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Cassandra Grafana Dashboard

KubeDB exposes Cassandra metrics through a sidecar exporter, and its own view of each resource (status, phase, version) through Panopticon. Once Prometheus is scraping both, you can visualize them in Grafana using pre-built KubeDB dashboards. This tutorial walks through the full setup: deploying the monitoring stack, enabling monitoring on a Cassandra instance, and importing the Grafana dashboards.

Before You Begin

• You need a Kubernetes cluster with kubectl configured. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using kind.

• KubeDB must be installed in your cluster with kubedb-metrics enabled. Follow the setup guide here and make sure to include the flag below during installation:

  --set kubedb-metrics.enabled=true
  

  kubedb-metrics creates MetricsConfiguration objects for each database type, which Panopticon (see Configuration) uses to expose metrics to Prometheus.

• To keep monitoring resources isolated, we use a separate monitoring namespace and deploy the database in the demo namespace.

  $ kubectl create ns monitoring
  namespace/monitoring created
  
  $ kubectl create ns demo
  namespace/demo created
  

• Before proceeding, complete the Configuration steps to deploy kube-prometheus-stack and Panopticon.

Note: YAML files used in this tutorial are stored in docs/examples/cassandra/monitoring folder in GitHub repository kubedb/docs.

Setup

Step 1: Deploy Cassandra

Below is the Cassandra object with monitoring configured to use Prometheus Operator.

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: Cassandra
metadata:
  name: cassandra-grafana-demo
  namespace: demo
spec:
  version: "5.0.3"
  topology:
    rack:
      - name: r0
        replicas: 3
        storage:
          accessModes:
            - ReadWriteOnce
          resources:
            requests:
              storage: 1Gi
        storageType: Durable
  deletionPolicy: WipeOut
  monitor:
    agent: prometheus.io/operator
    prometheus:
      serviceMonitor:
        labels:
          release: prometheus
        interval: 10s

Here,

• monitor.agent: prometheus.io/operator tells KubeDB to create a ServiceMonitor for this instance.
• monitor.prometheus.serviceMonitor.labels must match the serviceMonitorSelector label of your Prometheus (release: prometheus).
• monitor.prometheus.serviceMonitor.interval sets the scrape interval to 10 seconds.

Create the Cassandra instance:

$ kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2026.7.10/docs/examples/cassandra/monitoring/cassandra-grafana-demo.yaml
cassandra.kubedb.com/cassandra-grafana-demo created

Wait for it to be Ready:

$ kubectl get cassandra -n demo cassandra-grafana-demo
NAME                     VERSION   STATUS   AGE
cassandra-grafana-demo   5.0.3     Ready    3m

KubeDB creates a stats service named {cassandra-name}-stats for the exporter:

$ kubectl get svc -n demo --selector="app.kubernetes.io/instance=cassandra-grafana-demo"
NAME                          TYPE        CLUSTER-IP    EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)     AGE
cassandra-grafana-demo        ClusterIP   10.96.10.1    <none>        9042/TCP    3m
cassandra-grafana-demo-stats  ClusterIP   10.96.10.2    <none>        56790/TCP   3m

KubeDB also creates a ServiceMonitor in the demo namespace:

$ kubectl get servicemonitor -n demo
NAME                          AGE
cassandra-grafana-demo-stats  3m

Verify it carries the correct label:

$ kubectl get servicemonitor -n demo cassandra-grafana-demo-stats -o jsonpath='{.metadata.labels}'
{"release":"prometheus", ...}

Step 2: Verify Prometheus is Scraping

Port-forward the Prometheus pod:

$ kubectl port-forward -n monitoring \
  prometheus-prometheus-kube-prometheus-prometheus-0 9090
Forwarding from 127.0.0.1:9090 -> 9090
Forwarding from [::1]:9090 -> 9090

Open http://localhost:9090/targets in your browser. Look for an entry whose service label matches cassandra-grafana-demo-stats. Its state should be UP.

If the target is missing, check that the ServiceMonitor label (release: prometheus) matches the Prometheus serviceMonitorSelector.

