Business Intelligence 1.6.0: Variables, Prometheus, and Alert History

We’re excited to unveil Business Intelligence 1.6.0, a significant release from Volkov Labs that marks a major step forward for the Business Intelligence platform. Transitioning from a proof-of-concept to a robust development milestone, this update introduces powerful features and enhancements, including:

• Dashboard variables for streamlined alerting.
• Prometheus data source integration.
• Built-in Prometheus monitoring for system health.
• Enhanced UI functionality for better user experience.
• New Alert History visualization for deeper insights.

Take a quick look at what’s new:

Business Intelligence 1.6.0 for Grafana

Dashboard Variables for Flexible Alerting

Dashboard variables revolutionize alert configuration by enabling dynamic and scalable setups. Consider a scenario where you’re monitoring multiple devices with varying CPU thresholds (e.g., 0-2% for some, over 2% for others). Without variables, you’d need separate alert rules for each device—a manageable task for a few, but a daunting challenge for hundreds.

With Business Intelligence 1.6.0, a single alert rule combined with variable-driven Overrides can handle diverse thresholds effortlessly. See it in action in a Time Series panel:

Time Series panel with one series triggering an alert.

Here’s how the rule setup looks with variables:

Single alert rule with multiple thresholds using variables.

Prometheus Data Source Support

This release brings full variable support for the Prometheus data source, ensuring seamless integration. We’re actively working to extend this capability to other popular data sources in future updates.

Built-In Prometheus Monitoring

Keep a close eye on the BI Engine itself with our new Prometheus middleware and a dedicated monitoring container. This built-in solution collects critical system health metrics, which you can visualize using a pre-built dashboard. It’s an ideal way to monitor the system that powers your observability.

BI Engine monitoring dashboard powered by Prometheus.

The BI Engine comprises two key components, each exposing metrics for monitoring:

• API Server: Accessible at engine:3001
• Scheduler: Accessible at engine:3002

API Server and Scheduler components of the BI Engine.

Streamlined Alert Rules Workflow

The user-facing alert workflow is now more intuitive, with Prometheus enabling detailed troubleshooting and system reporting behind the scenes:

Conceptual alert workflow from the user’s perspective.

Enhanced User Interface Features

Actions Page

We’ve renamed the Webhooks section to Actions to better reflect standard alerting terminology (Alert rule → Alert record → Alert action).

Annotations Support

In Edit mode under the Action category, the new Add Annotations option allows you to attach annotations to a specific panel or the entire dashboard, providing greater flexibility in alert documentation.

Alerting panel with the Edit alert drawer.

Event Details View

For alert rules in Alerting or Error states, you can now click Details on an alert card and expand the Event Details section to dive into specific information about the event.

Event Details for alerts in Alerting and Error states.

Alert History Visualization

A new Alerts History option in the BI Engine data source’s Request parameter allows you to retrieve and display alert history in any visualization panel. For example, here’s how it looks in a Table view:

Alert History displayed in a Table visualization.

Getting Started

Business Intelligence Platform is a powerful solution that harnesses Docker containers to deliver a modular, scalable, and user-friendly environment for alert-driven analytics. Whether you're just starting out or are an experienced user, our Quick Start Guide is designed to help you set up and deploy the platform effortlessly.

This guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough of the essential setup process, ensuring you can get up and running in no time. Key topics include:

• Configuring the Business Engine: Understand how to set up the core component that powers your analytics.
• Launching the Business Studio: Deploy and access the intuitive interface on your local machine for seamless management and visualization.

We’d Love to Hear From You!

Your feedback and ideas are invaluable to us! Here’s how you can get involved:

• Questions, Feature Requests, or Bugs: Submit a Zendesk ticket to receive a swift and personalized response from our dedicated support team.
• Join the Community: Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and share your thoughts or suggestions in the comments.

Your input is crucial in helping us grow and improve, so please don’t hesitate to reach out!