Connect to a Microsoft SQL Server data source

Use the Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL) data source to query and visualize data from any Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or newer, including Microsoft Azure SQL Database.

Adding the data source

Data source options

Min time interval

A lower limit for the $_interval $_interval_ms variables. 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.

Database user permissions

The following example code shows creating a specific MSSQL user with restricted permissions.

 CREATE USER grafanareader WITH PASSWORD 'password'
 GRANT SELECT ON dbo.YourTable3 TO grafanareader

Make sure that the user does not get any unwanted permissions from the public role.

Known issues

If you’re using an older version of Microsoft SQL Server such as 2008 and 2008R2, you might need to disable encryption to be able to connect. If possible, we recommend you to use the latest service pack available for optimal compatibility.

Query editor

You will find the MSSQL query editor in the metrics tab in the graph, Singlestat, or table panel’s edit mode. You enter edit mode by choosing the panel title and then choosing Edit. The editor allows you to define a SQL query to select data to be visualized.

Macros

To simplify syntax and to allow for dynamic parts, such as date range filters, the query can contain macros.

The query editor has a Generated SQL link that shows up after a query has been run, while in panel edit mode. Choose it and it will expand and show the raw interpolated SQL string that was run.

Table queries

If the query option is set to ,Format asTable then you can basically do any type of SQL query. The table panel will automatically show the results of whatever columns and rows your query returns.

The following example code shows a database table.

CREATE TABLE [event] (
  time_sec bigint,
  description nvarchar(100),
  tags nvarchar(100),
)

CREATE TABLE [mssql_types] (
  c_bit bit, c_tinyint tinyint, c_smallint smallint, c_int int, c_bigint bigint, c_money money, c_smallmoney smallmoney, c_numeric numeric(10,5),
  c_real real, c_decimal decimal(10,2), c_float float,
  c_char char(10), c_varchar varchar(10), c_text text,
  c_nchar nchar(12), c_nvarchar nvarchar(12), c_ntext ntext,
  c_datetime datetime,  c_datetime2 datetime2, c_smalldatetime smalldatetime, c_date date, c_time time, c_datetimeoffset datetimeoffset
)

INSERT INTO [mssql_types]
SELECT
  1, 5, 20020, 980300, 1420070400, '$20000.15', '£2.15', 12345.12,
  1.11, 2.22, 3.33,
  'char10', 'varchar10', 'text',
  N'☺nchar12☺', N'☺nvarchar12☺', N'☺text☺',
  GETDATE(), CAST(GETDATE() AS DATETIME2), CAST(GETDATE() AS SMALLDATETIME), CAST(GETDATE() AS DATE), CAST(GETDATE() AS TIME), SWITCHOFFSET(CAST(GETDATE() AS DATETIMEOFFSET), '-07:00')

The following example code shows a query.

SELECT * FROM [mssql_types]

You can control the name of the Table panel columns by using regular AS SQL column selection syntax, as shown in the following example code.

SELECT
  c_bit as [column1], c_tinyint as [column2]
FROM
  [mssql_types]

The resulting table panel:

Time series queries

If you set Format as to Time series, for use in Graph panel for example, the query must have a column named time that returns either a SQL datetime or any numeric data type representing Unix epoch in seconds. You can return a column named metric that is used as metric name for the value column. Any column except time and metric is treated as a value column. If you omit the metric column, the name of the value column will be the metric name. You can select multiple value columns, each will have its name as metric. If you return multiple value columns and a column named metric then this column is used as prefix for the series name.

Result sets of time series queries must be sorted by time.

The following example code shows a database table.

CREATE TABLE [event] (
  time_sec bigint,
  description nvarchar(100),
  tags nvarchar(100),
)

CREATE TABLE metric_values (
  time datetime,
  measurement nvarchar(100),
  valueOne int,
  valueTwo int,
)

INSERT metric_values (time, measurement, valueOne, valueTwo) VALUES('2018-03-15 12:30:00', 'Metric A', 62, 6)
INSERT metric_values (time, measurement, valueOne, valueTwo) VALUES('2018-03-15 12:30:00', 'Metric B', 49, 11)
...
INSERT metric_values (time, measurement, valueOne, valueTwo) VALUES('2018-03-15 13:55:00', 'Metric A', 14, 25)
INSERT metric_values (time, measurement, valueOne, valueTwo) VALUES('2018-03-15 13:55:00', 'Metric B', 48, 10)

The following example code shows one value and one metric column.

SELECT
  time,
  valueOne,
  measurement as metric
FROM
  metric_values
WHERE
  $__timeFilter(time)
ORDER BY 1

When the preceding query is used in a graph panel, it will produce two series named Metric A and Metric B with the values valueOne and valueTwo plotted over time.

The following example code shows multiple value columns.

