OpenSearch - Amazon Managed Grafana

OpenSearch

Note

In workspaces that support version 9 or newer, this data source might require you to install the appropriate plugin. For more information, see Grafana plugins.

With Amazon Managed Grafana, you can add open-source OpenSearch (or legacy Elasticsearch) as a data source. You can perform many types of simple or complex OpenSearch queries to visualize logs or metrics stored in OpenSearch. You can also annotate your graphs with log events stored in OpenSearch.

Add OpenSearch as a data source

Note

To be able to add the OpenSearch data source, you need to add your Grafana IAM account to the ALL_ACCESS and SECURITY_MANAGER roles.

  1. Open the side menu by choosing the Grafana icon in the top header.

  2. In the side menu under the Dashboards link, you should find the named Data Sources link.

  3. Choose the + Add data source button in the top header.

  4. Select OpenSearch from the Type dropdown list.

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.

Name Description
Name The data source name. This is how you see the data source in panels and queries.
Default Default data source means that it will be pre-selected for new panels.
Url The HTTP protocol, IP, and port of your OpenSearch server.
Access Server (default) = URL must be accessible from the Grafana backend/server. Browser = URL must be accessible from the browser.

Access mode controls how requests to the data source will be handled. Server should be the preferred way if nothing else is stated.

Server access mode (default)

All requests are made from the browser to Grafana backend or server, which forwards the requests to the data source, circumventing possible Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) requirements. If you select this access mode, the URL must be accessible from the Grafana backend or server.

Browser (direct) access

Amazon Managed Grafana does not support browser direct access for the OpenSearch data source.

Index settings

Here you can specify a default for the time field and specify the name of your OpenSearch index. You can use a time pattern for the index name or a wildcard character.

OpenSearch/Elasticsearch version

Specify your OpenSearch or legacy Elasticsearch version in the version dropdown menu. The version is important because there are differences in how queries are composed for each version. Currently, Grafana supports OpenSearch 1.0.x. Supported versions of Elasticsearch are 2.0+, 5.0+, 5.6+, 6.0+, and 7.0+. The value 5.6+ means version 5.6 or higher, but lower than 6.0. The value 6.0+ means version 6.0 or higher, but lower than 7.0. Finally, 7.0+ means version 7.0 or higher, but lower than 8.0.

Min time interval

A lower limit for the auto group by time interval. Recommended to be set to write frequency; for example, 1m if your data is written every minute. This option can also be overridden/configured in a dashboard panel under data source options. This value must be formatted as a number followed by a valid time identifier; for example, 1m (1 minute) or 30s (30 seconds). The following time identifiers are supported.

Identifier Description
y Year
M Month
w Week
d Day
h Hour
m Minute
s Second
ms Millisecond

Logs

Two parameters, Message field name and Level field name, can optionally be configured from the data source settings page that determine which fields will be used for log messages and log levels when visualizing logs in Explore.

For example, if you use a default setup of Filebeat for shipping logs to OpenSearch, the following configuration should work.

  • Message field name: message

  • Level field name: fields.level

Data links create a link from a specified field that can be accessed in logs view in Explore.

Each data link configuration consists of the following:

  • Field – Name of the field used by the data link.

  • URL/query – If the link is external, then enter the full link URL. If the link is internal link, then this input serves as query for the target data source. In both cases, you can interpolate the value from the field with ${__value.raw } macro.

  • Internal link – Select this if the link is internal or external. If the link is internal, a data source selector allows you to select the target data source. Only tracing data sources are supported.

Using the OpenSearch data source

Metric query editor

The OpenSearch query editor allows you to select multiple metrics and group by multiple terms or filters. Use the plus and minus icons to the right to add/remove metrics or group by clauses. Some metrics and group by clauses have options. Choose the option text to expand the row to view and edit metric or group by options.

Series naming and alias patterns

You can control the name for time series via the Alias input field.

Pattern Description
{{term fieldname}} Replaced with value of a term Group By.
{{metric}} Replaced with metric name (ex. Average, Min, Max).
{{field}} Replaced with the metric field name.

Pipeline metrics

Some metric aggregations are called pipeline aggregations; for example, Moving Average and Derivative. OpenSearch pipeline metrics require another metric to be based on. Use the eye icon next to the metric to hide metrics from appearing in the graph. This is useful for metrics you only have in the query for use in a pipeline metric.

Templating

Instead of hardcoding things such as server, application, and sensor name in your metric queries you can use variables in their place. Variables are shown as dropdown select boxes at the top of the dashboard. You can use these dropdown boxes to change the data being displayed in your dashboard.

For more information about templating and template variables, see Templates and variables.

Query variable

The OpenSearch data source supports two types of queries you can use in the Query field of Query variables. The query is written using a custom JSON string.

Query Description
{"find": "fields", "type": "keyword"} Returns a list of field names with the index type keyword.
{"find": "terms", "field": "@hostname", "size": 1000} Returns a list of values for a field using term aggregation. Query will use current dashboard time range as time range for query.
{"find": "terms", "field": "@hostname", "query": '<lucene query>'} Returns a list of values for a field using term aggregation and a specified Lucene query filter. Query will use current dashboard time range as time range for query.

There is a default size limit of 500 on terms queries. To set a custom limit, set the size property in your query. You can use other variables inside the query. The following code example shows the query definition for a variable named $host.

{"find": "terms", "field": "@hostname", "query": "@source:$source"}

In the previous example, we use another variable named $source inside the query definition. Whenever you change, via the dropdown list, the current value of the $source variable, it initiates an update of the $host variable. After the update, the $host variable contains only hostnames filtered by in this case the @source document property.

These queries by default return results in term order (which can then be sorted alphabetically or numerically as for any variable). To produce a list of terms sorted by doc count (a top-N values list), add an orderBy property of doc_count. This automatically selects a descending sort. Using asc with doc_count (a bottom-N list) can be done by setting order: "asc", but it is discouraged because it increases the error on document counts. To keep terms in the doc count order, set the variable’s Sort dropdown list to Disabled. Alternatively, you might alternatively still want to use Alphabetical to re-sort them.

{"find": "terms", "field": "@hostname", "orderBy": "doc_count"}

Using variables in queries

There are two syntaxes:

  • $<varname> Example: @hostname:$hostname

  • [[varname]] Example: @hostname:[[hostname]]

Why two ways? The first syntax is easier to read and write, but it 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 plaintext to a Lucene-compatible condition.

In the previous example, we have a lucene query that filters documents based on the @hostname property using a variable named $hostname. It is also using a variable in the Terms group by field input box. This allows you to use a variable to quickly change how the data is grouped.

Annotations

Annotations allow you to overlay rich event information on top of graphs. You add annotation queries via the Dashboard menu or Annotations view. Grafana can query any OpenSearch index for annotation events. For more information, see Annotations.

Name Description
Query You can keep the search query blank or specify a Lucene query.
Time The name of the time field; must be date field.
Time End Optional name of the time end field must be date field. If set, annotations will be marked as a region between time and time-end.
Text Event description field.
Tags Optional field name to use for event tags (can be an array or a CSV string).

Querying logs

Querying and displaying log data from OpenSearch is available in Explore. To display your logs, select the OpenSearch data source, and then optionally enter a Lucene query. For more information, see Explore.

Log queries

After the result is returned, the log panel shows a list of log rows and a bar chart where the x-axis shows the time and the y-axis shows the frequency or count.

Filtering log messages

Optionally, enter a Lucene query into the query field to filter the log messages. For example, using a default Filebeat setup, you should be able to use fields.level:error to show only error log messages.