Grafana

Grafana connects to Elasticsearch via the Arrow Flight SQL protocol using the Flight SQL data source plugin, enabling SQL-based dashboards and panels. Grafana is a Tested tool (via Arrow Flight SQL).

Some advanced SQL (subqueries, CTEs) is not in this release yet — see Known Limitations.

Prerequisites

• A running Arrow Flight SQL server (see Arrow Flight SQL guide)
• Grafana 10+ with the Flight SQL data source plugin

Quick Start with Docker

The demo includes a pre-configured Grafana with the Flight SQL data source plugin and sample dashboards:

docker compose --profile grafana up

Then open Grafana at http://localhost:3000.

Manual Setup

1. Install the Flight SQL Plugin

Install the Apache Arrow Flight SQL data source plugin:

grafana-cli plugins install apache-arrow-flight-sql-datasource

Or via the Grafana UI: Configuration > Plugins > Search “Flight SQL”.

2. Add Data Source

1. Go to Configuration > Data Sources > Add data source
2. Select Apache Arrow Flight SQL
3. Configure:
   • Host: localhost:32010
   • Auth: Leave empty (or configure if your Flight SQL server requires authentication)
4. Click Save & Test

3. Create Dashboards

Use the full SoftClient4ES SQL syntax in Grafana panels:

SELECT
  DATE_TRUNC(order_date, DAY) AS day,
  SUM(total_price) AS revenue,
  COUNT(*) AS orders
FROM ecommerce
GROUP BY DATE_TRUNC(order_date, DAY)
ORDER BY day;

Cross-cluster log correlation (SRE)

The SRE wedge: correlate data that lives in two different Elasticsearch clusters — for example logs in one region and metrics or traces in another — in a single SQL query, then render it in one Grafana panel. Elasticsearch can’t do this across clusters; SoftClient4ES does.

The query uses catalog-qualified names, where each catalog is a federation servers.<name> alias:

-- Correlate two indices living in two different ES clusters, in one SQL query.
-- Requires the federation server (Pro+, ≥2 clusters).
SELECT o.id, c.name
FROM `prod_us`.orders o
JOIN `prod_eu`.customers c ON o.id = c.id;
-- two source catalogs (prod_us, prod_eu) → coordinator-local join

Substitute your own per-region index names — e.g. `us-east`.logs joined to `eu-west`.metrics (illustrative — substitute your own per-region catalog and index names).

Requires the federation server (Pro+, ≥2 clusters). See the Federation operator guide to deploy it. For the full JOIN matrix including cross-cluster JOINs, see the Cross-Index JOIN walkthrough. Cluster count is metered — see Pricing.

Screenshot coming in a follow-up release. Captured with Grafana against SoftClient4ES 0.2.1 (Arrow Flight SQL), 2026-06.

Supported Features

Feature	Status
SELECT queries	Tested
Aggregations (GROUP BY)	Tested
Date/time functions	Tested
Time series panels	Tested
Table panels	Tested
Dashboard variables	Compatible

Known limitations

Subqueries, CTEs (WITH), and set operators beyond UNION ALL are not in this release. See Known Limitations & Roadmap for exactly what works today, what’s coming in the next release (Quarter 4 2026), and the per-tool workaround.

License

Grafana integration uses the Arrow Flight SQL server, licensed under the Elastic License 2.0.