Audit a Grafana instance

Auditing allows you to track important changes to your Grafana instance. By default, audit logs are logged to file but the auditing feature also supports sending logs directly to Loki.

Note: Available in Grafana Enterprise version 7.3 and later, and Grafana Cloud Advanced.

Audit logs

Audit logs are JSON objects representing user actions like:

  • Modifications to resources such as dashboards and data sources.
  • A user failing to log in.

Format

Audit logs contain the following fields. The fields followed by * are always available, the others depend on the type of action logged.

Field nameTypeDescription
timestampstringThe date and time the request was made, in coordinated universal time (UTC) using the RFC3339 format.
userobjectInformation about the user that made the request. Either one of the UserID or ApiKeyID fields will contain content if isAnonymous=false.
user.userIdnumberID of the Grafana user that made the request.
user.orgIdnumberCurrent organization of the user that made the request.
user.orgRolestringCurrent role of the user that made the request.
user.namestringName of the Grafana user that made the request.
user.tokenIdnumberID of the user authentication token.
user.apiKeyIdnumberID of the Grafana API key used to make the request.
user.isAnonymousbooleanIf an anonymous user made the request, true. Otherwise, false.
actionstringThe request action. For example, create, update, or manage-permissions.
requestobjectInformation about the HTTP request.
request.paramsobjectRequest’s path parameters.
request.queryobjectRequest’s query parameters.
request.bodystringRequest’s body.
resultobjectInformation about the HTTP response.
result.statusTypestringIf the request action was successful, success. Otherwise, failure.
result.statusCodenumberHTTP status of the request.
result.failureMessagestringHTTP error message.
result.bodystringResponse body.
resourcesarrayInformation about the resources that the request action affected. This field can be null for non-resource actions such as login or logout.
resources[x].idnumberID of the resource.
resources[x].typestringThe type of the resource that was logged: alert, alert-notification, annotation, api-key, auth-token, dashboard, datasource, folder, org, panel, playlist, report, team, user, or version.
requestUristringRequest URI.
ipAddressstringIP address that the request was made from.
userAgentstringAgent through which the request was made.
grafanaVersion*stringCurrent version of Grafana when this log is created.
additionalDataobjectAdditional information that can be provided about the request.

The additionalData field can contain the following information:

Field nameActionDescription
loginUsernameloginLogin used in the Grafana authentication form.
extUserInfologinUser information provided by the external system that was used to log in.
authTokenCountloginNumber of active authentication tokens for the user that logged in.
terminationReasonlogoutThe reason why the user logged out, such as a manual logout or a token expiring.

Recorded actions

The audit logs include records about the following categories of actions. Each action is distinguished by the action and resources[...].type fields in the JSON record.

For example, creating an API key produces an audit log like this:

  1. {
  2.   "action": "create",
  3.   "resources": [
  4.     {
  5.       "id": 1,
  6.       "type": "api-key"
  7.     }
  8.   ],
  9.   "timestamp": "2021-11-12T22:12:36.144795692Z",
  10.   "user": {
  11.     "userId": 1,
  12.     "orgId": 1,
  13.     "orgRole": "Admin",
  14.     "username": "admin",
  15.     "isAnonymous": false,
  16.     "authTokenId": 1
  17.   },
  18.   "request": {
  19.     "body": "{\"name\":\"example\",\"role\":\"Viewer\",\"secondsToLive\":null}"
  20.   },
  21.   "result": {
  22.     "statusType": "success",
  23.     "statusCode": 200,
  24.     "responseBody": "{\"id\":1,\"name\":\"example\"}"
  25.   },
  26.   "resources": [
  27.     {
  28.       "id": 1,
  29.       "type": "api-key"
  30.     }
  31.   ],
  32.   "requestUri": "/api/auth/keys",
  33.   "ipAddress": "127.0.0.1:54652",
  34.   "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:94.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/94.0",
  35.   "grafanaVersion": "8.3.0-pre"
  36. }

Some actions can only be distinguished by their requestUri fields. For those actions, the relevant pattern of the requestUri field is given.

