I have been running Grafana dashboards on Windows machines for some time but wanted to use a Raspberry Pi as the 'server' in my caravan. But I struggled with docker-compose and gave up several months ago and just used an Intel NUC running Windows 10 instead.

After reading a new post here a few days ago, I decided to have another go and - bingo - got Grafana dasboards working on a Pi 3B+.

Initially it failed again (cryptic error messages that meant nothing to me), so as one last attempt, I started afresh with a brand new SD card image with the latest OS - and it all installed perfectly. (I had been experimenting with that Pi with various other programs, so I suspect one or more were conflicting the docker and/or docker-compose installation).

Here is a copy of my installation notes for those interested....

Installing Docker/Grafana on Raspberry Pi

Starting with a clean installation of RaspberryOS…

Install Docker – sudo apt install docker
Install Docker Compose – sudo apt install docker-compose
Add pi user to docker group – sudo usermod -aG docker pi
Reboot (to force group change above)
Create a Victron directory – mkdir Victron
Change to that folder – cd Victron
Copy your docker-compose.yaml file (downloaded from github) to the Victron directory
Run the installer – docker-compose up -d
Once finished (5-10mins), open a browser.
Browse to http://localhost:8088 and login (admin and admin)
Go to configuration, VRM and enter your VRM credentials to login. Your VRM-connected systems should then be visible.
Select the system (enable it).
Open Grafana – http://localhost:3000 (login is admin & admin). Your system(s) should appear under Devices.
Change to Dashboards and open the sample Venus Dashboard to confirm all is working.
Import any previously developed dashboard JSON files and start tweaking.

NB – some of the beta visualisation plugins seem to be missing on the Pi version as compared to the latest Windows version (eg the bargraph).

My slightly modified docker-compose.yaml file (added restart: commands) looks like this...

version: '3.4'

services:

server:

image: "victronenergy/venus-docker-server:latest"

ports:

- "8088:8088"

volumes:

- "config-storage:/config"

restart: always

upnp:

image: "victronenergy/venus-docker-upnp:latest"

network_mode: host

restart: always

influxdb:

image: "influxdb:1.7"

ports:

- "8086:8086"

volumes:

- "influxdb-storage:/var/lib/influxdb"

environment:

- INFLUXDB_HTTP_LOG_ENABLED=false

restart: always

graphing:

image: "victronenergy/venus-docker-grafana:latest"

volumes:

- "grafana-storage:/var/lib/grafana"

ports:

- "3000:3000"

restart: always

volumes:

influxdb-storage:

grafana-storage:

config-storage:

Cheers

Phil

xemoterp commented · Apr 21, 2021 at 02:46 PM

Is there a problem with running the current version of the venus-docker-grafana container for the Raspberry PI? All four containers start, but the grafana one exits right away. If using "restart: always" as in the yaml file above, the service starts and stops after a second and then restarts/stops ....

Tried using Raspian OS on a RPI 3 and also Ubuntu on an Odroid XU4 - so I know it is not a particular OS version (both are 32 bit Armf BTW).

I can get to the admin page for setting up the data feed from my Victron Venus OS - can see it obtain data (ie: localhost:8088 works fine). Cannot reach localhost:3000 because the docker contain for victron-docker-grafana will not stay running - it shows an Exit(1). Have not yet logged it.

0 ·

nillerk xemoterp commented · Apr 28, 2021 at 11:46 PM

I am having the same problem on a Raspberry Pi 4. Have you made any progress?

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gregmmm commented · Oct 02, 2021 at 07:41 PM

Is anyone else having issues getting venus-docker-grafana to connect with the VRM portal?

After several weeks of venus-docker-grafana working flawlessly accessing my VRM data I am currently unable to log in with my credentials in the "Configuration - VRM" page.

Data was being saved to influxdb and displayed in the dashboard I put together in grafana... all was working well.

I am running a RPi 3B+ on the most current raspberry Pi OS with all current updates.

I suspect that the most recent apt-get update/upgrade I ran may have been the culprit...even though there were no errors during the update. Venus-docker-grafana was working fine until the update I ran.

I've rebuilt my Pi3B+ several time now following the detailed instructions above each time to get venus-docker-grafana running.

I tried rebuilding things without running any updates for raspberry pi OS to no avail.

The docker compose file runs without any errors and I'm able to log in to localhost:8088 using Chome as my browser using the default admin/admin credentials after completing the installation.

My trouble starts when I enter my VRM credentials in the configuration tab. .. the "logging in" notification sits there until it times out after failing to connect to the VRM portal.

I have the VRM toggle enabled while trying to log into VRM.

On the troubleshooting page the a "venus-server" error is present..... "connect ECONNREFUSED 172.18.0.2:8086".

I'd upload a screen cap but I'm new to this forum and don't seem to be able to post/upload images yet.

I don't recall seeing this error when I was previously able to log into VRM normally. Is this error related to my issues logging into the VRM portal?

I know my VRM credentials are valid and working as I can log into the VRM web portal and access my live data but I am unable to get venus-docker-grafana to log into VRM.

Has anyone else encountered the above described issue recently. If so, is there a fix? Is this an issue with the docker compose file or on the Victron side of things?Configuration - VRM Credentials.png

dunnp gregmmm commented · Oct 03, 2021 at 01:29 PM

Yes - seeing the same problem on PC version. It looks like something broke on or about 1st October (judging by a 30day graph I had running). Perhaps to do with the certificate expiry issue mentioned in media. Only guessing.

I have no idea where to look. Hopefully someone knows the answer.

Ulrich gregmmm commented · Oct 04, 2021 at 06:54 PM

This looks like my problem. (https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/103795/request-to-httpsvrmapivictronenergycomv2authlogin.html)

Is wget installed?

wget https://vrmapi.victronenergy.com

Is there a certificate error message? Victron Energy has to take action here and install a new certificate that does not refer to the expired root certificate.

new-energytoday commented · Nov 17, 2021 at 11:02 AM

Thanks for sharing this information! It works fine.

The only thing is, when I follow these steps, Grafana v7 is installed. I would like to run Grafana v8 because of its nice new functionalities. Any idea how I can update Grafana?

Grtz Wim

k0s new-energytoday commented · Aug 11, 2023 at 11:57 AM

hey Did you manage to upgrade to any newer version of grafana?
I am really stuck here :(

I would appreciate any help :)

Thanks and have a great WE!

Dee

miya commented · Dec 31, 2021 at 03:24 PM

Hi All

Can anyone help - I am struggling here.

I have had docker, InfluxDB and Grafana all working fine on a mac and a PC - loving it ! So I have now tried to get it up and running on a Rasp Pi 3 following instructions on this thread.

All going well - connected up to VRM from localhost:8088 -

and can see data flying in from VRM.

All going well until I try launching Grafana from the link provided (above) in localhost:8088 or by directly trying to access localhost:3000 in a browser. Either one results in 'this site cant be reached'.