Integrating an external Grafana instance

Neutree includes a built-in Grafana instance for monitoring and visualizing system metrics. However, you may want to use an existing external Grafana instance to centrally manage monitoring data from multiple systems.

Step 1: Configure the external Grafana instance for anonymous access and UI embedding

The external Grafana instance must support anonymous access and UI embedding before Neutree can embed Grafana dashboards in the management interface.

Edit the Grafana configuration file (typically grafana.ini or configured via environment variables).
Enable anonymous access:
```
[auth.anonymous]
enabled = true
```
Allow UI embedding:
```
[security]
allow_embedding = true
```
Restart the Grafana service for the configuration to take effect.

Step 2: Add the Neutree metric data source in external Grafana

Configure the external Grafana data source to point to the Prometheus metric endpoint configured in Neutree.

Log in to the external Grafana management interface and navigate to Configuration (or Connections in some versions) > Data Sources.
Click Add data source and select Prometheus.
Configure the data source parameters:

Parameter Description
Name Data source name. Must be neutree-cluster.
URL Prometheus service address configured in Neutree, for example: http://<prometheus-host>:9090.
Click Save & Test to verify the connection.

Parameter	Description
Name	Data source name. Must be `neutree-cluster`.
URL	Prometheus service address configured in Neutree, for example: `http://<prometheus-host>:9090`.

Step 3: Import Neutree dashboards

Neutree provides pre-configured Grafana dashboards for displaying key system metrics.

Use the Neutree CLI tool to obtain the dashboard configuration files.

Run the following command to export the dashboard configuration files:

neutree-cli-<arch> launch obs-stack --dry-run

The exported dashboard configuration files are located in the neutree-deploy/obs-stack/grafana/dashboards directory:

tree neutree-deploy/obs-stack/grafana/dashboards

The directory structure is as follows:

neutree-deploy/obs-stack/grafana/dashboards
├── data_grafana_dashboard.json
├── dcgm_exporter_dashboard.json
├── default_grafana_dashboard.json
├── node_exporter_dashboard.json
├── overview_dashboard.json
├── router_dashboard.json
├── serve_deployment_grafana_dashboard.json
├── serve_grafana_dashboard.json
└── vllm_grafana_dashboard.json

Import the dashboards in Grafana.
1. Log in to the external Grafana management interface and navigate to Dashboards > Import.
2. Click Upload JSON file and select the downloaded dashboard JSON file, or paste the JSON content directly.
3. Complete the following configuration in the import settings:
  - Name: Keep the default dashboard name.
  - Folder: Select or create a folder to organize dashboards (for example: Default).
4. Click Import to complete the import.
Repeat the above steps to import the other dashboard files.

Step 4: Configure the external Grafana URL in Neutree

Choose the appropriate method based on your Neutree deployment to configure the external Grafana URL so that dashboards can be embedded in the Neutree management interface:

For Docker Compose deployments, use launch --grafana-url to set the external Grafana URL.
For Kubernetes deployments, refer to the Modifying monitoring component configuration section to update Grafana-related configuration, disable the built-in Grafana, and set system.grafana.url to the external Grafana URL.

Step 5: Verify the configuration

Access external Grafana and confirm that the Neutree dashboards display data correctly.
Log in to the Neutree management interface and verify that the monitoring page correctly embeds and displays the external Grafana dashboards.