Important: This documentation is about an older version. It's relevant only to the release noted, many of the features and functions have been updated or replaced. Please view the current version.
API keys
An API key is a randomly generated string that external systems use to interact with Grafana HTTP APIs.
When you create an API key, you specify a Role that determines the permissions associated with the API key. Role permissions control that actions the API key can perform on Grafana resources.
Note: If you use Grafana v8.5 or newer, use service accounts instead of API keys. For more information, refer to Grafana service accounts.
Create an API key
Create an API key when you want to manage your computed workload with a user.
This topic shows you how to create an API key using the Grafana UI. You can also create an API key using the Grafana HTTP API. For more information about creating API keys via the API, refer to Create API key via API.
Before you begin
To follow these instructions, you need at least one of the following:
Administrator permissions
Editor permissions
Service account writer
To ensure you have permission to create and edit API keys, follow the instructions in Roles and permissions.
Steps
To create an API, complete the following steps:
- Sign in to Grafana.
- Click Administration in the left-side menu and select API Keys.
- Click Add API key.
- Enter a unique name for the key.
- In the Role field, select one of the following access levels you want to assign to the key.
- Admin: Enables a user to use APIs at the broadest, most powerful administrative level.
- Editor or Viewer to limit the key’s users to those levels of power.
- In the Time to live field, specify how long you want the key to be valid.
- The maximum length of time is 30 days (one month). You enter a number and a letter. Valid letters include
s
for seconds,m
for minutes,h
for hours,d
for days,w
for weeks, andM
for month. For example,12h
is 12 hours and1M
is 1 month (30 days). - If you are unsure about how long an API key should be valid, we recommend that you choose a short duration, such as a few hours. This approach limits the risk of having API keys that are valid for a long time.
- The maximum length of time is 30 days (one month). You enter a number and a letter. Valid letters include
- Click Add.
Migrate API keys to Grafana service accounts
As an alternative to using API keys for authentication, you can use a service account-based authentication system. When compared to API keys, service accounts have limited scopes that provide more security than using API keys.
For more information about the benefits of service accounts, refer to Grafana service account benefits.
The service account endpoints generate a machine user for authentication instead of using API keys. When you migrate an API key to a service account, a service account will be created with a service account token.
Note: If you are using API keys for authentication, we recommend that you migrate your integration to the service account authentication method. The API key will continue to work. You can locate the API key in the Grafana service account tokens details.
Ways of migrating API keys to service accounts
If you are currently using API keys in your environment, you need to reconfigure your setup to use service accounts.
Depending on your current setup, you may need to use one or all of the following methods to migrate your environment to service accounts:
- The Grafana user interface: Use this method if you have been using the UI to manage your API keys and want to switch to using service accounts.
- The Grafana API: Use this method if you have been using API calls to manage your API keys and want to switch to using service accounts programmatically.
- Terraform: If you have a Terraform configuration that sets up API keys, you need to reconfigure your Terraform to use service accounts instead.
By following these steps, you can successfully migrate your integration from API keys to service accounts and continue using Grafana seamlessly.
Migrate API keys to Grafana service accounts using the Grafana user interface
This section shows you how to migrate API keys to Grafana service accounts using the Grafana user interface. You can choose to migrate a single API key or all API keys. When you migrate all API keys, you can no longer create API keys and must use service accounts instead.
Before you begin
To follow these instructions, you need at least one of the following:
- Administrator permissions
- Editor permissions
- Service account writer
For more information about permissions, refer to Roles and permissions.
Steps
To migrate all API keys to service accounts, complete the following steps:
- Sign in to Grafana, point to Configuration (the gear icon), and click API Keys.
- In the top of the page, find the section which says Switch from API keys to service accounts
- Click Migrate to service accounts now.
- A confirmation window will appear, asking to confirm the migration. Click Yes, migrate now if you are willing to continue.
- Once migration is successful, you can choose to forever hide the API keys page. Click Hide API keys page forever if you want to do that.
To migrate a single API key to a service account, complete the following steps:
- Sign in to Grafana.
- Click Administration in the left-side menu and select API Keys.
- Find the API Key you want to migrate.
- Click Migrate to service account.
Migrate API keys to Grafana service accounts using the API
This section shows you how to migrate API keys to Grafana service accounts using the Grafana API.
Before you begin
To follow these instructions, you need one of the following:
- Administrator permissions
- Editor permissions
- Service account writer
Steps
Complete the following steps to migrate from API keys to service accounts using the API:
Call the
POST /api/serviceaccounts
endpoint and thePOST /api/serviceaccounts/<id>/tokens
.This action generates a service account token.
Store the ID and secret that the system returns to you.
Pass the token in the
Authorization
header, prefixed withBearer
.This action authenticates API requests.
SATs used for authentication
Remove code that handles the old
/api/auth/keys
endpoint.Track the API keys in use and migrate them to SATs.
Migrate API keys to Grafana service accounts using Terraform
This section shows you how to migrate API keys to Grafana service accounts using Terraform.
Steps
Complete the following steps to migrate from API keys to service accounts using Terraform:
- Generate
grafana_service_account
andgrafana_service_account_token
resources. - Specify the desired scopes and expiration date when creating the service account.
- Use the token returned from
grafana_service_account_token
to authenticate the API requests. - Remove the terraform configuration for creating your
grafana_api_key
resources.