Step 3: Access Grafana

Port-forward the Grafana service:

$ kubectl port-forward -n monitoring svc/prometheus-grafana 3000:80
Forwarding from 127.0.0.1:3000 -> 80

Open http://localhost:3000. The username is admin. Retrieve the auto-generated password from the secret:

$ kubectl get secret -n monitoring prometheus-grafana \
  -o jsonpath='{.data.admin-password}' | base64 -d

After a successful login you will see the Grafana home page:

Step 4: Configure Prometheus as a Data Source

If you installed Grafana via kube-prometheus-stack, Prometheus is already configured as the default data source — skip to Step 5.

If you’re using a different Grafana instance than the one installed in the Configuration prerequisite (linked in “Before You Begin” above), add Prometheus as a data source manually:

1. Go to Connections → Data sources → Add new data source.

2. Select Prometheus.

3. Set the URL to your Prometheus service:

   http://prometheus-operated.monitoring.svc:9090
   

4. Click Save & test. You should see Data source is working.

Step 5: Import Dashboard — Option A: Automatic (chart)

Rather than downloading and uploading each JSON file by hand (Option B below), KubeDB ships a chart that creates all matching dashboards for you as GrafanaDashboard custom resources. A separate controller, grafana-operator, watches these resources and pushes the actual dashboard JSON into your Grafana instance — both pieces are required.

1. Install grafana-operator (skip if it’s already running in your cluster):

$ helm repo add appscode https://charts.appscode.com/stable/
$ helm repo update

$ helm upgrade --install grafana-operator appscode/grafana-operator \
    --version v2026.6.12 \
    --namespace kubeops --create-namespace

2. Register your Grafana instance as an AppBinding (skip if you’ve already done this in another guide on this cluster). grafana-operator needs to know where to push dashboards and how to authenticate — it reads this from an AppBinding object, not from the chart install command itself. Since Grafana here came bundled with kube-prometheus-stack, reuse its existing admin credentials:

$ kubectl port-forward -n monitoring svc/prometheus-grafana 3000:80 &

$ curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -u admin:<grafana_password> \
    http://localhost:3000/api/auth/keys \
    -d '{"name":"kubedb-dashboards","role":"Admin"}'
# Note the returned "key"

$ kill %1

$ kubectl create secret generic grafana-admin-token -n monitoring \
    --from-literal=token='<key-from-above>'

$ cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: appcatalog.appscode.com/v1alpha1
kind: AppBinding
metadata:
  name: grafana
  namespace: monitoring
spec:
  type: monitoring.appscode.com/grafana
  clientConfig:
    url: http://prometheus-grafana.monitoring.svc:80
  secret:
    name: grafana-admin-token
EOF

3. Install the dashboards:

The chart packages dashboard JSON for every database it supports, so install it from a copy trimmed down to just Cassandra’s dashboards (this also keeps grafana-operator from creating dashboards for databases you don’t run):

$ helm pull appscode/kubedb-grafana-dashboards --version v2026.7.10 --untar

$ cd kubedb-grafana-dashboards/dashboards
$ ls | grep -v '^cassandra$' | xargs rm -rf   # keep only dashboards/cassandra
$ cd ../..

$ helm package kubedb-grafana-dashboards
Successfully packaged chart and saved it to: kubedb-grafana-dashboards-v2026.7.10.tgz

$ helm upgrade -i kubedb-grafana-dashboards-cassandra ./kubedb-grafana-dashboards-v2026.7.10.tgz \
    -n kubeops --create-namespace \
    --set grafana.name=grafana \
    --set grafana.namespace=monitoring

Use a release name unique to this database (kubedb-grafana-dashboards-cassandra), not the plain kubedb-grafana-dashboards name — if you also follow another DB’s Grafana Dashboard guide on this same cluster, each helm upgrade -i under a shared release name would prune the previous DB’s dashboards (Helm removes anything not in the new release’s manifest). A per-DB release name lets them coexist.

grafana.name/grafana.namespace point the chart’s GrafanaDashboard resources at the AppBinding created in step 2 (omitting them falls back to whichever AppBinding in your cluster is labeled as the cluster-default Grafana, if any — explicit is safer on a shared cluster). No need to touch featureGates — with every other database’s dashboards/ folder removed, their gates simply match zero files and render nothing, regardless of being true by default.

This creates every dashboard the chart ships for Cassandra — KubeDB / Cassandra / Summary, KubeDB / Cassandra / Pod, KubeDB / Cassandra / Database — which grafana-operator then pushes into your Grafana instance automatically. No manual JSON download or upload needed.

