Grafana is a platform that provides the ability to create dashboards, which are graphical interfaces for viewing, visualizing, and monitoring data. While Red Hat's OperateFirst platform maintains an instance of Grafana for multiple projects on the platform, learning how to use them is paramount to being able to actively contribute.
"Edge device" is a buzzword that references devices which serve as entry points into a network. Think of a house as a network. It has various rooms that all serve different purposes, may be locked or unlocked, and are connected by the liminal space of the home. The only way to gain access to these rooms is by entering the house. How would you enter the house? Through the door, of course!
Think of the door granting access to the rooms in the house as the edge device of a network. Devices such as routers and switches are some of the more common edge devices, as they give devices outside of the network access to the inside.
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Edge devices are becoming more and more ubiquitous in the world, and many are producing complex logs and data metrics that can be monitored. In some cases, these devices produce alerts that need to be addressed. Our mission is to create a test bench for edge devices, so that we can better understand what kinds of improvements might be made. Simultaneously, this is a great way to dip your feet into Grafana and become more familiar with it.