Sessions

ActionDistinguishing fields
Log in{“action”: “login-AUTH-MODULE”}
Log out *{“action”: “logout”}
Force logout for user{“action”: “logout-user”}
Remove user authentication token{“action”: “revoke-auth-token”, “resources”: [{“type”: “auth-token”}, {“type”: “user”}]}
Create API key{“action”: “create”, “resources”: [{“type”: “api-key”}]}
Delete API key{“action”: “delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “api-key”}]}

* Where AUTH-MODULE is the name of the authentication module: grafana, saml, ldap, etc.
** Includes manual log out, token expired/revoked, and SAML Single Logout.

User management

ActionDistinguishing fields
Create user{“action”: “create”, “resources”: [{“type”: “user”}]}
Update user{“action”: “update”, “resources”: [{“type”: “user”}]}
Delete user{“action”: “delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “user”}]}
Disable user{“action”: “disable”, “resources”: [{“type”: “user”}]}
Enable user{“action”: “enable”, “resources”: [{“type”: “user”}]}
Update password{“action”: “update-password”, “resources”: [{“type”: “user”}]}
Send password reset email{“action”: “send-reset-email”}
Reset password{“action”: “reset-password”}
Update permissions{“action”: “update-permissions”, “resources”: [{“type”: “user”}]}
Send signup email{“action”: “signup-email”}
Click signup link{“action”: “signup”}
Reload LDAP configuration{“action”: “ldap-reload”}
Get user in LDAP{“action”: “ldap-search”}
Sync user with LDAP{“action”: “ldap-sync”, “resources”: [{“type”: “user”}]

Team and organization management

ActionDistinguishing fields
Add team{“action”: “create”, “requestUri”: “/api/teams”}
Update team{“action”: “update”, “requestUri”: “/api/teams/TEAM-ID”}
Delete team{“action”: “delete”, “requestUri”: “/api/teams/TEAM-ID”}
Add external group for team{“action”: “create”, “requestUri”: “/api/teams/TEAM-ID/groups”}
Remove external group for team{“action”: “delete”, “requestUri”: “/api/teams/TEAM-ID/groups/GROUP-ID”}
Add user to team{“action”: “create”, “resources”: [{“type”: “user”}, {“type”: “team”}]}
Update team member permissions{“action”: “update”, “resources”: [{“type”: “user”}, {“type”: “team”}]}
Remove user from team{“action”: “delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “user”}, {“type”: “team”}]}
Create organization{“action”: “create”, “resources”: [{“type”: “org”}]}
Update organization{“action”: “update”, “resources”: [{“type”: “org”}]}
Delete organization{“action”: “delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “org”}]}
Add user to organization{“action”: “create”, “resources”: [{“type”: “org”}, {“type”: “user”}]}
Change user role in organization{“action”: “update”, “resources”: [{“type”: “user”}, {“type”: “org”}]}
Remove user from organization{“action”: “delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “user”}, {“type”: “org”}]}
Invite external user to organization{“action”: “org-invite”, “resources”: [{“type”: “org”}, {“type”: “user”}]}
Revoke invitation{“action”: “revoke-org-invite”, “resources”: [{“type”: “org”}]}

* Where TEAM-ID is the ID of the affected team, and GROUP-ID (if present) is the ID of the external group.

Folder and dashboard management

ActionDistinguishing fields
Create folder{“action”: “create”, “resources”: [{“type”: “folder”}]}
Update folder{“action”: “update”, “resources”: [{“type”: “folder”}]}
Update folder permissions{“action”: “manage-permissions”, “resources”: [{“type”: “folder”}]}
Delete folder{“action”: “delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “folder”}]}
Create/update dashboard{“action”: “create-update”, “resources”: [{“type”: “dashboard”}]}
Import dashboard{“action”: “create”, “resources”: [{“type”: “dashboard”}]}
Update dashboard permissions{“action”: “manage-permissions”, “resources”: [{“type”: “dashboard”}]}
Restore old dashboard version{“action”: “restore”, “resources”: [{“type”: “dashboard”}]}
Delete dashboard{“action”: “delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “dashboard”}]}

Library elements management

ActionDistinguishing fields
Create library element{“action”: “create”, “resources”: [{“type”: “library-element”}]}
Update library element{“action”: “update”, “resources”: [{“type”: “library-element”}]}
Delete library element{“action”: “delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “library-element”}]}

