Create QA dashboards with Grafana (Part 1) –

Since I have my new role (Head of QA), many employees constantly want metrics from me. That means a lot of work for me. But since I do not always want to deal with such things, I have searched for a simpler way. So the question was – how can I deliver this data at any time and possibly from different sources (eq. JIRA, pipelines, test results, Salesforce, etc.)? Hmmm … Grafana is awesome – not only for DevOps! So in this tutorial series, I’d like to show you how to create nice and meaningful dashboards for your QA metrics in Grafana.

What you need?

Docker installed (latest version)
Bash (min. 3.2.x)

Prepare the project

In order to create dashboards in Grafana, you need a small environment (Grafana/InfluxDB) as well as some data. The next steps will help you to create them. The environment/services are simulated by docker containers. For the fictitious data, just use the bash script which I created for this tutorial.

# create project
$ mkdir -p ~/Projects/GrafanaDemo && cd ~/Projects/GrafanaDemo

# create file docker-compose.yml
$ touch docker-compose.yml

# create file CreateData.sh
$ touch CreateData.sh

# change file permissions
$ chmod u+x CreateData.sh

Now copy/paste the content of the two files with your favorite editor. The content of docker-compose.yml.

version: '3'

networks:
  grafana-demo:
    driver: bridge
    ipam:
      driver: default
      config:
        - subnet: 10.1.0.0/24

services:

  influxdb:
    container_name: influxdb
    networks:
      grafana-demo:
        ipv4_address: 10.1.0.10
    ports:
      - '8086:8086'
    image: influxdb

  grafana:
    container_name: grafana
    networks:
      grafana-demo:
        ipv4_address: 10.1.0.20
    ports:
      - '3000:3000'
    image: grafana/grafana
    environment:
      - 'GF_INSTALL_PLUGINS=grafana-piechart-panel'
    depends_on:
      - influxdb

And here the content of CreateData.sh.

#!/usr/bin/env  bash

# shell options
#set -x
#set -v
set -e
set -u
set -f

# magic variables
declare -r OPTS="htsp"
declare -a TIMESTAMPS
declare -a OPTIONS=(false false false)
declare -r -a DATABASES=(test_db support_db pipeline_db)
declare -r -a TESTER=(Tina Robert)
declare -r -a SUPPORTER=(Jennifer Mary Tom)
declare -r -a STAGES=(S1 S2 S3)
declare -r -a BUILD=(SUCCESS FAILURE ABORTED)
declare -r -i SUCCESS=0
declare -r -i BAD_ARGS=85
declare -r -i NO_ARGS=86

# functions
function usage() {
  local count
  local file_name=$(basename "$0")

  printf "Usage: %s [options...]\n" "$file_name"
  for (( count=1; count<${#OPTS}; count++ )); do
    printf "%s\tcreate %s and content\n" "-${OPTS:$count:1}" "${DATABASES[$count - 1]}"
  done
  exit "$SUCCESS"
}

function bad_args() {
  printf "Error: Wrong arguments supplied\n"
  usage
  exit "$BAD_ARGS"
}

function no_args() {
  printf "Error: No options were passed\n"
  usage
  exit "$NO_ARGS"
}

function create_timestamp_array() {
  local counter=1
  local timestamp

  while [ "$counter" -le 30 ]; do
    timestamp=$(date -v -"$counter"d +"%s")
    TIMESTAMPS+=("$timestamp")
    ((counter++))
  done
}

function curl_post() {
  local url=$(printf 'http://localhost:8086/write?db=%s&precision=s' "$2")

  curl -i -X POST "$url" --data-binary "$1"
}

function create_test_results() {
  local passed
  local failed
  local skipped
  local count
  local str

  for count in "${TESTER[@]}"; do
    passed=$((RANDOM % 30 + 20))
    failed=$((RANDOM % passed))
    skipped=$((passed - failed))
    str=$(printf 'suite,app=demo,qa=%s passed=%i,failed=%i,skipped=%i %i' "$count" "$passed" "$failed" "$skipped" "$1")
    echo "$2: $str"
    curl_post "$str" "$2"
  done
}

function create_support_results() {
  local items=(1 2 none)
  local in
  local out
  local str
  local count

  for count in "${SUPPORTER[@]}"; do
    in=$((RANDOM % 25))
    out=$((RANDOM % 25))
    str=$(printf 'tickets,support=%s in=%i,out=%i %i' "$count" "$in" "$out" "$1")
    echo "$2: $str"
    curl_post "$str" "$2"
  done
}

