Grafana 12 OSS on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS by cloudimg. Pre configured with per VM admin password generation, listening on TCP 3000, bundled SQLite backend. Add data sources from Azure Monitor, Prometheus, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Loki and 100+ other systems. 24/7 expert support.
## Grafana 12 OSS on Ubuntu 24.04 by cloudimg
Grafana 12 OSS on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat), purpose built for Microsoft Azure and maintained by cloudimg. Grafana is the de facto open source observability dashboard, with built in support for over 100 data sources including Prometheus, Loki, Azure Monitor, CloudWatch, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, ClickHouse, Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, InfluxDB, and Tempo. Grafana 12 introduces native scenes for advanced dashboard composition, Drilldown apps, improved alerting workflows, and significant performance improvements over the 11.x line.
Why Choose cloudimg?
* 24/7 Expert Support with guaranteed 24 hour response for all requests and one hour average for critical issues. Contact support@cloudimg.co.uk
* Production Ready from Launch Pre configured, security patched, and validated before publication
* Azure Native Integration Built with Azure Linux Agent, cloud init, and Gen2 Hyper V support
* Per VM Admin Credential Generation Admin password rotated uniquely at first boot via grafana-cli admin reset-admin-password and written to /stage/scripts/grafana-credentials.log. No two virtual machines ever share an admin password
What is Included
* Grafana 12 OSS server installed from the official packages.grafana.com APT stable channel
* grafana-server.service systemd unit auto starting on boot
* grafana-firstboot.service systemd oneshot that rotates the admin password from a build time temp value to a per VM strong value
* Listener on TCP 3000 (HTTP) bound to 0.0.0.0
* Bundled SQLite backend at /var/lib/grafana/grafana.db (suitable for single instance deployments)
* grafana-cli installed at /usr/sbin/grafana-cli for plugin management and admin password reset
* Ubuntu 24.04 LTS base with latest security patches applied at build time
* Azure Linux Agent for seamless cloud integration and SSH key injection
Notes on TLS and Production Hardening
Grafana 12 listens on plain HTTP on port 3000 by design — TLS termination is intentionally left to a reverse proxy (Nginx, Caddy, Apache, or an Azure Application Gateway) so customers can use their existing certificate workflow. For a quick TLS test, the cloudimg `nginx-ssl-certbot-ubuntu-24-04` image makes a good companion reverse proxy.
Data Sources Out Of The Box
No data sources are pre configured. After first login, customers add data sources via Connections → Data sources in the Grafana UI. Common Azure pairings:
* Azure Monitor (built in plugin)
* Prometheus (cloudimg has a Prometheus image planned)
* PostgreSQL or MySQL or MariaDB (pair with the cloudimg postgresql-18, mysql-9-7, or mariadb-11 images)
* Loki for log aggregation
* OpenSearch or Elasticsearch (cloudimg has both available)
Plugins
No plugins are pre installed (keeps the image lean). Install via:
sudo grafana-cli plugins install
sudo systemctl restart grafana-server
Use Cases
* Single pane observability dashboard for a small to medium fleet of VMs and services
* Azure Monitor visualisation layer for teams that want richer dashboards than the native Azure portal offers
* Application metrics dashboards in front of Prometheus + Loki stacks
* SQL based BI dashboards on top of PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, or ClickHouse
* Alert routing hub for PagerDuty, Opsgenie, Slack, Teams, and email destinations
Technical Specifications
* Operating System: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat)
* Grafana Version: 12.x OSS (official packages.grafana.com stable channel)
* Default Database: bundled SQLite at /var/lib/grafana/grafana.db
* HTTP Port: 3000 (plain HTTP — terminate TLS at a reverse proxy for production)
* Default User: azureuser (sudo enabled)
* Service Management: systemd (grafana-server.service, grafana-firstboot.service)
* Recommended Size: Standard_B2s for small deployments; Standard_D2s_v3 or larger for fleets > 50 dashboards
* VM Generation: Hyper V Gen2 with UEFI boot
Support
cloudimg provides 24/7/365 expert technical support. Contact support@cloudimg.co.uk or visit www.cloudimg.co.uk for the latest documentation and deployment guides.