Grafana 11.1 release: new visualization features, Grafana Alerting updates, and more
The Grafana 11.1 minor release comes on the heels of unveiling Grafana 11 at GrafanaCON, but it packs in some ease of use visualization improvements, updates to Grafana Alerting (I spy a new settings page), and some impactful changes to the overall accessibility of Grafana.
For even more details about all the changes in this release, refer to the changelog or the What’s New documentation.
New in Grafana dashboards and visualizations
Text wrapping in table panel
Available in public preview across all editions of Grafana
One of the most requested features among the Grafana community is here! We’ve enabled text wrapping within cells for the table panel, making convoluted, long lines of text easier to read without the need to scroll across the screen or expand the column size.
By default, the column with the longest text will be selected for wrapping. Alternatively, you can manually configure wrapping using field overrides.
Customize percent change colors in stat panels
Generally available across all editions of Grafana
In stat visualizations, the standard behavior for a percent change is to display positive changes in green and negative changes in red. Depending on your use case, however, we realize you might want to customize the colors that represent percent changes. Now, you have the option to invert the percent change color, showing positive changes in red and negative changes in green. You can also select same as value, which would have the percent change stat match the color of its associated value.
Visualize x and y values in the XY chart
Generally available in all editions of Grafana
XY charts — which are now generally available in Grafana 11.1 — help you visualize arbitrary x and y values in a graph so you can easily show the relationship between two variables. XY charts are typically used to create scatter plots, but you can also use them to create bubble charts where field values determine the size of each bubble.
To learn more about the panel, refer to our XY charts documentation. To use the new XY chart visualization, you must first enable the autoMigrateXYChartPanel feature toggle.
You can also refer to our Grafana visualizations documentation to learn more about these visualization features.
Grafana Alerting: new and improved features
New holistic view of Grafana-managed alert instances
Generally available in all editions of Grafana
The redesigned settings page provides you with a holistic view of where Grafana-managed alert instances are forwarded, which allows you to:
Manage which Alertmanagers receive alert instances from Grafana-managed rules without navigating and editing data sources.
Manage version snapshots for the built-in Alertmanager, which allows administrators to roll back unintentional changes or mistakes in the Alertmanager configuration.
Use a visual diff to compare the historical snapshot with the latest configuration to see which changes were made.
Alert templates for notification messages
Generally available in all editions of Grafana
The alert template selector enables you to easily choose which templates you want to use in your alert notification messages by adding a template selector in the Contact Points form.
You can select from existing templates or enter a custom one for your specific needs. And to make things easier, you can switch between the two tabs to access the list of available templates and copy them across to the customized version.
OAuth2 authentication for Alertmanager or Grafana Mimir
Generally available in all editions of Grafana
In Grafana 11.1, you can configure OAuth2 authentication for any Alertmanager or Mimir receiver (called Contact Points in Grafana) through the user interface.
Note: OAuth2 is not implemented for the Grafana built-in Alertmanager.
Improved paused alert visibility
Generally available in all editions of Grafana
Pause and resume alert rule evaluation directly from the Alert rules list and details view. This helps improve visibility of when alert rules have been paused by displaying “Paused” as the alert rule state.
Rule-specific silences with permissions
Generally available in all editions of Grafana
You can now easily create alert silences directly from the Alert rule list view or detail page. These rule-specific silences are guaranteed to only apply to a single rule and permissions to read, create, update, or delete are tied to a user’s permissions for that rule.
Rule-specific silences with RBAC
Generally available in Grafana Enterprise and Grafana Cloud
Manage silences through Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). In addition to the Grafana open source functionality in Rule-specific silences with permissions, you can choose who can create, edit, and read silences using the following permissions:
Users with the alert.silences:create permission, scoped within a folder, are able to create silences for rules contained within that folder and its subfolders.
Users with the alert.silences:read permission, scoped within a folder, are able to read silences for rules contained within that folder and its subfolders, and general silences.
Users with the alert.silences:write permission, scoped within a folder, are able to expire and recreate silences for rules contained within that folder and its subfolders.
Accessibility improvements in Grafana
The Grafana team is dedicated to improving our user interfaces and overall experience so that our product becomes usable and accessible for everyone. With Grafana 11.1, we are proud to make the following features generally available in all editions of Grafana.
Geomap keyboard support
The geomap panel can now be used with a keyboard! Focus the map area, move around with the arrows keys and zoom in and out using + and -.
Panel shortcut keyboard support
We have panel shortcuts, which previously only worked on a panel you hovered over. It now also takes into account the keyboard focus.
Heading improvements
The majority of screen reader users find things on a web page using headings. Recently, we have added missing headings and corrected heading levels in some places, most notably panel titles.
Reduced motion support
Users who are affected by a lot of animations on a web site have the possibility to configure reduced motion settings. Grafana now supports this, either by making animations simpler or removing them altogether. We have implemented a rule that prohibits unhandled transitions and animations, ensuring that we can continuously support reduced motion.
Learn more about Grafana 11.1
For a list of all the new features in Grafana 11.1, check out our Grafana documentation, the Grafana changelog, or our What’s New documentation.
Join the Grafana Labs community
We invite you to engage with the Grafana Labs community forums. Share your experiences with the new features, discuss best practices, and explore creative ways to integrate these updates into your workflows. Your insights and use cases are invaluable in enriching the Grafana ecosystem.
Upgrade to Grafana 11.1
Download Grafana 11.1 today or try out all the new features by signing up for Grafana Cloud, which offers an actually useful Cloud free tier and plans for every use case. Sign up for a free Grafana Cloud account today.
Our Grafana upgrade guide also provides step-by-step instructions for those looking to upgrade from an earlier version to ensure a smooth transition.
A special thanks to our community
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Grafana community!
Your contributions, ranging from pull requests to valuable feedback, are crucial in continually enhancing Grafana. And your enthusiasm and dedication inspire us at Grafana Labs to continually innovate and elevate Grafana.
Grafana Cloud is the easiest way to get started with metrics, logs, traces, dashboards, and more. We have a generous Cloud free tier and plans for every use case. Sign up for free now!
