Metrics on individual managed instance databases in Grafana dashboard

Question

Metrics on individual managed instance databases in Grafana dashboard

Thea 80

Hi there, hope you are having a good day so far! I am trying to get metrics on individual databases on a managed instance in Azure, in our Grafana instance. I have connected using Azure Monitor, and I do get some metrics on the managed instance itself. I have made the various managed instances we have dashboard variables, and I was wondering if there is any way I can build on this to get individual values for databases? The closest I have gotten to a dashboard variable for databases is choosing query type "resource names" and then filling in subscription and resource group, but don't understand how I can just the databases and not all other kinds of resources as well (like the managed instances, private endpoints etc)... Any way I could get some help here/how Grafana best can be used for monitoring managed instance databases? :)

Bharath Y P 9,110 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-11T00:40:04.71+00:00

Hello Thea. I just wanted to kindly follow up to check, If the provided answer is helpful, it would be great if you could accept the answer and up-vote. This not only helps us but also makes it easier for other community members who might face the same issue. Thanks
Thea 80 Reputation points

2026-02-11T07:23:17.5766667+00:00

I did answer, before you made this comment, see my answer below :)
Thea 80 Reputation points

2026-02-17T08:28:47.2166667+00:00

Hello again Bharath Y P, were you able to have a look ast this? :)
Bharath Y P 9,110 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-17T19:37:43.8533333+00:00
Hello Thea, Apologies for the delay. You are trying to build a Grafana dashboard for Azure SQL Managed Instance (MI) where you already have a Managed Instance selector variable and you want a Database selector variable that:

Shows only databases belonging to the selected Managed Instance

Does not include other Azure resources (NSGs, route tables, private endpoints, etc.)

You are also looking for metrics similar to “Average CPU percentage” but at individual database level. You have found that Grafana’s Azure Monitor > Metrics > Resource Names returns all resource types in the resource group, not just databases This understanding is correct.

Why you see NSGs, route tables, private endpoints. Grafana’s Resource Names query calls Azure Resource Graph. Resource Graph is resource‑centric, not service‑centric. It returns everything in the selected subscription/resource group. Grafana does not provide a resource‑type filter for Metrics variables. This behavior is by design and not configurable.

Azure SQL Managed Instance is a shared compute boundary. CPU, memory, and IO are scheduled at instance level. Azure Monitor Metrics only publish CPU %, IO %, Storage and Worker threads for the Managed Instance resource only. No per‑database metric dimensions exist for MI. This is an Azure platform limitation, not a Grafana limitation.

you can use to query Log Analytics with KQL from Grafana. This is the recommended way to get per-database metrics once you’ve enabled diagnostic settings.

https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/datasources/azure-monitor/#azure-mon

Relevant document:

Azure SQL Managed Instance metrics: Azure Monitor supported metrics by resource type - Azure Monitor | Microsoft Learn

Azure SQL Managed Instance monitoring overview: Monitor Azure SQL Managed Instance - Azure SQL Managed Instance | Microsoft Learn

Diagnostic settings for SQL Managed Instance: Configure Streaming Export of Metrics and Resource Logs - Azure SQL Database & Azure SQL Managed Instance | Microsoft Learn

Hope this helps, Thanks
Bharath Y P 9,110 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-18T21:00:52.7633333+00:00

Hello Thea. I just wanted to kindly follow up to check, If the provided answer is helpful. please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions. Thanks
Thea 80 Reputation points

2026-02-26T14:39:24.91+00:00

Hi again,

Thank you for getting back to me, but I still can't see any specific details/resources/instructions on metrics for MI databases in Grafana. Even just a list of their names as a starter.

I see the part on "you can use to query Log Analytics with KQL from Grafana. This is the recommended way to get per-database metrics once you’ve enabled diagnostic settings."

But how would I then do that to get the metrics in Grafana? This is the part I am struggling with :)
Bharath Y P 9,110 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-02T10:12:11.93+00:00

You can refer the Below document, his document explains querying specific to the Azure Monitor data source

https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/datasources/azure-monitor/query-editor/

Answer accepted by question author

Bharath Y P 9,110 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hello Thea. It sounds like you’re trying to pull individual database metrics from your Azure SQL Managed Instance into your Grafana dashboard. Great to hear you've connected with Azure Monitor! Let’s see how we can refine your dashboard setup.

