How to Install Grafana on CentOS 8

Grafana is a widespread platform for data visualization and monitoring, supporting various data sources such as databases, cloud services, and custom APIs. This enables users to create interactive dashboards and graphs for visualizing their data.

In short, Grafana facilitates the extraction of data from multiple sources and the sharing of insights through graphical dashboards.

In this post, you will explore the following sections in detail;

• Install and Configure Grafana on CentOS 8.
• Remove Grafana from CentOS 8.

How to Install and Configure Grafana on CentOS 8?

Grafana can be installed through the following steps.

Step 1: Update the CentOS Repository

Run the command from the CLI to update your CentOS 8 system repository:

sudo dnf update -y

Ensure that all installed packages on your CentOS system are up to date.

Step 2: Download Grafana GPG Key

To install Grafana from the RPM repository, you will need to run the following command to download the GPG key for Grafana:

wget -q -O gpg.key https://rpm.grafana.com/gpg.key

If nothing is returned in your output, indicating that the GPG key for the package has been downloaded successfully.

Step 3: Import Grafana GPG Key

After downloading the GPG key, use the “rpm” with the “–import” option followed by the “gpg.key” to import the key:

sudo rpm --import gpg.key

This command enables your CentOS system to authenticate the Grafana packages you will install from the repository.

Step 4: Configure Grafana Repository

Now, let’s create a configuration file for Grafana using the following command:

sudo nano /etc/yum.repos.d/grafana.repo

In the “grafana.repo” file, copy the provided below content and save it:

[grafana] 
name=grafana 
baseurl=https://rpm.grafana.com 
repo_gpgcheck=1 
enabled=1 
gpgcheck=1 
gpgkey=https://rpm.grafana.com/gpg.key 
sslverify=1 
sslcacert=/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt 
exclude=*beta*

You can prevent beta versions from being installed by adding the “exclude=*beta*” line at the end of your configuration file.

Step 5: Install Grafana

Once the Grafana configuration file is created, now utilize the “dnf” to install the Grafana package on your CentOS 8:

sudo dnf install grafana

When this command executes, you will notice that it will install the Grafana package along with dependencies on your CentOS 8.

Step 6: Enable Grafana Service using “systemctl”

You can use the “systemctl” in the following manner to enable the Grafana service on your system:

sudo systemctl enable grafana-server

The Grafana server is now enabled, as shown in the screenshot above.

Step 7: Start Grafana Service

Utilized the provided command to initiate the Grafana server:

sudo systemctl start grafana-server

Step 8: Check the Grafana Status

To confirm that the Grafana is active and running correctly, operate the command in your CentOS 8 terminal:

sudo systemctl status grafana-server

As shown in the screenshot above, the Grafana services are now actively running on your CentOS 8 system.

This message indicates that you have successfully downloaded, installed, and configured the Grafana on your CentOS 8.

How to Remove Grafana from CentOS 8?

To uninstall the Grafana from your CentOS 8, just follow these instructions.

Step 1: Stop Grafana Service

Before removing the Grafana package from your CentOS 8, run the command to stop the Grafana services:

sudo systemctl stop grafana-server

After stopping the Grafana services, proceed with the next step to remove it from your system.

Step 2: Uninstall Grafana

Next, utilize the “dnf” package manager to uninstall the Grafana package from your CentOS 8 system:

sudo dnf remove grafana

When you run this command in the CentOS 8 terminal, it will uninstall the Grafana package from your system, including associated files and dependencies.

Conclusion

On the CentOS 8 system, you can install Grafana using the RPM repository. To install it securely, you need to import the GPG key for the Grafana and then use the command “sudo dnf install grafana” to install the completed package on your CentOS 8 system.

In this learning-based post, you learned how to install Grafana on the CentOS 8 system from the RPM repository.