Configuring DNS for the Grafana Instance

This topic describes how to configure a DNS entry for the Grafana instance in your Healthwatch™ for VMware Tanzu^® (Healthwatch) installation.

Overview of DNS for the Grafana instance

Configuring a DNS entry for the Grafana instance allows users to access the Grafana UI more easily from outside your BOSH network, including from links to the Grafana UI in alerts from Alertmanager.

On an Ops Manager foundation that has VMware Tanzu Application Service for VMs (TAS for VMs) installed, Healthwatch can automatically configure a DNS record for the Grafana VM with the Gorouter in TAS for VMs. For more information, see (Optional) Configure Grafana in Configuring Healthwatch.

On an Ops Manager foundation that does not have TAS for VMs installed, you must manually configure a DNS entry for either the public IP address of a single Grafana VM or the load balancer in front of the Grafana instance.

Configure DNS for a Load Balancer

VMware recommends that you create a DNS entry that points to the load balancer associated with the Grafana instance, especially if you want to make the Grafana instance highly available (HA).

To configure a DNS entry for the load balancer associated with the Grafana instance:

1. Ensure that you have associated a load balancer with the Grafana instance. For more information, see Configure Resources in Configuring Healthwatch.

2. Find the public IP address for your load balancer. You may need to assign a public or elastic IP address to your load balancer if it does not already have one. For more information, see the documentation for your IaaS:

   • AWS: If your Ops Manager deployment is on AWS, skip this step. You do not need the public IP address of your load balancer for Grafana to configure a DNS entry in your Amazon DNS.
   • Azure: For more information about finding the public IP address of your Azure load balancer, see the Azure documentation.
   • GCP: For more information about finding the public IP address of your GCP load balancer, see the GCP documentation.
   • OpenStack: For more information about assigning a floating IP address to your OpenStack load balancer, see the OpenStack documentation.
   • vSphere: For more information about finding the public IP address of your vSphere load balancer, see the vSphere documentation.

3. Create an A record in your DNS server named grafana that points to the public IP address of the load balancer that you recorded in the previous step. For more information, see the documentation for your IaaS:

   • AWS: For more information about configuring a DNS entry in the Amazon VPC console, see the AWS documentation.
   • Azure: For more information about configuring an A record in Azure DNS, see the Azure documentation.
   • GCP: For more information about adding an A record to Cloud DNS, see the GCP documentation.
   • OpenStack: For more information about configuring a DNS entry in the OpenStack internal DNS, see the OpenStack documentation.
   • vSphere: For more information about configuring a DNS entry in the vCenter Server Appliance, see the vSphere documentation.

4. Wait for your DNS server to update.

5. Ensure that the Grafana UI login page appears as expected by navigating to the URL that you configured in your DNS entry in a web browser. When you see the Grafana UI login page, you have successfully created a DNS entry.

Configure DNS for a Single Grafana VM

To configure a DNS entry for a single Grafana VM:

1. In the user console for your IaaS, find the public IP address for the Grafana VM. For more information, see the documentation for your IaaS:

   • AWS: To find the public IP address of a Linux instance, see the AWS documentation for Linux instances of Amazon EC2. To find the public IP address for a Windows instance, see the AWS documentation for Windows instances of Amazon EC2.
   • Azure: To create or view the public IP address for an Azure VM, see the Azure documentation.
   • GCP: To find the public IP address for a GCP VM, see the GCP documentation.
   • OpenStack: To associate a floating IP address to an OpenStack VM, see the OpenStack documentation.
   • vSphere: To find the public IP address of a vSphere VM, see the vSphere documentation.

2. Record the public IP address of the Grafana VM.

3. Create an A record in your DNS server named grafana that points to the public IP address of the Grafana VM that you recorded in the previous step. For more information, see the documentation for your IaaS:

   • AWS: For more information about configuring a DNS entry in the Amazon VPC console, see the AWS documentation.
   • Azure: For more information about configuring an A record in Azure DNS, see the Azure documentation.
   • GCP: For more information about adding an A record to Cloud DNS, see the GCP documentation.
   • OpenStack: For more information about configuring a DNS entry in the OpenStack internal DNS, see the OpenStack documentation.
   • vSphere: For more information about configuring a DNS entry in the vCenter Server Appliance, see the vSphere documentation.

4. Wait for your DNS server to update.

5. Ensure that the Grafana UI login page appears as expected by navigating to the URL that you configured in your DNS entry in a web browser. When you see the Grafana UI login page, you have successfully created a DNS entry.