Data sources management

ActionDistinguishing fields
Create datasource{“action”: “create”, “resources”: [{“type”: “datasource”}]}
Update datasource{“action”: “update”, “resources”: [{“type”: “datasource”}]}
Delete datasource{“action”: “delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “datasource”}]}
Enable permissions for datasource{“action”: “enable-permissions”, “resources”: [{“type”: “datasource”}]}
Disable permissions for datasource{“action”: “disable-permissions”, “resources”: [{“type”: “datasource”}]}
Grant datasource permission to role, team, or user{“action”: “create”, “resources”: [{“type”: “datasource”}, {“type”: “dspermission”}]}*
Remove datasource permission{“action”: “delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “datasource”}, {“type”: “dspermission”}]}
Enable caching for datasource{“action”: “enable-cache”, “resources”: [{“type”: “datasource”}]}
Disable caching for datasource{“action”: “disable-cache”, “resources”: [{“type”: “datasource”}]}
Update datasource caching configuration{“action”: “update”, “resources”: [{“type”: “datasource”}]}

* resources may also contain a third item with "type": set to "user" or "team".

Alerts and notification channels management

ActionDistinguishing fields
Save alert manager configuration{“action”: “update”, “requestUri”: “/api/alertmanager/RECIPIENT/config/api/v1/alerts”}
Reset alert manager configuration{“action”: “delete”, “requestUri”: “/api/alertmanager/RECIPIENT/config/api/v1/alerts”}
Create silence{“action”: “create”, “requestUri”: “/api/alertmanager/RECIPIENT/api/v2/silences”}
Delete silence{“action”: “delete”, “requestUri”: “/api/alertmanager/RECIPIENT/api/v2/silences/SILENCE-ID”}
Create alert{“action”: “create”, “requestUri”: “/api/ruler/RECIPIENT/api/v2/alerts”}
Create or update rule group{“action”: “create-update”, “requestUri”: “/api/ruler/RECIPIENT/api/v1/rules/NAMESPACE”}
Delete rule group{“action”: “delete”, “requestUri”: “/api/ruler/RECIPIENT/api/v1/rules/NAMESPACE/GROUP-NAME”}
Delete namespace{“action”: “delete”, “requestUri”: “/api/ruler/RECIPIENT/api/v1/rules/NAMESPACE”}
Test Grafana managed receivers{“action”: “test”, “requestUri”: “/api/alertmanager/RECIPIENT/config/api/v1/receivers/test”}
Create or update the NGalert configuration of the user’s organization{“action”: “create-update”, “requestUri”: “/api/v1/ngalert/admin_config”}
Delete the NGalert configuration of the user’s organization{“action”: “delete”, “requestUri”: “/api/v1/ngalert/admin_config”}

Where the following:

  • RECIPIENT is grafana for requests handled by Grafana or the data source UID for requests forwarded to a data source.
  • NAMESPACE is the string identifier for the rules namespace.
  • GROUP-NAME is the string identifier for the rules group.
  • SILENCE-ID is the ID of the affected silence.

The following legacy alerting actions are still supported:

ActionDistinguishing fields
Test alert rule{“action”: “test”, “resources”: [{“type”: “panel”}]}
Pause alert{“action”: “pause”, “resources”: [{“type”: “alert”}]}
Pause all alerts{“action”: “pause-all”}
Test alert notification channel{“action”: “test”, “resources”: [{“type”: “alert-notification”}]}
Create alert notification channel{“action”: “create”, “resources”: [{“type”: “alert-notification”}]}
Update alert notification channel{“action”: “update”, “resources”: [{“type”: “alert-notification”}]}
Delete alert notification channel{“action”: “delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “alert-notification”}]}

Reporting

ActionDistinguishing fields
Create report{“action”: “create”, “resources”: [{“type”: “report”}, {“type”: “dashboard”}]}
Update report{“action”: “update”, “resources”: [{“type”: “report”}, {“type”: “dashboard”}]}
Delete report{“action”: “delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “report”}]}
Send report by email{“action”: “email”, “resources”: [{“type”: “report”}]}
Update reporting settings{“action”: “change-settings”}

