Migrate dashboards and data sources from a self-managed Grafana instance into an Alibaba Cloud Managed Service for Grafana workspace. After migration, all imported resources are centrally managed through the workspace.
How it works
A migration job connects to your self-managed Grafana instance, reads its dashboards and data sources, and copies them into the target workspace. The authorization method you choose determines the migration scope:
| Authorization method | Scope | Use case |
|---|---|---|
| Admin | All organizations -- migrates every dashboard and data source across all organizations | Full migration of the entire Grafana instance |
| ApiKey | Single organization -- migrates only the dashboards and data sources tied to the API key's organization | Selective migration of a specific organization |
Prerequisites
Before you begin, make sure you have:
The Grafana endpoint URL, including the protocol and port (for example,
https://my-grafana:3000)One of the following credentials, depending on the authorization method:
Admin: The admin password for the self-managed Grafana instance
ApiKey: A Grafana API key with Admin role permissions for the target organization
To create an API key in Grafana V9.0.x, switch to the target organization and go to . Click Add API key and set Role to Admin. The Admin role is required to overwrite data sources during migration. Without it, only dashboards are overwritten. For details, see Create an API key.
Create a migration job
Log on to the ARMS console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose .
On the Workspace Management page, click the ID of the target workspace.
In the left-side navigation pane, click Data Migration.
Choose .
In the Create Migration Job dialog box, configure the following parameters and click Next.
Parameter Description Authorization Method Select Admin to migrate all organizations, or ApiKey to migrate a single organization. See the How it works section for details. Grafana Endpoint The endpoint of the self-managed Grafana instance, including the protocol and port. Example: https://my-grafana:3000.Admin Password Required when Authorization Method is Admin. The admin password of the self-managed Grafana instance. Api Key Required when Authorization Method is ApiKey. The API key for the target organization. 
Select a migration method for each organization
After the connection is established, the migration job lists all discovered organizations. Select a migration method for each organization and click Migration.
| Migration method | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Do not migrate this organization | Skips the organization. No dashboards or data sources are migrated. |
| Create a new organization with the same name | Creates a new organization in the workspace with the same name and migrates all dashboards and data sources into it. |
| An organization in the current workspace | Migrates all dashboards and data sources into an existing organization in the workspace. |
Verify the migration results
After the migration completes, click Go to the list page to open the Dashboards page in Grafana. Confirm that all expected dashboards are present.
