Create Dynamics CRM-Connected Dashboards in Grafana


Connect to Dynamics CRM Data via CData Connect Cloud in Grafana and create custom business dashboards with real-time access to Dynamics CRM data.

Grafana is an open-source platform that allows users to analyze, monitor, and visualize telemetry from various data sources. When combined with CData Connect Cloud, you gain immediate access to Dynamics CRM data for business dashboards. This article outlines the process of connecting to Dynamics CRM using Connect Cloud and creating a basic dashboard from Dynamics CRM data within Grafana.

CData Connect Cloud offers a pure SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for Dynamics CRM, enabling the creation of dashboards directly from live Dynamics CRM data within Grafana, all without the need for data replication to a native database. As you build visualizations, Grafana generates SQL queries to gather data. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect Cloud efficiently channels all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to Dynamics CRM. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested Dynamics CRM data.

About Dynamics CRM Data Integration

CData simplifies access and integration of live Microsoft Dynamics CRM data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:

  • Read and write data in the Dynamics CRM 2011+ Services and Dynamics CRM Online.
  • Extend the native features of Dynamics CRM with customizable caching and intelligent query aggregation and separation.
  • Authenticate securely with Dynamics CRM in a variety of ways, including Azure Active Directory, Azure Managed Service Identity credentials, and Azure Service Principal using either a client secret or a certificate.

CData customers use our Dynamics CRM connectivity solutions for a variety of reasons, whether they're looking to replicate their data into a data warehouse (alongside other data sources) or analyze live Dynamics CRMa data from their preferred data tools inside the Microsoft ecosystem (Power BI, Excel, etc.) or with external tools (Tableau, Looker, etc.).


Getting Started


Configure Dynamics CRM Connectivity for Grafana

Connectivity to Dynamics CRM from Grafana is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Dynamics CRM data from Grafana, we start by creating and configuring a Dynamics CRM connection.

  1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
  2. Select "Dynamics CRM" from the Add Connection panel
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics CRM.

    The connection string options meet the authentication and connection requirements of different Dynamics CRM instances. To connect to your instance, set the User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, to valid Dynamics CRM user credentials and set the Url to a valid Dynamics CRM server organization root. Additionally, set the CRMVersion property to 'CRM2011+' or 'CRMOnline'. IFD configurations are supported as well; set InternetFacingDeployment to true.

    Additionally, you can provide the security token service (STS) or AD FS endpoint in the STSURL property. This value can be retrieved with the GetSTSUrl stored procedure. Office 365 users can connect to the default STS URL by simply setting CRMVersion.

  4. Click Create & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Dynamics CRM Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

  1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
  2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
  4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Dynamics CRM data from Grafana.

Visualize Live Dynamics CRM Data in Grafana

To establish a connection from Grafana to the CData Connect Cloud Virtual SQL Server API, follow these steps.

  1. If you have not already done so, download and install Grafana for your operating system from the Grafana Website. Once installed, access Grafana at http://localhost:3000/.
  2. Log in to Grafana with your username and password for Grafana. If this is your first time logging in, the username is admin and the password is admin.
  3. On the navigation menu, click Connections > Add new connection. On this page, you can search for Microsoft SQL Server and select it as your data source.
  4. Select Microsoft SQL Server and click Add new data source.
  5. Enter a name for the new data source and then enter the following connection settings:
    • Host: tds.cdata.com:14333
    • Database: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect Cloud data source you want to connect to (for example, DynamicsCRM1).
    • Username: enter your CData Connect Cloud username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect Cloud interface. For example, test@cdata.com.
    • Password: enter the PAT you previously generated.
  6. Click Save & Test. A Database Connect OK message appears when you have a successful connection established.

Create a Dashboard

Once you create the data source for Dynamics CRM, you can start building dashboards on Dynamics CRM data. Start in the navigation menu and click Dashboards

  1. On the Dashboards page, click + Create dashboard, then click + Add visualization.
  2. This opens the Select data source window where you can select your created connection.
  3. After selecting your connection, you can choose the tables and columns that you want to query for your visualization. Then press Run Query to run the generated query.
  4. After running your query, the resulting data is populated above the query editor. Here you can select the visualization that you want to use to present your data on the dashboard panel.
  5. When you have finished editing your panel, you can click Save dashboard to save the changes made to your Dashboard.

To get live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect Cloud today!

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