Verify they landed:

$ kubectl get grafanadashboards.openviz.dev -n kubeops | grep -i cassandra
NAME                                 TITLE                            SYNCED    AGE
grafana-kubedb-cassandra-summary     KubeDB / Cassandra / Summary     Current   30s
grafana-kubedb-cassandra-pod         KubeDB / Cassandra / Pod         Current   30s
grafana-kubedb-cassandra-database    KubeDB / Cassandra / Database    Current   30s

SYNCED: Current confirms grafana-operator successfully pushed each dashboard into Grafana. Open Grafana — the dashboards are already there under Dashboards, fully wired to your Prometheus data source, ready to explore in Step 6 below.

If the SYNCED column is missing entirely from your output (not just showing a non-Current value), grafana-operator most likely never processed the resource at all. Check that the operator pod is actually running (kubectl get pods -n kubeops -l app.kubernetes.io/name=grafana-operator), inspect its logs for AppBinding/auth errors (kubectl logs -n kubeops deploy/grafana-operator), and check kubectl get grafanadashboards.openviz.dev -n kubeops <name> -o yaml for status.conditions — the CR existing only means kubectl accepted it, not that it reached Grafana.

After importing them, they will appear under Dashboards in the left sidebar as well:

Step 5: Import Dashboard — Option B: Manual (JSON upload)

If you’d rather not run grafana-operator, or want fine-grained control over exactly which dashboards get imported, upload the same dashboard JSON files by hand instead.

The KubeDB Cassandra dashboards are distributed as JSON files. Each JSON file is a complete dashboard definition — panels, queries, variables, and layout — that Grafana loads in one shot. Without importing, you would have to build every panel and write every PromQL query by hand. Importing lets you skip that entirely.

Three dashboards are available. Download all three JSON files from the appscode/grafana-dashboards repository (cassandra/ folder):

Import steps (repeat for each file):

1. In Grafana, click Dashboards in the left sidebar.
2. Select Import from the menu.
3. Click Upload dashboard JSON file and select one of the downloaded .json files.
4. In the Prometheus dropdown that appears, select your Prometheus data source.
5. Click Import.

The import page looks like this:

After importing both files, they will appear under Dashboards in the left sidebar.

Step 6: Explore the Dashboards

After opening a dashboard, use the dropdown filters at the top to focus on a specific instance.

KubeDB / Cassandra / Summary — cluster-level overview:

• Database Status — current health of the Cassandra cluster
• Version — Cassandra version running
• Total Nodes — number of nodes in the rack
• Read / Write Latency — p99 read and write request latency
• Compaction Tasks — pending and completed compaction tasks
• Heap Usage — JVM heap used vs. max across nodes
• CPU / Network — resource usage over time

KubeDB / Cassandra / Database — table and keyspace metrics:

• SSTable Count — number of SSTables per table
• Disk Usage — disk space consumed per keyspace
• Live / Tombstone Cells — ratio of live cells to tombstones (high tombstone ratio indicates GC pressure)
• Bloom Filter False Positive Rate — effectiveness of bloom filters per table

KubeDB / Cassandra / Pod — per-pod operational metrics, scoped to a single Cassandra pod:

• Node status — whether the selected pod’s Cassandra node is up
• Cluster ops — operations per second broken down by type (Read, Write, CasRead, CasWrite, RangeSlice, ViewWrite)
• Operations per instance — operations per second aggregated per pod
• Read / Write operations — read and write throughput for the selected pod

Cleaning up

# Remove the Cassandra instance
kubectl delete cassandra -n demo cassandra-grafana-demo

# Remove namespaces
kubectl delete ns demo

# Uninstall the Grafana dashboards chart, if you used Option A
helm uninstall kubedb-grafana-dashboards-cassandra -n kubeops

# Uninstall grafana-operator (optional — skip if other DB guides on this cluster still use it)
helm uninstall grafana-operator -n kubeops

# Uninstall monitoring stack (optional)
helm uninstall prometheus -n monitoring
helm uninstall panopticon -n kubeops
kubectl delete ns monitoring kubeops

Next Steps

• Monitor your Cassandra database with KubeDB using built-in Prometheus.
• Monitor your Cassandra database with KubeDB using Prometheus Operator.
• Want to hack on KubeDB? Check our contribution guidelines.