To monitor individual databases, you’ll want to ensure that your Grafana instance is properly set up to access the metrics specific to those databases. Here are some steps and tips that could help you achieve this:

Use Specific Resource Types: When you're configuring your Grafana data source, ensure that you're selecting metrics for SQL Database specifically instead of broader categories that include managed instances and other resources. You might want to look for a data source in Grafana that specifically points to Azure Monitor for database metrics.
Set Up Diagnostic Settings: Make sure you have diagnostic settings configured for your Azure SQL Managed Instance. This allows you to stream metrics for your individual databases. You can do this through the Azure portal by navigating to your managed instance, selecting "Diagnostics settings", and configuring it to stream to Log Analytics or other services.
Use Direct Queries: In Grafana, when defining your queries, try using the Azure Monitor API directly to pull metrics for specific databases. You can craft queries that fetch data from the Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases resource type specifically.
Filtering in Grafana: Once you set up the data source correctly, you may still need to filter out the other resource types. You can apply filters such as ResourceType eq 'Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases' in your Azure Monitor query section in Grafana to ensure you only receive database metrics.
Dashboard Variables: You mentioned creating dashboard variables for your managed instances. Make sure you create another variable for selecting databases that filters based on the currently selected managed instance variable. This ensures that when you select a managed instance from the dropdown, only its respective databases are shown in the database selection variable.
Tutorial Guidance: If you’re looking for more guidance, you can also check out the Getting started with Azure Metrics Explorer to familiarize yourself with querying metrics effectively.

Follow-up Questions:

Are you able to see metrics for other resources within your monitoring setup, like managed instances?
Have you set up diagnostic settings for your individual databases?
Can you provide any error messages that appear when trying to query database metrics in Grafana?

References:

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have more questions or need further clarification!

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Bharath Y P 9,110 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-11T00:40:04.71+00:00

Hello Thea. I just wanted to kindly follow up to check, If the provided answer is helpful, it would be great if you could accept the answer and up-vote. This not only helps us but also makes it easier for other community members who might face the same issue. Thanks
Thea 80 Reputation points

2026-02-11T07:23:17.5766667+00:00

I did answer, before you made this comment, see my answer below :)
Thea 80 Reputation points

2026-02-17T08:28:47.2166667+00:00

Hello again Bharath Y P, were you able to have a look ast this? :)
Bharath Y P 9,110 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-18T21:00:52.7633333+00:00

Hello Thea. I just wanted to kindly follow up to check, If the provided answer is helpful. please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions. Thanks
Thea 80 Reputation points

2026-02-26T14:39:24.91+00:00

Hi again,

Thank you for getting back to me, but I still can't see any specific details/resources/instructions on metrics for MI databases in Grafana. Even just a list of their names as a starter.

I see the part on "you can use to query Log Analytics with KQL from Grafana. This is the recommended way to get per-database metrics once you’ve enabled diagnostic settings."

But how would I then do that to get the metrics in Grafana? This is the part I am struggling with :)
Bharath Y P 9,110 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-02T10:12:11.93+00:00

You can refer the Below document, his document explains querying specific to the Azure Monitor data source

https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/datasources/azure-monitor/query-editor/

Answer 1

Hi again! Hmm, for step 5, do you have any examples of how to get the names of databases on a given managed instance as dashboard variables? Like I said, I am able to get data from Azure and the managed instance, and I am filtering on currently selected managed instance, I am just not single out just the database names as dashboard variables. I get other resources too, such as network security groups and route tables, for the managed instance I have chosen through the variable I created for managed instance. How to get only the databases?Furthermore, do you have any examples on metrics that can be used for individual databases? For example, I see that a metric for the managed instance on a whole is "Average CPU percentage". Anything similar for databases, or a way to get the CPU usage per database? Just overall not so sure how to create the best possible dashboard specifically for databases on managed instances, and I haven't really found a lot of documentation on it online... :)

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Metrics on individual managed instance databases in Grafana dashboard

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