Debian/Ubuntu Installation

Install Grafana on Debian or Ubuntu Linux using APT repository or DEB packages

Debian/Ubuntu Installation

This guide covers installing Grafana on Debian or Ubuntu Linux systems using the APT repository or standalone DEB packages.

Installation Methods

You can install Grafana on Debian/Ubuntu using:

• APT repository (recommended): Automatic updates via apt-get update
• DEB package: Manual installation from downloaded package
• Standalone binary: Manual installation from tarball

Install from APT Repository

Installing from the APT repository enables automatic updates when you run apt-get update.

Available Repositories

Edition	Package	Repository
Grafana Enterprise	grafana-enterprise	https://apt.grafana.com stable main
Grafana Enterprise (Beta)	grafana-enterprise	https://apt.grafana.com beta main
Grafana OSS	grafana	https://apt.grafana.com stable main
Grafana OSS (Beta)	grafana	https://apt.grafana.com beta main

Grafana Enterprise is the recommended edition. It’s free and includes all OSS features, with the option to upgrade to the full Enterprise feature set.

1. Install prerequisite packages
2. sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https wget gnupg
   

3. Import the GPG key
4. sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
   sudo wget -O /etc/apt/keyrings/grafana.asc https://apt.grafana.com/gpg-full.key
   sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/keyrings/grafana.asc
   

5. Add the repository
6. For stable releases:
7. echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/grafana.asc] https://apt.grafana.com stable main" | \
     sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/grafana.list
   

8. For beta releases:
9. echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/grafana.asc] https://apt.grafana.com beta main" | \
     sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/grafana.list
   

10. Update package list
11. sudo apt-get update
    

12. Install Grafana
13. For Grafana OSS:
14. sudo apt-get install grafana
    

15. For Grafana Enterprise:
16. sudo apt-get install grafana-enterprise
    

Install from DEB Package

Manual installation using DEB packages requires you to manually update Grafana for each new version.

1. Download the package
2. Visit the Grafana download page and:
4. Install the package
5. sudo apt-get install -y adduser libfontconfig1 musl
   wget <deb-package-url>
   sudo dpkg -i grafana_<version>_amd64.deb
   

6. Example:
7. wget https://dl.grafana.com/enterprise/release/grafana-enterprise_11.0.0_amd64.deb
   sudo dpkg -i grafana-enterprise_11.0.0_amd64.deb
   

Install as Standalone Binary

For manual installation with full control over file locations:

1. Download and extract
2. Download the tarball from the Grafana download page and extract it:
3. wget <tarball-url>
   tar -zxvf grafana-<version>.linux-amd64.tar.gz
   

4. Create Grafana user
5. sudo useradd -r -s /bin/false grafana
   

6. Move to installation directory
7. sudo mv grafana-<version> /usr/local/grafana
   

8. Set ownership
9. sudo chown -R grafana:users /usr/local/grafana
   

10. Create systemd service file
11. sudo touch /etc/systemd/system/grafana-server.service
    

12. Add the following content:
13. [Unit]
    Description=Grafana Server
    After=network.target
    
    [Service]
    Type=simple
    User=grafana
    Group=users
    ExecStart=/usr/local/grafana/bin/grafana server --config=/usr/local/grafana/conf/grafana.ini --homepath=/usr/local/grafana
    Restart=on-failure
    
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
    

14. Initialize data directory
15. Manually start Grafana once to create the data directory:
16. /usr/local/grafana/bin/grafana server --homepath /usr/local/grafana
    

17. Press Ctrl+C to stop, then update ownership:
18. sudo chown -R grafana:users /usr/local/grafana
    

19. Enable and start service
20. sudo systemctl daemon-reload
    sudo systemctl enable grafana-server
    sudo systemctl start grafana-server
    

Start Grafana Server

Using systemd

Start the Grafana server:

sudo systemctl start grafana-server

Enable Grafana to start at boot:

sudo systemctl enable grafana-server

Check service status:

sudo systemctl status grafana-server

Using init.d

Start Grafana:

sudo service grafana-server start

Enable at boot:

sudo update-rc.d grafana-server defaults

Configuration

After installation, Grafana uses these default paths:

Path	Description
/etc/grafana/grafana.ini	Configuration file
/var/lib/grafana	Data directory (SQLite database, plugins)
/var/log/grafana	Log files
/usr/share/grafana	Installation directory
/etc/grafana/provisioning	Provisioning directory
/etc/default/grafana-server	Environment variables

Environment Variables File

The systemd service reads environment variables from /etc/default/grafana-server:

CONF_FILE=/etc/grafana/grafana.ini
DATA_DIR=/var/lib/grafana
LOG_DIR=/var/log/grafana
PID_FILE_DIR=/run/grafana
PLUGINS_DIR=/var/lib/grafana/plugins
PROVISIONING_CFG_DIR=/etc/grafana/provisioning

Systemd Service Configuration

The Grafana systemd service includes security hardening:

• Runs as non-root grafana user (UID 472)
• Capability restrictions with CapabilityBoundingSet=
• Protected system directories
• Restricted system calls
• File open limit: 10,000
• Stop timeout: 20 seconds

Access Grafana

After starting the server, access Grafana:

1. Open your browser to http://localhost:3000
2. Sign in with default credentials:
   • Username: admin
   • Password: admin
3. Change the password when prompted

Uninstall Grafana

1. Stop the service
2. For systemd:
3. sudo systemctl stop grafana-server
   

4. For init.d:
5. sudo service grafana-server stop
   

6. Remove the package
7. For Grafana OSS:
8. sudo apt-get remove grafana
   

9. For Grafana Enterprise:
10. sudo apt-get remove grafana-enterprise
    

11. Remove the repository (optional)
12. sudo rm -i /etc/apt/sources.list.d/grafana.list
    

13. Remove data (optional)
14. sudo rm -rf /var/lib/grafana
    sudo rm -rf /var/log/grafana
    sudo rm -rf /etc/grafana
    

Troubleshooting

View logs

sudo journalctl -u grafana-server -f

Or check log files:

sudo tail -f /var/log/grafana/grafana.log

Check service status

sudo systemctl status grafana-server

Verify installation

grafana-server -v

Port already in use

If port 3000 is already in use, edit /etc/grafana/grafana.ini:

[server]
http_port = 3001

Restart Grafana:

sudo systemctl restart grafana-server

Next Steps

• Configure data sources
• Set up authentication (LDAP, OAuth, SAML)
• Configure SMTP for email notifications
• Set up provisioning for dashboards and data sources
• Configure an external database (MySQL or PostgreSQL)