Annotations, playlists and snapshots management

ActionDistinguishing fields
Create annotation{“action”: “create”, “resources”: [{“type”: “annotation”}]}
Create Graphite annotation{“action”: “create-graphite”, “resources”: [{“type”: “annotation”}]}
Update annotation{“action”: “update”, “resources”: [{“type”: “annotation”}]}
Patch annotation{“action”: “patch”, “resources”: [{“type”: “annotation”}]}
Delete annotation{“action”: “delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “annotation”}]}
Delete all annotations from panel{“action”: “mass-delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “dashboard”}, {“type”: “panel”}]}
Create playlist{“action”: “create”, “resources”: [{“type”: “playlist”}]}
Update playlist{“action”: “update”, “resources”: [{“type”: “playlist”}]}
Delete playlist{“action”: “delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “playlist”}]}
Create a snapshot{“action”: “create”, “resources”: [{“type”: “dashboard”}, {“type”: “snapshot”}]}
Delete a snapshot{“action”: “delete”, “resources”: [{“type”: “snapshot”}]}

Provisioning

ActionDistinguishing fields
Reload provisioned dashboards{“action”: “provisioning-dashboards”}
Reload provisioned datasources{“action”: “provisioning-datasources”}
Reload provisioned plugins{“action”: “provisioning-plugins”}
Reload provisioned notifications{“action”: “provisioning-notifications”}

Plugins management

ActionDistinguishing fields
Install plugin{“action”: “install”}
Uninstall plugin{“action”: “uninstall”}

Miscellaneous

ActionDistinguishing fields
Set licensing token{“action”: “create”, “requestUri”: “/api/licensing/token”}

Configuration

Note: The auditing feature is disabled by default.

Audit logs can be saved into files, sent to a Loki instance or sent to the Grafana default logger. By default, only the file exporter is enabled. You can choose which exporter to use in the configuration file.

Options are file, loki, and logger. Use spaces to separate multiple modes, such as file loki.

By default, when a user creates or updates a dashboard, its content will not appear in the logs as it can significantly increase the size of your logs. If this is important information for you and you can handle the amount of data generated, then you can enable this option in the configuration.

  1. [auditing]
  2. # Enable the auditing feature
  3. enabled = false
  4. # List of enabled loggers
  5. loggers = file
  6. # Keep dashboard content in the logs (request or response fields); this can significantly increase the size of your logs.
  7. log_dashboard_content = false
  8. # Log all GET requests and always include request body for generic POST/PUT/PATCH requests.
  9. verbose = false
  10. # By default Grafana logs requests even if the status code indicates that no changes to the system were made.
  11. # Set to false to only log requests with 2xx, 3xx, 401, 403, 500 responses.
  12. log_all_status_codes = true

Each exporter has its own configuration fields.

File exporter

Audit logs are saved into files. You can configure the folder to use to save these files. Logs are rotated when the file size is exceeded and at the start of a new day.

  1. [auditing.logs.file]
  2. # Path to logs folder
  3. path = data/log
  4. # Maximum log files to keep
  5. max_files = 5
  6. # Max size in megabytes per log file
  7. max_file_size_mb = 256

Loki exporter

Audit logs are sent to a Loki service, through HTTP or gRPC.

Note: The HTTP option for the Loki exporter is available only in Grafana Enterprise version 7.4 and later.

  1. [auditing.logs.loki]
  2. # Set the communication protocol to use with Loki (can be grpc or http)
  3. type = grpc
  4. # Set the address for writing logs to Loki (format must be host:port)
  5. url = localhost:9095
  6. # Defaults to true. If true, it establishes a secure connection to Loki
  7. tls = true

If you have multiple Grafana instances sending logs to the same Loki service or if you are using Loki for non-audit logs, audit logs come with additional labels to help identifying them:

  • host - OS hostname on which the Grafana instance is running.
  • grafana_instance - Application URL.
  • kind - auditing

Console exporter

Audit logs are sent to the Grafana default logger. The audit logs use the auditing.console logger and are logged on debug-level, learn how to enable debug logging in the log configuration section of the documentation. Accessing the audit logs in this way is not recommended for production use.