Metrics Drilldown on Grafana Labs

What is Grafana Metrics Drilldown?

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What is Grafana Metrics Drilldown?

Grafana Metrics Drilldown is a queryless way to browse Prometheus-compatible metrics. You can find related metrics and look at them without writing PromQL.

From the Grafana menu, select Drilldown > Metrics. Choose a Prometheus or Prometheus-compatible data source.

How it works

Metrics Drilldown lets you segment metrics by their labels:

See the metrics in the selected data source
Filter with Add label (a label name, an operator, and a value), or type keywords in the metric search bar
See a visualization chosen for the metric type, such as a gauge or a counter, without setting that up yourself
Open Related metrics for other metrics with similar names, and Related logs for a count of log lines that match the metric

How to find and filter metrics

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How to find and filter metrics

Prometheus metrics have a name, labels, and label values. Metrics Drilldown lets you move through that structure.

The structure

Level	What it is	Example
Name	The metric you select	`node_cpu_seconds_total`
Labels	Label names on that metric	`job`, `instance`, `mode`
Label values	One value of a label	`mode="idle"`
Time stamp	The visualization on the Breakdown tab for each label value	CPU time for server-01 with `mode="idle"`

How you move through it

Select a data source.
Optionally select Add label and choose a label name, an operator, and a value. You can also type keywords in the metric search bar.
Select the metric. The control on the metric panel is Select.
On the Breakdown tab, select Select on a label, then select Add to filters on the value you want.

The Breakdown tab shows a time series for each label-value pair of the metric you selected.

If a metric or its labels appear in Explore but not here, the data source Series limit may be hiding them. The default is 40,000, and it applies to metrics, labels, and values. Search with a name filter such as __name__ = vm_http, or raise Series limit in the Prometheus data source settings. Raising the limit can affect Metrics Drilldown performance.

The investigation workflow

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The investigation workflow

A typical investigation moves through five steps. You can skip a step or go back.

Step	What you do	What you get
Choose and search	Select a data source, then type keywords in the metric search bar	Metrics that match the search
Filter	Select Add label, then a label name, operator, and value	A smaller set of metrics
Select	Select the metric	A visualization for that metric type, plus the Breakdown tab
Investigate	Open Related metrics or Related logs	Other metrics with similar names, or a count of matching log lines
Share or continue	Select Explore on the panel, Copy URL, or Add bookmark	The visualization in Explore, a link to this page, or a bookmark in this browser

Related metrics lists other metrics with similar names and common prefixes. Related logs shows how many related log lines match the metric so you can continue in a logs workflow.

Copy URL copies the current page address. It is not stored in the app. Add bookmark saves the data source, filters, selected metric, label breakdowns, and time range in this browser only. Bookmarks are not synced across browsers or devices. To share a view with someone else, use Copy URL.

A Query results tab can also appear when your Grafana instance includes the Prometheus query results component. It shows the raw query results for the metric.

Navigate metrics with Metrics Drilldown

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Navigate metrics with Metrics Drilldown

Learning path

Metrics Drilldown

Welcome to the Grafana learning path that shows you how to use Metrics Drilldown to explore your metrics and provide insight into troubleshooting.

11 min

Beginner

Docs & blog posts

Open in Grafana Cloud

Complete this learning path directly in your Grafana Cloud stack with an interactive learning experience.

Open in Grafana Cloud

View on website

Resources

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Resources

Documentation

Blog posts

Grafana Drilldown apps: the improved queryless experience