function create_pipeline_results() {
  local status
  local duration
  local str
  local count

  for count in "${STAGES[@]}"; do
    status=${BUILD[$RANDOM % ${#BUILD[@]} ]}
    duration=$(( 3+RANDOM%(3-17) )).$(( RANDOM%999 ))
    str=$(printf 'pipeline,stage=%s status="%s",duration=%s %i' "$count" "$status" "$duration" "$1")
    echo "$2: $str"
    curl_post "$str" "$2"
  done
}

function main() {
  local repeat=$(printf '=%.0s' {1..80})

  create_timestamp_array

  for ((i = 0; i < ${#OPTIONS[@]}; ++i)); do
    if [[ "${OPTIONS[$i]}" == "true" ]]; then
      printf "Create database: %s\n" "${DATABASES[$i]}"
      printf "%s\n" "$repeat"
      curl -i -X POST http://localhost:8086/query --data-urlencode "q=CREATE DATABASE ${DATABASES[$i]}"
      printf "Generate content of database: %s\n" "${DATABASES[$i]}"
      printf "%s\n" "$repeat"
      for item in "${TIMESTAMPS[@]}"; do
        if [[ "${DATABASES[$i]}" == "${DATABASES[0]}" ]]; then
          create_test_results "$item" "${DATABASES[$i]}"
        fi
        if [[ "${DATABASES[$i]}" == "${DATABASES[1]}" ]]; then
          create_support_results "$item" "${DATABASES[$i]}"
        fi
        if [[ "${DATABASES[$i]}" == "${DATABASES[2]}" ]]; then
          create_pipeline_results "$item" "${DATABASES[$i]}"
        fi
      done
    fi
  done
}

# script arguments
while getopts "$OPTS" OPTION; do
  case "$OPTION" in
    h)
        usage;;
    t)
        OPTIONS[0]="true";;
    s)
        OPTIONS[1]="true";;
    p)
        OPTIONS[2]="true";;
    *)
        bad_args;;
  esac
done

if [ $OPTIND -eq 1 ]; then
  no_args
fi

# main function
main

# exit
exit "$SUCCESS"

Start environment and create data

Once the project and the files have been created, you can build and start the environment. For this you use Docker Compose.

# validate docker-compose file (optional)
$ docker-compose config

# run environment
$ docker-compose up -d

# get IP from grafana container (optional)
$ docker inspect -f '{{range .NetworkSettings.Networks}}{{.IPAddress}}{{end}}' grafana
10.1.0.20

# get IP from influxdb container (optional)
$ docker inspect -f '{{range .NetworkSettings.Networks}}{{.IPAddress}}{{end}}' influxdb
10.1.0.10

# show created docker network (optional)
$ docker network ls | grep -i 'grafana*'

# show docker containers (optional)
$ docker ps -a | grep -i 'grafana\|influxdb'

In next step you create the InfluxDB databases (incl. fictitious measurements, series and data) via Bash script.

# ping influxdb (optional)
$ curl -I http://localhost:8086/ping

# show help (optional)
$ ./CreateData.sh -h

# create databases and contents (execute only 1x)
$ ./CreateData.sh -t -s -p

# show current databases (optional)
$ curl -G http://localhost:8086/query?pretty=true --data-urlencode "q=SHOW DATABASES"

# show test_db series (optional)
$ curl -G http://localhost:8086/query?pretty=true --data-urlencode "db=test_db" --data-urlencode "q=SHOW SERIES"

# show test_db measurements (optional)
$ curl -G http://localhost:8086/query?pretty=true --data-urlencode "db=test_db" --data-urlencode "q=SHOW MEASUREMENTS"

Note: You could use influx command to administrate InfluxDB directly.

# exec docker container
$ docker exec -ti influxdb influx

# list all databases
> show databases

# use specific database test_db
> use test_db

# show series of test_db
> show series

# show measurements of test_db
> show measurements

# drop measurements of test_db (in case something went wrong)
> drop measurement suite

Okay the environment preparation is done. Now start Grafana in browser.

# open Grafana in browser
$ open http://localhost:3000

New Grafana Login

The default username and password is “admin:admin“. Note, if you use docker-compose down you have to repeat most of steps like data creation. Better use docker-compose stop! … See you in 2nd part – where we add data sources and create dashboards.

– Softwaretester –

knowledge is power

Create QA dashboards with Grafana (Part 1)