Grafana 10.3 release: Canvas panel updates, multi-stack data sources, and more
Grafana 10.3 is here!
The latest version of Grafana brings advanced controls for anonymous access in your Grafana instance and new options for multi-stack data source configuration in Grafana Cloud.
The release also enhances Grafana visualizations, with additions like pan and zoom for the canvas panel and updated tooltips for better data interpretation. Plus improvements in Grafana Alerting and log analysis capabilities provide more efficient monitoring and troubleshooting tools.
For a detailed overview of Grafana 10.3, refer to our What’s New documentation and the changelog.
Let’s explore what Grafana 10.3 has to offer!
Note: To resolve a technical issue within the Grafana release package management process, we are simultaneously releasing Grafana 10.3.0 and Grafana 10.3.1.
The Grafana 10.3.1 release contains no breaking or functional changes from 10.3.0. Please refer to the What’s New documentation for Grafana 10.3.0 for details on new features and changes in the Grafana 10.3.1 release.
Grafana visualizations 📈
Improved tooltips for data visualization
Available in public preview in all editions of Grafana
The new tooltips in Grafana feature color indicators for easy data distinction, uniform time display across panels, and support for longer labels. These updates provide more detailed information and a more consistent user experience across all Grafana panels.
Initially available in visualizations like time series, trend, heatmap, status history, candlestick, state timeline, and XY chart, the enhanced tooltips will also expand to more visualizations.
Learn more about tooltips in our documentation.
Canvas panel: New zoom and pan functionality
Available in public preview in all editions of Grafana
Within a Canvas panel, which is an extensible form-built visualization that allows you to place elements within static and dynamic layouts, you can now pan out and zoom into data. This allows you to create more complex visual layouts while maintaining the ability to navigate your data and drill down into granular details.
This feature is particularly valuable for those working with large-scale or highly detailed canvas visualizations.
To enable the pan and zoom feature for your canvas panel, you must first enable the canvasPanelPanZoom feature toggle or contact Grafana Support to enable this feature in Grafana Cloud.
Learn more about the canvas panel in our documentation.
Track metric changes over time in stat panels
Generally available in all editions of Grafana
In Grafana 10.3, you can view percent changes in stat visualizations, making it easier to understand how your metrics evolve.
We’ve integrated color indicators for percent change to give you a quick, intuitive way to spot trends in your data. If there’s no background color or gradient in your stat visualization, the percent change will appear in red or green—depending on whether the value is negative or positive.
You can activate the percent change display in the stat styles editor of your Grafana dashboard. To learn more, check out our stat panels documentation.
Visualize the state of your system and service health
Generally available in all editions of Grafana
Plotting enum values in time series and state timeline visualizations are useful for visualizing the state of your systems, such as service status or device health.
Whether you’re tracking the status of a service as on, standby, or off, or monitoring the overall health of a device, this feature brings a new dimension to your visualizations. Grafana provides the convert field transformation to display enum values, allowing you to convert a desired field to the enum field type.
Further customization is possible with the enum transformation editor, where you can rearrange, remove, or add custom values to tailor the visualization to your needs. This feature extends beyond just time series visualizations; it is also applicable in state timeline visualizations, enabling you to see the status of a resource over time, alongside other metric data.
To learn more, read our transformations documentation.
Managing Grafana instances 🤓
More control over your instance with anonymous access
Generally available in Grafana open source and Grafana Enterprise
We’ve identified a need for users who enable anonymous authentication to monitor the anonymous devices connected to their Grafana instance. Anonymous access allows you to monitor and manage anonymous users on your Grafana instance closely. You’ll also see devices that have accessed Grafana anonymously in the last 30 days directly on your user page, complete with usage statistics such as device count.
Plus, you can now limit the number of anonymous devices connected to your instance. Once this limit is reached, any additional anonymous devices attempting to connect will be blocked until space becomes available. This gives you better control over your instance’s security and resource management.
To learn more, read our anonymous access documentation.
Query across multi-stack data sources
Available in public preview in Grafana Cloud
Setting up multi-stack data sources can streamline your querying process if you manage metrics or logs across multiple tenants in Grafana Cloud. This feature lets you query data across different stacks simultaneously, making gathering insights from multiple sources simpler and faster.
Multi-stack data sources are designed for users with multiple tenants, optimizing cost and regulatory compliance while improving the querying experience. (Note: If you’re a Grafana Cloud Free user, this feature is available but may be less applicable due to the one-stack limit.)
To learn more, read our multi-stack data sources documentation.
Share complete table data in PDF reports
Available in public preview in all editions of Grafana
We have improved the reporting experience so when creating a report, you’ll find two new options:
- Embed all table data as a PDF appendix, keeping your dashboard layout intact while providing complete data in the same document.
- Generate a separate PDF for table data, offering a clear, dedicated document for detailed table information.
This feature is especially useful if you’re presenting to audiences who need full access to data without the complexity of navigating CSV exports. It ensures that all stakeholders can easily understand and analyze the data presented.
To enable this feature, simply activate the pdfTables feature toggle in your configuration file. To learn more, read our reporting documentation.
Grafana Alerting 🔔
Alerting contact points: better organization and visibility
Generally available in all editions of Grafana
Revamping the alerting contact point UI simplifies and improves your alert management experience, offering better organization and visibility for alerting contact points.
This update introduces two new tabs for contact points and notification templates, and a convenient search feature to easily find alerting contact points by name or receiver type.
The UI now clearly displays which notification policies are linked to each contact point along with useful metadata about the integration, making it easier to understand your alert configurations.
Plus, the update identifies unused alerting contact points and improves the integration with Grafana OnCall, streamlining your alert management process.
To learn more, check out our Grafana Alerting documentation.
Log analysis 🪵
Improved search and queries with the popover menu
Available in public preview in all editions of Grafana
Log analysis becomes easier with the new popover menu in Grafana.
When you select part of a log line, the popover menu appears and automatically offers options to copy your text and add filters that match or exclude your selected text. This makes refining searches and adjusting queries easier and removes some of the manual editing necessary to fine-tune your query. It’s compatible with various log data sources, such as Grafana Loki and Elasticsearch, and works efficiently in single and mixed data source modes.
Learn more about Grafana 10.3
For an in-depth list of all the new features in Grafana 10.3, check out our Grafana documentation, the Grafana changelog, or our What’s New documentation.
Join the Grafana Labs community
We invite you to engage with the Grafana Labs community forums. Share your experiences with the new features, discuss best practices, and explore creative ways to integrate these updates into your workflows. Your insights and use cases are invaluable in enriching the Grafana ecosystem.
Upgrade to Grafana 10.3
Download Grafana 10.3 today or experience all the new features by signing up for Grafana Cloud, which offers an actually useful forever-free tier and plans for every use case. Sign up for a free Grafana Cloud account today.
Our Grafana upgrade guide also provides step-by-step instructions for those looking to upgrade from an earlier version to ensure a smooth transition.
A special thanks to our community
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Grafana community!
Your contributions, ranging from pull requests to valuable feedback, are crucial in continually enhancing Grafana. And your enthusiasm and dedication inspire us at Grafana Labs to persistently innovate and elevate the Grafana platform.
Grafana Cloud is the easiest way to get started with metrics, logs, traces, dashboards, and more. We have a generous forever-free tier and plans for every use case. Sign up for free now!