SELECT
  time,
  valueOne,
  valueTwo
FROM
  metric_values
WHERE
  $__timeFilter(time)
ORDER BY 1

When the preceding query is used in a graph panel, it will produce two series named Metric A and Metric B with the values valueOne and valueTwo plotted over time.

The following example code shows using the $__timeGroup macro.

SELECT
  $__timeGroup(time, '3m') as time,
  measurement as metric,
  avg(valueOne)
FROM
  metric_values
WHERE
  $__timeFilter(time)
GROUP BY
  $__timeGroup(time, '3m'),
  measurement
ORDER BY 1

When the previous query is used in a graph panel, it will produce two series named Metric A and Metric B with the values valueOne and valueTwo plotted over time. Any two series lacking a value in a three-minute window will render a line between those two lines. You’ll notice that the graph to the right never goes down to zero.

The following example code shows using the $__timeGroup macro with fill parameter set to zero.

SELECT
  $__timeGroup(time, '3m', 0) as time,
  measurement as metric,
  sum(valueTwo)
FROM
  metric_values
WHERE
  $__timeFilter(time)
GROUP BY
  $__timeGroup(time, '3m'),
  measurement
ORDER BY 1

When this query is used in a graph panel, the result is two series named Metric A and Metric B with a sum of valueTwo plotted over time. Any series lacking a value in a 3 minute window will have a value of zero which you’ll see rendered in the graph to the right.

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

If you add a template variable of the type Query, you can write a MSSQL query that can return things such as measurement names, key names or key values that are shown as a dropdown select box.

For example, you can have a variable that contains all values for the hostname column in a table if you specify a query such as this in the templating variable Query setting.

SELECT hostname FROM host

A query can return multiple columns and Grafana will automatically create a list from them. For example, the following query will return a list with values from hostname and hostname2.

SELECT [host].[hostname], [other_host].[hostname2] FROM host JOIN other_host ON [host].[city] = [other_host].[city]

Another option is a query that can create a key/value variable. The query should return two columns that are named __text and __value. The __text column value should be unique (if it is not unique then the first value is used). The options in the dropdown list will have a text and value that allow you to have a friendly name as text and an id as the value. An example query with hostname as the text and id as the value:

SELECT hostname __text, id __value FROM host

You can also create nested variables. For example, if you had another variable named region. Then you could have the hosts variable only show hosts from the current selected region with a query such as this (if region is a multi-value variable, then use the IN comparison operator rather than = to match against multiple values).

SELECT hostname FROM host WHERE region IN ($region)

Using variables in queries

If the variable is a multi-value variable then use the IN comparison operator rather than = to match against multiple values.

There are two syntaxes:

$<varname> Example with a template variable named hostname:

SELECT
  atimestamp time,
  aint value
FROM table
WHERE $__timeFilter(atimestamp) and hostname in($hostname)
ORDER BY atimestamp

[[varname]] Example with a template variable named hostname:

SELECT
  atimestamp as time,
  aint as value
FROM table
WHERE $__timeFilter(atimestamp) and hostname in([[hostname]])
ORDER BY atimestamp

Turning off quoting for multi-value variables

Grafana automatically creates a quoted, comma-separated string for multi-value variables. For example, if server01 and server02 are selected then it will be formatted as: 'server01', 'server02'. To turn off quoting, use the csv formatting option for variables.

${servers:csv}

For more information about variable formatting options, see Templates and variables.

Annotations

You can use annotations to overlay rich event information on top of graphs. You add annotation queries via the Dashboard menu / Annotations view. For more information, see Annotations.

Columns:

The following example code shows database tables.

CREATE TABLE [events] (
  time_sec bigint,
  description nvarchar(100),
  tags nvarchar(100),
)

We also use the database table defined in Time series queries.

The following example code shows a query using a time column with epoch values.

SELECT
  time_sec as time,
  description as [text],
  tags
FROM
  [events]
WHERE
  $__unixEpochFilter(time_sec)
ORDER BY 1

The following example code shows a region query using time and timeend columns with epoch values.

SELECT
  time_sec as time,
  time_end_sec as timeend,
  description as [text],
  tags
FROM
  [events]
WHERE
  $__unixEpochFilter(time_sec)
ORDER BY 1

The following example code shows a query using a time column of native SQL date/time data type.

SELECT
  time,
  measurement as text,
  convert(varchar, valueOne) + ',' + convert(varchar, valueTwo) as tags
FROM
  metric_values
WHERE
  $__timeFilter(time_column)
ORDER BY 1

Stored procedure support

Stored procedures have been verified to work. However, there might be edge cases where it won’t work as you would expect. Stored procedures should be supported in table, time series, and annotation queries as long as you use the same naming of columns and return data in the same format as described previously in the respective sections.

Macro functions will not work inside a stored procedure.

