Manage dashboard permissions

Dashboard and folder permissions enable you to grant a viewer the ability to edit and save dashboard changes, or limit an editor’s permission to modify a dashboard.

For more information about dashboard permissions, refer to Dashboard permissions.

Grant folder permissions

When you grant user permissions for folders, that setting applies to all dashboards and subfolders contained in the folder. Consider using this approach to assigning dashboard and folder permissions when you have users, service accounts or teams who require access to groups of related dashboards or folders.

Before you begin

  • Ensure you have organization administrator privileges

  • Identify the dashboard folder permissions you want to modify and the users, service accounts or teams to which you want to grant access. For more information about dashboard permissions, refer to Dashboard permissions.

To grant dashboard folder permissions:

  1. Sign in to Grafana as an organization administrator.

  2. In the left-side menu, click Dashboards.

  3. Hover your mouse cursor over a folder and click Go to folder.

  4. Click the Permissions tab, and then click Add a permission.

  5. In the Add Permission For dropdown menu, select User, Service Account, Team, or Role.

  6. Select the user, service account, team, or role.

  7. Select the permission and click Save.

Grant dashboard permissions

When you grant folder permissions, that setting applies to all dashboards and subfolders in the folder. For a more granular approach to assigning permissions, you can also assign user permissions to individual dashboards.

For example, if a user with the viewer organization role requires editor (or admin) access to a dashboard, you can assign those elevated permissions on an individual basis.

NOTE: If you have assigned a user dashboard folder permissions, you cannot also assign the user permission to dashboards contained in the folder.

Grant dashboard permissions when you want to restrict or enhance dashboard access for users who do not have permissions defined in the associated folder.

Before you begin

  • Ensure you have organization administrator privileges

  • Identify the dashboard permissions you want to modify and the users, service accounts, or teams to which you want to grant access

To grant dashboard permissions:

  1. Sign in to Grafana as an organization administrator.

  2. In the left-side menu, click Dashboards.

  3. Open a dashboard.

  4. In the top right corner of the dashboard, click Dashboard settings (the cog icon).

  5. Click Permissions in left-side menu, and then Add a permission.

  6. In the Add Permission For dropdown menu, select User, Service Account, Team, or Role.

  7. Select the user, service account, team, or role.

  8. Select the permission and click Save.

Enable viewers to edit (but not save) dashboards and use Explore

By default, the viewer organization role does not allow viewers to create dashboards or use the Explore feature. However, by modifying a configuration setting, you can allow viewers to edit a panel and make changes to a dashboard but not save those changes. This setting also enables viewers to use the Explore feature.

This modification is useful for public Grafana installations where you want anonymous users to be able to edit panels and queries but not save or create new dashboards.

NOTE: If you use Grafana Enterprise and customize users’ permissions using RBAC, the RBAC permissions override the functionality enabled by the viewers_can_edit flag.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that you have access to the Grafana server

To enable viewers to preview dashboards and use Explore:

  1. Open the Grafana configuration file.

    For more information about the Grafana configuration file and its location, refer to Configuration.

  2. Locate the viewers_can_edit parameter.

  3. Set the viewers_can_edit value to true.

  4. Save your changes and restart Grafana.

Edit dashboard permissions

Edit dashboard permissions when you are want to enhance or restrict a user’s access to a dashboard. For more information about dashboard permissions, refer to Dashboard permissions.

Before you begin

  • Identify the dashboard and user permission you want to change

  • Ensure you have organization administrator privileges

To edit dashboard permissions:

  1. Sign in to Grafana as an organization administrator.

  2. In the left-side menu, click Dashboards.

  3. Open a dashboard.

  4. In the top-right corner of the dashboard, click Dashboard settings (the cog icon).

  5. Click Permissions in left-side menu.

  6. In the dropdown, update the permissions, and click Save.

Restrict access to dashboards

Grafana applies the highest permission a given user has to access a resource like a dashboard, so if you want to prevent a user from accessing a folder or dashboard you need to consider the user’s organization role, folder permissions, and dashboard permissions.

  • You cannot override organization administrator permissions. Organization administrators have access to all organization resources.

  • User permissions set for a folder propagate to all dashboards and subfolders contained in a folder. Permissions also cascade down to all dashboards and folders under the subfolders, and so on.

  • A lower permission level does not affect access if a more general rule exists with a higher permission.

Refer to the following examples to understand how organization and dashboard permissions impact a user’s access to dashboards.

Example 1

In this example, user1 has the editor organization role.

Dashboard permissions settings:

  • Everyone with Editor role can edit

  • user1 is set to view

Result: User1 has edit permissions because the user’s organization role is Editor.

Example 2

In this example, user1 has the viewer organization role and is a member of team1.

Dashboard permissions settings:

  • Everyone with Viewer role can view

  • user1 is set to edit

  • team1 is set to admin

Result: User1 has administrator permissions for the dashboard because user1 is a member of team1.

Example 3

In this example, user1 has the viewer organization role.

Dashboard permissions settings:

  • user1 is set to admin, which is inherited from the permissions set in parent folder

  • user1 is set to edit

Result: You receive an error message that cannot override a higher permission with a lower permission in the same dashboard. User1 has administrator permissions.

Example 4

In this example, user1 has the viewer organization role.

Folder permissions settings:

  • user1 is set to edit, which is inherited from the permissions set in grandparent folder

Result: User1 has editor permissions for the folder because user1 has permissions on a folder that contains this folder.

Refer to Role-based access Control in Grafana Enterprise to understand how to use RBAC permissions to restrict access to dashboards, folders, administrative functions, and other resources.