Monitoring Cisco webex with Grafana

Introduction

In this article, we will take a look at what Cisco Webex is, how it works, and why it is great for your business. Then we will explore how to monitor Cisco Webex metrics using beautiful and customizable Grafana dashboards. We’ll also look at what are the most popular data sources Grafana uses. Finally, we will figure out how MetricFire simplifies the task of monitoring metrics for us and what are its main advantages.

To learn more about MetricFire and how to integrate Cisco Webex and Grafana, book a demo with the MetricFire team or sign up for the MetricFire free trial today.

What is Webex and how does it work?

Webex is software that enables large or small groups of people who are far from each other to collaborate. Webex allows you to make audio and video calls, organize video conferences, and write text messages. Webex also has tools for the screen, application, and file sharing, for working together on documents online. All this happens in an online environment that is accessible to teammates.

You need a web browser or desktop application to use Webex. You can also install the mobile application if you want to use a mobile device for work. Webex has a clean and simple interface that can be used by newcomers and more experienced users alike. 

If you want to organize a video call, you need to create a meeting. You can add it to your google calendar, as well as send an invitation to all participants by email. The user who created the meeting is called the host. To start the meeting, the host must join it, the rest of the participants must wait for the host.

Why use Webex?

The main advantages of Webex:

1. Webex allows you to create online events with up to 100,000 people from all over the world.
2. It is possible to divide participants by roles: host, presenter, listener.
3. The ability to connect to the online meeting from any computer or mobile device with any operating system.
4. The ability to connect from any location where there is the Internet.
5. Video or audio calls, text chat, file sharing in one environment.
6. Webex uses end-to-end encryption and user authentication to keep your data safe, whether you work at home or in the office.

How do I use Webex?

To see a list of upcoming meetings, log in to Webex. Then select the meeting you want and click the join icon. This can be done on a desktop or mobile application and in a browser. If you received an email invitation, just click the join button in the invitation email.

What is Grafana?

Grafana is an open-source tool for performing data analytics, retrieving metrics on large amounts of data, and monitoring your apps using cool configurable dashboards. Grafana allows you to download data, save it to a database and display it in various graphs. Below are the main benefits of using Grafana.

Why use Grafana?

1. Grafana allows analyzing and monitoring data over a period of time that helps you to understand application behavior, error type, error frequency, and plan future activities.
2. Grafana can connect to many different data sources such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, ElasticSearch, Influx DB, Prometheus, Graphite.
3. Grafana allows you to create different types of dashboards, choose styles and formats of the graphs, resize and move them.
4. You can export the finished dashboard to a JSON file, generate an external link to it, or create a screenshot.

What is a Grafana Dashboard?

Grafana Dashboard has many tools for the graphical display of metrics. After creating the dashboard, you need to create a panel. The panel is the basic block for visualizing data in Grafana. There are different types of panels that have different uses. For example, graph panel, dashboard list panel, and stat panel. Grafana Dashboard allows you to customize styles and formats for the panels, configure metadata, rows, links, time settings, and more.

In order to display metrics in your panel, you need to select the data source from which they should be loaded. Below we will consider Prometheus and Graphite, which are the two most common data sources that can be used with Grafana.

You can install additional plugins if you want to expand the capabilities that Grafana Dashboards provide, or if you want more tools for storing and visualizing data.

What Are the Features Offered by Grafana?

1. Grafana does not require you to upload data to back-end storage or databases. It can integrate all your data no matter where it is located.
2. Grafana allows you to download data from any source and display it on a single dashboard.
3. Different users from your company can access the dashboard, not just one operator.
4. You can share the dashboards you create with other team members. It allows you to collaboratively explore the data.
5. Ability to create and share flexible, versatile dashboards.
6. Advanced querying and data filtering capabilities let you set up really useful and informative graphs.

What are Prometheus and Grafana?

Prometheus is an open-source monitoring platform. It allows you to collect and store metrics in a time-series format. It is easy to use, versatile, and has many integration options. Prometheus works well with IoT, cloud monitoring, and many other types of monitoring. Therefore, today it is a very popular monitoring software.

Grafana is a tool that allows you to collect data from a lot of sources and display it in beautiful, customizable charts for further analysis. 

Prometheus and Grafana is the de-facto tool for setting up a data visualization infrastructure in the industry. The data is visualized using the Grafana dashboards, while the backend is powered by Prometheus. Prometheus is one of the most popular data source options for Grafana.

What is Graphite and Grafana?

Graphite is a monitoring tool once more. It makes time-series data storage and viewing easier. Graphite consists of several subsystems that allow you to collect metrics and transfer them to a database. Graphite also provides math functions for working with stored data in real-time. It has its own basic data visualization tools. At the same time, the standard application for data visualization can be replaced with a more advanced Grafana. Grafana lets you connect to Graphite and create custom interactive dashboards.

In order to determine which data source Prometheus or Graphite is best for you, read our article Prometheus or Graphite.

How to integrate Cisco Webex and Grafana

First, you need to choose a method for collecting and storing Cisco Webex metrics. After that, you can use Grafana for connecting to the selected data source.

For more detailed information sign up for a free MetricFire trial or book a demo with the MetricFire team and integrate Cisco Webex and Grafana.

What is MetricFire?

MetricFire is a platform for monitoring infrastructure, systems, and applications using open-source programming tools. MetricFire consists of three of the most popular monitoring software products: Grafana, Prometheus, and Graphite. There are also customized plugins for other open-source projects. With MetricFire, you get all of this as a single software product.

MetricFire provides hosted Grafana service, so we can integrate Webex and Grafana for customers who don’t want to do it themselves. MetricFire allows you to use Grafana as a web application so you don't need to worry about installing, configuring, and maintaining it. Use MetricFire to run hosted Grafana monitoring and we will take care of setting up Grafana. 

Benefits of MetricFire

1. No vendor lock-ins. By using MetricFire, you own and control all of your data. You can export all your data at any time.
2. Easy Budgeting. We have different pricing models that allow you to work within your budget, plan and control costs.
3. Transparency. MetricFire works transparently on all aspects of its operations of SaaS system monitoring. You can see their internal system metrics on their public status page.
4. Robust Support. You can get an answer to any question you are interested in from MetricFire engineers by phone or video conference.

Conclusion

Cisco Webex products provide capabilities including online meetings, team messaging, and file sharing. Grafana is an open-source platform for monitoring and observability and an interactive visualization web application. It is most often used with time series databases such as Prometheus and Graphite.

To integrate your monitoring system with Cisco Webex and Grafana, sign up for a free trial, or please book a demo with MetricFire. Discuss how to integrate Cisco Webex and Grafana with your MetricFire dashboards with the MetricFire team.