3 Essential Customization Options for Cloud Provider Observability in Grafana Cloud
Cloud Provider Observability in Grafana Cloud provides prebuilt dashboards and drill-downs for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, saving you time with service overviews and instance-level views. However, every team works differently. You may already have trusted dashboards, need a workflow-specific view, or want to adjust the panels shown when you investigate a single instance. Now you can customize all of that without leaving the app. This article covers three powerful ways to tailor your cloud monitoring: connecting an existing dashboard, creating one with AI and wiring it in, and editing the instance drill-down views that appear across Cloud Provider Observability, Database Observability, the entity graph, and more. These options let you keep the out-of-the-box views where they fit, plug in your own or AI-generated dashboards for a custom entry point, and ensure consistent per-instance details across all observability surfaces.
1. Connect Existing Dashboards as Quick Links and Default Views
If you already have a go-to dashboard for a specific cloud service—say, your internal Amazon RDS view or a custom GCP Cloud SQL panel—you can attach it as a quick link from the service's configure page. This integration makes your trusted dashboard just one click away for your whole team. On the configure page (found under the Services tab for any service), you’ll see a section titled “Customize your quick links and add new ones to your custom dashboards.” Simply select a dashboard from the dropdown, and it appears as a quick link. If you want this dashboard to be the default view for that service, mark it as default. Then, whenever someone opens the service from the services tab, entity graph, or other entry points, they see your custom dashboard first. The built-in view remains available as a backup. This feature ensures that your team lands on the most familiar and relevant dashboard without extra clicks.
2. Create AI-Generated Dashboards and Wire Them In
Don’t have the perfect dashboard yet? Grafana’s AI assistant can generate one for you. Using the appropriate variables and methodology—like filtering by service type or environment—you can quickly create a dashboard tailored to your cloud provider’s metrics. After generating it, add it to the service’s configure page just like any custom dashboard. You can optionally set it as the default view, so it becomes the “front door” for that service. The AI-generated dashboard follows the same workflows and debugging paths as your prebuilt or custom dashboards. For example, you can create an AI dashboard that shows top-level metrics for all your Azure Virtual Machines, then set it as default. Now when you navigate from the entity graph or services tab, that AI-driven view loads immediately. This combines the speed of AI with the control of manual customization.
3. Customize Instance Drill-Down Views Across Observability Surfaces
Sometimes you need deeper, consistent details when you drill into a single instance. The panels and queries you configure under the “Customize the panels…” section on the service’s configure page are exactly what renders in the instance-level view everywhere that view appears. This includes Cloud Provider Observability, Database Observability, and the entity graph. For instance, you might want to see specific CPU, memory, and network metrics for each GCP Cloud SQL instance. Instead of building that query repeatedly, you set it once here. Every time you drill down from any entry point—services tab, entity graph, or database observability—you get the same tailored panels. This consistency reduces confusion and speeds up troubleshooting. The configuration is saved per service and reused automatically. You can always revert to the default, but the custom view becomes your standard for that cloud resource.
These three options—connecting existing dashboards, using AI to create new ones, and customizing instance drill-downs—give you full control over your cloud monitoring experience. Start with the configure page for any AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud service, and make Cloud Provider Observability truly yours.
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