Last checked and updated on 01 Jun 2026
What Is New in Grafana 6
| Category | Highlights |
|---|---|
| New Features | Modern panel editor with live preview, revamped alerting UI, data-source provisioning, plugin signing, enhanced LDAP and permission management. |
| Improvements | Faster dashboard rendering, query inspector enhancements, variable handling improvements, UI polish for playlists and snapshots. |
| Bug Fixes | Resolved memory leaks in large dashboards, fixed annotation race conditions, corrected time-range handling for mixed data sources. |
| Breaking Changes | Dashboard JSON schema version bumped to 5, legacy alert rule format deprecated, old plugin signing disabled. |
| Deprecations | Legacy panel editor removed, old LDAP bind method deprecated, Grafana 5 style alert notifications phased out. |
How does the new panel editor improve dashboard building?
The new panel editor provides a single-page, live-preview experience that reduces the number of clicks needed to create or modify panels.
- Query builder and visualization settings are side-by-side, so you see changes instantly.
- Supports multiple data sources in one panel with a unified query UI.
- Built-in "Apply & Close" button saves the panel without leaving the editor, speeding up iterative work.
In practice this matters if your team iterates on dashboards multiple times a day; the reduced context switching can cut editing time by up to 30%.
What are the major changes to alerting in Grafana 6?
Grafana 6 introduces a brand-new alerting UI that centralises rule creation, notification channel management, and silencing.
- Alert rules are now defined as "alert groups" with a visual builder for thresholds.
- Mute functionality lets you silence alerts for a defined window without deleting the rule.
- Notification channels support templated messages and can be tested directly from the UI.
Watch out for the breaking change: the legacy JSON-based alert definition is no longer imported automatically; you must migrate existing alerts using the migration wizard.
How has data-source management been enhanced?
Data-source provisioning and plugin signing now allow fully automated, secure deployments.
- Provisioning files (YAML or JSON) can be placed in
/etc/grafana/provisioning/datasourcesand are loaded at startup. - Signed plugins are verified on install, preventing tampered third-party code.
- The UI adds a "Test Connection" button that runs a quick health check and displays latency.
Example provisioning file:
apiVersion: 1
datasources:
- name: Prometheus
type: prometheus
url: http://localhost:9090
access: proxy
isDefault: true
What operational improvements affect large deployments?
Grafana 6 includes performance and security tweaks that help scale to thousands of users and dashboards.
- Dashboard rendering pipeline was rewritten, reducing CPU usage on dashboards with >100 panels.
- LDAP configuration now supports group mapping with regex, simplifying complex AD structures.
- Permission inheritance was tightened; dashboard folders inherit read/write rights, reducing accidental exposure.
Most teams will notice faster load times and fewer permission-related incidents after upgrading.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I upgrade from Grafana 5 to 6 without downtime?
Yes, the upgrade can be performed with a rolling restart, but you should back up the database and test the new alerting UI in a staging environment first.
How do I migrate existing alert rules to the new UI?
Use the built-in migration wizard under Alerting → Migrate, which converts legacy JSON rules into the new group-based format.
What is the recommended way to provision data sources in Grafana 6?
Create a YAML file in the provisioning directory, for example datasource.yaml with the content apiVersion: 1 datasources: - name: Prometheus type: prometheus url: http://localhost:9090 access: proxy isDefault: true.
Are there any breaking changes in the dashboard JSON model?
The dashboard schema version is now 5, and panels must use the new "fieldConfig" block instead of the old "options" block.
How do I enable plugin signing?
Set enable_plugin_signing = true in grafana.ini under the plugins section and restart Grafana.
Is the LDAP configuration syntax changed in Grafana 6?
Yes, the bind_dn and bind_password fields are now nested under a "ldap" block, and group mappings use a regex pattern instead of a static list.