4 Ways to Customize Your Cloud Provider Dashboards in Grafana Cloud

Grafana Cloud’s Cloud Provider Observability ships with ready-made dashboards and drill-downs for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. While these out-of-the-box views offer quick service overviews and instance-level insights, every team has unique workflows, preferred dashboards, or specific panel requirements. Now you can tailor these views without leaving the application. This article walks through the centralized configure page, linking existing dashboards, creating AI-generated dashboards, and customizing instance drill-downs. By the end, you’ll have a clear path to making cloud provider data work exactly how your team needs it.

1. Harness the Configure Page for Streamlined Customization

All customizations for a given cloud service—like Amazon RDS, GCP Cloud SQL, or Azure Virtual Machines—live on that service’s Configure page. To access it, navigate to the Services tab, find the service, and click Configure. Here you’ll see three key sections: the Preconfigured dashboard (the built-in view), your Custom dashboards (with one marked as default), and Explore-style links for metrics and Grafana Metrics Drilldown. Any change you make—whether adding a dashboard or tweaking panels—is saved per service and automatically reused wherever that service appears in Grafana: entity graph, Database Observability, and more. This central hub ensures consistency across all observability surfaces, so you set it once and it applies everywhere.

2. Attach Your Existing Dashboards as Quick Links

If you already have a trusted dashboard for a service, you can attach it as a quick link and optionally make it the default view. On the Configure page, look under “Customize your quick links and add new ones to your custom dashboards.” Click Select a dashboard, choose your existing dashboard, and save. It appears immediately as an additional quick link. To set it as the default, simply mark the toggle next to it. Now whenever a user opens that service from the Services tab, entity graph, or other entry points, they see your custom dashboard first—the preconfigured view remains accessible as a secondary option. This approach lets you preserve the out-of-the-box experience for newcomers while providing a power-user front door for your team.

3. Generate AI-Powered Dashboards Tailored to Your Needs

Don’t have a custom dashboard yet? Grafana Cloud’s AI can create one for you. Designed with the correct variables and methodology, AI-generated dashboards can be added just like any other custom dashboard. Once generated, you can set it as the default or keep it as an optional quick link. The AI ensures the dashboard fits seamlessly into existing workflows and debugging paths, making it an excellent choice for teams that need a fresh perspective or lack the time to build from scratch. After creation, you can further tweak panels or queries directly on the Configure page. This capability bridges the gap between zero customization and a fully tailored experience, giving you a personalized view in minutes.

4. Fine-Tune Instance Drill-Down Views Across Observability Surfaces

The instance-level drill-down is used consistently in Cloud Provider Observability, Database Observability, the entity graph, and elsewhere. To customize it, head to the Configure page and expand the section labeled “Customize the panels…”. Here you can adjust which panels render and what queries they use. Every change you make is automatically reflected wherever that instance view appears. This means you can replace default metrics with your preferred ones, add new visualizations, or remove panels that aren’t useful. The result is a unified instance view that follows the same logic across all entry points—saving your team from context switching and ensuring everyone sees the same data in the same way.

Customization doesn’t have to be complex. With the Configure page, you can connect existing dashboards, leverage AI for new ones, and tweak instance drill-downs—all in one place. Whether you stick with the prebuilt views, blend in your own, or generate AI-powered alternatives, Grafana Cloud now gives you full control over your cloud provider observability. Start customizing today to match your team’s exact workflow.