Examples

For the following examples, the database table is defined in Time series queries. Let’s say that you want to visualize four series in a graph panel, such as all combinations of columns valueOne, valueTwo and measurement. The graph panel to the right visualizes what we want to achieve. To solve this, you must use two queries:

The following example code shows the first query.

SELECT
  $__timeGroup(time, '5m') as time,
  measurement + ' - value one' as metric,
  avg(valueOne) as valueOne
FROM
  metric_values
WHERE
  $__timeFilter(time)
GROUP BY
  $__timeGroup(time, '5m'),
  measurement
ORDER BY 1

The following example code shows the second query.

SELECT
  $__timeGroup(time, '5m') as time,
  measurement + ' - value two' as metric,
  avg(valueTwo) as valueTwo
FROM
  metric_values
GROUP BY
  $__timeGroup(time, '5m'),
  measurement
ORDER BY 1

Stored procedure using time in epoch format

You can define a stored procedure that will return all data that you need to render four series in a graph panel such as above. In this case, the stored procedure accepts two parameters, @from and @to, of int data types, which should be a time range (from-to) in epoch format which will be used to filter the data to return from the stored procedure.

This mimics the $__timeGroup(time, '5m') in the select and group by expressions, and that’s why numerous lengthy expressions are needed. These could be extracted to MSSQL functions, if wanted.

CREATE PROCEDURE sp_test_epoch(
  @from int,
  @to   int
)   AS
BEGIN
  SELECT
    cast(cast(DATEDIFF(second, {d '1970-01-01'}, DATEADD(second, DATEDIFF(second,GETDATE(),GETUTCDATE()), time))/600 as int)*600 as int) as time,
    measurement + ' - value one' as metric,
    avg(valueOne) as value
  FROM
    metric_values
  WHERE
    time >= DATEADD(s, @from, '1970-01-01') AND time <= DATEADD(s, @to, '1970-01-01')
  GROUP BY
    cast(cast(DATEDIFF(second, {d '1970-01-01'}, DATEADD(second, DATEDIFF(second,GETDATE(),GETUTCDATE()), time))/600 as int)*600 as int),
    measurement
  UNION ALL
  SELECT
    cast(cast(DATEDIFF(second, {d '1970-01-01'}, DATEADD(second, DATEDIFF(second,GETDATE(),GETUTCDATE()), time))/600 as int)*600 as int) as time,
    measurement + ' - value two' as metric,
    avg(valueTwo) as value
  FROM
    metric_values
  WHERE
    time >= DATEADD(s, @from, '1970-01-01') AND time <= DATEADD(s, @to, '1970-01-01')
  GROUP BY
    cast(cast(DATEDIFF(second, {d '1970-01-01'}, DATEADD(second, DATEDIFF(second,GETDATE(),GETUTCDATE()), time))/600 as int)*600 as int),
    measurement
  ORDER BY 1
END

Then you can use the following query for your graph panel.

DECLARE
  @from int = $__unixEpochFrom(),
  @to int = $__unixEpochTo()

EXEC dbo.sp_test_epoch @from, @to

Stored procedure using time in datetime format

You can define a stored procedure that will return all data that you need to render four series in a graph panel such as above. In this case, the stored procedure accepts two parameters, @from and @to, of datetime data types, which should be a time range (from-to) that will be used to filter the data to return from the stored procedure.

This mimics the $__timeGroup(time, '5m') in the select and group by expressions, and that’s why numerous lengthy expressions are needed. These could be extracted to MSSQL functions, if wanted.

CREATE PROCEDURE sp_test_datetime(
  @from datetime,
  @to   datetime
)   AS
BEGIN
  SELECT
    cast(cast(DATEDIFF(second, {d '1970-01-01'}, time)/600 as int)*600 as int) as time,
    measurement + ' - value one' as metric,
    avg(valueOne) as value
  FROM
    metric_values
  WHERE
    time >= @from AND time <= @to
  GROUP BY
    cast(cast(DATEDIFF(second, {d '1970-01-01'}, time)/600 as int)*600 as int),
    measurement
  UNION ALL
  SELECT
    cast(cast(DATEDIFF(second, {d '1970-01-01'}, time)/600 as int)*600 as int) as time,
    measurement + ' - value two' as metric,
    avg(valueTwo) as value
  FROM
    metric_values
  WHERE
    time >= @from AND time <= @to
  GROUP BY
    cast(cast(DATEDIFF(second, {d '1970-01-01'}, time)/600 as int)*600 as int),
    measurement
  ORDER BY 1
END

Then you can use the following query for your graph panel.

DECLARE
  @from datetime = $__timeFrom(),
  @to datetime = $__timeTo()

EXEC dbo.sp_test_datetime @from, @to

Alerting

Time series queries should work in alerting conditions. Table formatted queries are not yet supported in alert rule conditions.