Create a New Panel

Sysdig Monitor supports both form-based and PromQL-based queries. You simply run a query and Sysdig Monitor builds a Dashboard that you can customize according to your preferences.

To create a new panel, you can do one of the following:

  • Create a new dashboard: When you create a new dashboard, it opens to a pre-built panel. You can run a new query and build the dashboard.

  • Use a dashboard template: Dashboard templates are essentially immutable dashboards that can’t be edited, and the scope is fixed. You can copy them and customize as desired. See Dashboard Templates.

  • Add a new panel to an existing dashboard.

  • For a PromQL panel, use the Translate to PromQL option.

To create a new panel:

  1. On the Dashboard tab, select the relevant dashboard from the drop-down.

  2. Click the Add Panel icon: The default panel editor opens up.

  3. Set up the panel:

    1. Build either a form-based query or a PromQL-based query.

    2. Define right and left Y-axes.

    3. Define the legend.

    4. Specify a unique title and a brief description for the panel, and enter a custom message to report no data.

  4. Click Save to save the changes.

Building a Form-Based Query

Each type of visualization has different settings and the query fields are determined by the type. For demonstration purposes, this topic explains the steps to create a Line chart.

  1. On the Dashboards tab, click Add dashboard: Clicking the (+) icon opens a default panel editor.

  2. Select a visualization type. To do so, click the Timechart tab.

    For more information on types of visualization, see Visualisation types.

  3. Select the appropriate Time Presets from the time navigation.

  4. Select a metric from the drop-down as follows:

    You can either scroll down or type the first few letters of the metrics. As you enter the first few letters the drop-down lists the matching entries.

  5. Specify Time Aggregation and Group Rollup.

  6. Specify an appropriate segmentation: You can enter the number of entities and the order in which they are displayed in the legend.

Not applicable to Number panels.

  1. Specify the display text in the Display field.

    The text appears as a title for the legend:


  2. (optional) Specify the scope for the panel you are creating: You can either choose to inherit the dashboard scope as it is or apply the scope to one or all the queries.

  3. Specify the unit of scale and the display format for Y-Axis: This option is currently available only for Timeseries panels.

  4. Determine how to display null data on the dashboard: You can display no data as a gap, a zero value, a dotted line, or a solid line in the graph. See Display Missing Data.

  5. Optionally, compare the data against historical data: When segmentation is applied, comparing metrics against historical data is not supported.

Building a PromQL Query

To run a PromQL query:

  1. Do one of the following:

    • Click Add Dashboard if you are creating a new dashboard.

    • Click Add Panel if you are adding a new panel to an existing Dashboard.

  2. Click the PromQL button. The PromQL panel appears.

  3. Enter the query in the PromQL field:


    In this example, the rate of memory heaps released in bytes in an interval of 5 minutes is calculated and then the total rate is calculated in each Kubernetes cluster.

  4. Select the desired Time Presets.

  5. Specify a descriptive title for the legend and a name for the time series.


    You can specify a variable as shown in the image. The variable name is replaced with the Kubernetes cluster names in the legend.

  6. Specify the unit for incoming data and how it should be displayed.


    For example, you can specify the incoming data to be gathered in kilobytes and displayed as megabytes.

    Also, determine the location of the Y-Axis on the graph. When you have additional queries, the flexibility to place an additional Y-axis on the graph comes in handy.

  7. Determine how to display null data on the dashboard: You can display no data as a gap, a zero value, a dotted line, or a solid line in the graph. See Display Missing Data.

  8. Optionally, compare the data against historical data: When segmentation is applied, comparing metrics against historical data is not supported.

  9. Click Save to save the changes.