Create Amazon DynamoDB-Connected Dashboards in Grafana

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 Amazon DynamoDB data for business dashboards. This article outlines the process of connecting to Amazon DynamoDB using Connect Cloud and creating a basic dashboard from Amazon DynamoDB data within Grafana.

CData Connect Cloud offers a pure SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for Amazon DynamoDB, enabling the creation of dashboards directly from live Amazon DynamoDB 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 Amazon DynamoDB. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested Amazon DynamoDB data.

Configure Amazon DynamoDB Connectivity for Grafana

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

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

   The connection to Amazon DynamoDB is made using your AccessKey, SecretKey, and optionally your Domain and Region. Your AccessKey and SecretKey can be obtained on the security credentials page for your Amazon Web Services account. Your Region will be displayed in the upper left-hand corner when you are logged into DynamoDB.

   
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Amazon DynamoDB 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 Amazon DynamoDB data from Grafana.

Visualize Live Amazon DynamoDB 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, AmazonDynamoDB1).
   • 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 Amazon DynamoDB, you can start building dashboards on Amazon DynamoDB 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!