Installing and Configuring Graphite on Ubuntu 22.04

Graphite

Ubuntu

Reviewed on March 06, 2025

Graphite is a popular tool for monitoring and visualizing time-series data. It performs two main functions:

1. Efficient Time-Series Data Storage: Graphite stores time-related data with minimal resource usage and ensures data integrity.
2. Flexible Visualization and Data Manipulation: It allows you to visualize the stored data and perform mathematical operations (like sum, scaling, or grouping) in real-time.

This tutorial provides the steps needed to install and configure Graphite on Ubuntu 22.04 and get started with monitoring and visualizing your metrics.

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

• A Scaleway account logged into the console
• Owner status or IAM permissions that allow performing actions in the intended Organization
• An SSH key for server access
• An Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Instance up and running
• API key for interacting with Scaleway’s services
• sudo privileges or root user access to the system

Installing Graphite

1. Update the system to make sure all packages are up to date:

   sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

2. Install the required packages for Graphite:

   sudo apt install -y graphite-web graphite-carbon

Configuring the Graphite web application

1. Edit the configuration file for the web interface:

   sudo nano /etc/graphite/local_settings.py

2. Set a SECRET_KEY to secure Graphite (you can generate a secure key online or use openssl):

   SECRET_KEY = 'your_generated_secure_key'

3. Set the correct TIME_ZONE (adjust to your local timezone, e.g. Europe/Paris):

   TIME_ZONE = 'Europe/Paris'

4. Save the file and quit the editor.

5. Migrate the database to set up the initial database schema:

   sudo graphite-manage migrate

Configuring Carbon (storage backend)

1. Edit the Carbon configuration to ensure it starts on boot:

   sudo nano /etc/default/graphite-carbon

2. Change the CARBON_CACHE_ENABLED option to true:

   CARBON_CACHE_ENABLED=true

3. Save and quit the editor.

4. Configure Carbon settings for data retention:

   sudo nano /etc/carbon/carbon.conf

5. Set log rotation to True for better system management:

   ENABLE_LOGROTATION = True

6. Save and quit.

Configuring storage schemas

1. Open the storage schemas file to adjust retention policies:

   sudo nano /etc/carbon/storage-schemas.conf

2. Update the file to include your custom retention settings. Here’s an example:

   [test]
   pattern = ^test\.
   retentions = 10s:10m,1m:1h,10m:1d

   This configuration stores the data with varying levels of detail, from 10-second intervals to 10-minute intervals, depending on the data's age.

3. Save and close the file.

Defining storage aggregation methods

To accurately aggregate your data, you can modify how Graphite aggregates metrics:

1. Copy the example configuration to the correct directory:

   sudo cp /usr/share/doc/graphite-carbon/examples/storage-aggregation.conf.example /etc/carbon/storage-aggregation.conf

2. Edit the aggregation file:

   sudo nano /etc/carbon/storage-aggregation.conf

3. Adjust the aggregationMethod to suit your data collection needs (e.g., sum for event counts, average for metrics like temperature):

   [min]
   pattern = \.min$
   xFilesFactor = 0.1
   aggregationMethod = min

4. Save and close the file.

5. Start the Carbon service to begin storing and aggregating data:

   sudo service carbon-cache start

Installing and configuring Apache

To access the Graphite web interface, you need a web server. Here, we'll use Apache.

1. Install Apache and the required modules for Python 3:

   sudo apt install -y apache2 libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3

2. Disable the default site to prevent conflicts:

   sudo a2dissite 000-default

3. Copy the Graphite Apache configuration:

   sudo cp /usr/share/graphite-web/apache2-graphite.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/

4. Enable the Graphite site:

   sudo a2ensite apache2-graphite

5. Reload Apache to apply changes:

   sudo service apache2 reload

6. Verify the web interface by opening your browser and navigating to http://YOUR_SERVER_IP.

Discovering the web interface

1. Log into Graphite using the credentials you set during migration, or create a new superuser if needed:

   sudo graphite-manage createsuperuser

2. Access your carbon metrics from the menu on the left to view data collected by Graphite.

3. Create dashboards to monitor various metrics and visualize your data.

Feeding data to Graphite

Now that Graphite is set up, you can send data to it. For simplicity, use the Plaintext protocol to send data directly from the terminal:

1. Send test data using the following command:

   echo "test.count 42 $(date +%s)" | nc -q0 localhost 2003

   This sends a metric named test.count with the value 42.

2. Refresh the Graphite interface and see your new data displayed under the test schema.

3. Adjust the time range in Graphite to see how the data appears over different periods.

Conclusion

You have now successfully installed and configured Graphite on Ubuntu 22.04. You've learned how to:

• Set up the Graphite web application and configure the backend with Carbon.
• Set data retention policies and aggregation methods.
• Feed test data into Graphite and visualize it through the web interface.

For production environments, consider using tools to automate data collection, as sending metrics via the terminal is not recommended for long-term use.

For more details, refer to the official Graphite documentation.