# Connect EMQX Tables to Grafana

[Grafana](https://grafana.com/) is a popular open-source platform for monitoring and visualizing time-series data. You can connect EMQX Tables to Grafana using the **MySQL** data source and create dashboards to explore your data.

## Step 1: Add EMQX Tables as a Data Source

1. In Grafana, go to **Connections > Data sources** and click **Add data source**.
2. Choose **MySQL** as the data source type.
3. Configure the connection:
   > You can find these credentials on your EMQX Tables **Deployment Overview** page in the Console.
   
   - **Host**: `{YOUR_EMQX_TABLES_PUBLIC_HOST}`
   - **Port**: `4002`
   - **Database**: `{YOUR_EMQX_TABLES_DB_NAME}`
   - **Username**: `{YOUR_EMQX_TABLES_USERNAME}`
   - **Password**: `{YOUR_EMQX_TABLES_PASSWORD}`
4. Click **Save & Test** to validate the connection.

## Step 2: Create Dashboards

::: tip Note

**Use the raw SQL editor only.** The SQL query builder in Grafana is not compatible with EMQX Tables due to timestamp type differences.

:::

1. Open a new or existing dashboard.

2. Add a **panel** and switch to the **Code** mode in the Query section.

3. Write your SQL query to fetch data from EMQX Tables. For example:

   ```sql
   SELECT
     timestamp_column AS time,
     temperature AS value,
     location AS metric
   FROM sensor_data
   WHERE $__timeFilter(timestamp_column)
   ```

4. Click **Apply** to save and visualize the panel.

## Reference

For more details on configuring MySQL data sources in Grafana, see the [official documentation](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/datasources/mysql/).