Practical Time Series Tools - Time Series Databases - page 50

While it is possible to use Hive to analyze Open TSDB data, it is currently quite difficult.
Spark is likely a better option.
Adding Grafana or Metrilyx for Nicer Dashboards
The default user interface for Open TSDB is very basic and not suitable for building embed-
ded dashboards; it definitely is a bit too prickly for most ordinary users. In addition, the plots
are produced using a tool called Gnuplot, whose default plot format looks very dated. A
more convenient visualization interface is desirable.
One good solution is the open source dashboard editor known as Grafana. The Open TSDB
REST API can provide access to data, and the team behind the Grafana project has used that
access to build a high-quality data visualization interface for Open TSDB and other time
series databases such as InfluxDB. A sample result is shown in Figure 4-4 .
Figure 4-4. A sample plot from Grafana. This plot is taken from the sample instance that can be ac-
cessed from the project home page .
Installation of Grafana is quite simple because it runs entirely on the client side using
JavaScript. All you need to run Grafana is a web server that can serve static files such as
Twistd or nginx. You will also have to make sure that your users' browsers can access the
Open TSDB REST interface either directly or through a proxy. Using a proxy is a good idea
if you want to ensure that users see data but can't modify it. If you want to allow users to