashboards for your Stackdriver metrics.
> NOTE: If you're not seeing the `Data Sources` link in your side menu it means that your current user does not have the `Admin` role for the current organization.
There are two ways to authenticate the Stackdriver plugin - either by uploading a Google JWT file, or by automatically retrieving credentials from Google metadata server. The latter option is only available when running Grafana on GCE virtual machine.
To authenticate with the Stackdriver API, you need to create a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Service Account for the Project you want to show data for. A Grafana datasource integrates with one GCP Project. If you want to visualize data from multiple GCP Projects then you need to create one datasource per GCP Project.
{{<docs-imageboximg="/img/docs/v53/stackdriver_create_service_account_button.png"class="docs-image--no-shadow"caption="Create service account button">}}
4. Some new fields will appear. Fill in a name for the service account in the `Service account name` field and then choose the `Monitoring Viewer` role from the `Role` dropdown:
5. Click the Create button. A JSON key file will be created and downloaded to your computer. Store this file in a secure place as it allows access to your Stackdriver data.
{{<docs-imageboximg="/img/docs/v53/stackdriver_grafana_key_uploaded.png"class="docs-image--no-shadow"caption="Service key file is uploaded to Grafana">}}
If Grafana is running on a Google Compute Engine (GCE) virtual machine, it is possible for Grafana to automatically retrieve default credentials from the metadata server. This has the advantage of not needing to generate a private key file for the service account and also not having to upload the file to Grafana. However for this to work, there are a few preconditions that need to be met.
1. First of all, you need to create a Service Account that can be used by the GCE virtual machine. See detailed instructions on how to do that [here](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/access/create-enable-service-accounts-for-instances#createanewserviceaccount).
2. Make sure the GCE virtual machine instance is being run as the service account that you just created. See instructions [here](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/access/create-enable-service-accounts-for-instances#using).
3. Allow access to the `Stackdriver Monitoring API` scope. See instructions [here](changeserviceaccountandscopes).
Read more about creating and enabling service accounts for GCE VM instances [here](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/access/create-enable-service-accounts-for-instances).
The Stackdriver query editor allows you to select metrics, group/aggregate by labels and by time, and use filters to specify which time series you want in the results.
Begin by choosing a `Service` and then a metric from the `Metric` dropdown. Use the plus and minus icons in the filter and group by sections to add/remove filters or group by clauses.
Stackdriver metrics can be of different kinds (GAUGE, DELTA, CUMULATIVE) and these kinds have support for different aggregation options (reducers and aligners). The Grafana query editor shows the list of available aggregation methods for a selected metric and sets a default reducer and aligner when you select the metric. Units for the Y-axis are also automatically selected by the query editor.
To add a filter, click the plus icon and choose a field to filter by and enter a filter value e.g. `instance_name = grafana-1`. You can remove the filter by clicking on the filter name and select `--remove filter--`.
When the operator is set to `=` or `!=` it is possible to add wildcards to the filter value field. E.g `us-*` will capture all values that starts with "us-" and `*central-a` will capture all values that ends with "central-a". `*-central-*` captures all values that has the substring of -central-. Simple wildcards are less expensive than regular expressions.
When the operator is set to `=~` or `!=~` it is possible to add regular expressions to the filter value field. E.g `us-central[1-3]-[af]` would match all values that starts with "us-central", is followed by a number in the range of 1 to 3, a dash and then either an "a" or an "f". Leading and trailing slashes are not needed when creating regular expressions.
The aggregation field lets you combine time series based on common statistics. Read more about this option [here](https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/charts/metrics-selector#aggregation-options).
The `Aligner` field allows you to align multiple time series after the same group by time interval. Read more about how it works [here](https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/charts/metrics-selector#alignment).
The `Alignment Period` groups a metric by time if an aggregation is chosen. The default is to use the GCP Stackdriver default groupings (which allows you to compare graphs in Grafana with graphs in the Stackdriver UI).
The option is called `Stackdriver auto` and the defaults are:
The other automatic option is `Grafana auto`. This will automatically set the group by time depending on the time range chosen and the width of the graph panel. Read more about the details [here](http://docs.grafana.org/reference/templating/#the-interval-variable).
It is also possible to choose fixed time intervals to group by, like `1h` or `1d`.
Group by resource or metric labels to reduce the number of time series and to aggregate the results by a group by. E.g. Group by instance_name to see an aggregated metric for a Compute instance.
The Alias By field allows you to control the format of the legend keys. The default is to show the metric name and labels. This can be long and hard to read. Using the following patterns in the alias field, you can format the legend key the way you want it.
Why two ways? The first syntax is easier to read and write but does not allow you to use a variable in the middle of a word. When the _Multi-value_ or _Include all value_ options are enabled, Grafana converts the labels from plain text to a regex compatible string, which means you have to use `=~` instead of `=`.
queries via the Dashboard menu / Annotations view. Annotation rendering is expensive so it is important to limit the number of rows returned. There is no support for showing Stackdriver annotations and events yet but it works well with [custom metrics](https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/custom-metrics/) in Stackdriver.
With the query editor for annotations, you can select a metric and filters. The `Title` and `Text` fields support templating and can use data returned from the query. For example, the Title field could have the following text:
`{{metric.type}} has value: {{metric.value}}`
Example Result: `monitoring.googleapis.com/uptime_check/http_status has this value: 502`
### Patterns for the Annotation Query Editor
| Alias Pattern Format | Description | Alias Pattern Example | Example Result |
It's now possible to configure datasources using config files with Grafana's provisioning system. You can read more about how it works and all the settings you can set for datasources on the [provisioning docs page](/administration/provisioning/#datasources)
