GHES - Explore OpenTelemetry metrics doc (#59626)

Co-authored-by: Manuel Bergler <manue1@github.com>
Co-authored-by: Joe Clark <31087804+jc-clark@users.noreply.github.com>

Author: 3 people

content/admin/monitoring-and-managing-your-instance/monitoring-your-instance/about-the-monitor-dashboards.md

@@ -61,6 +61,8 @@ On this more detailed dashboard you can get further insights into all aspects of
 
 Starting with {% data variables.product.prodname_ghe_server %} 3.18, you can create custom Grafana dashboards and alerts directly inside the {% data variables.enterprise.management_console %}. These custom dashboards and alerts will persist over upgrades, making it easier to maintain your monitoring configuration.
 
+> [!IMPORTANT] Pre-built dashboards can be opened and edited for inspection, but changes cannot be saved. Create a copy of a dashboard to apply and retain any customizations.
+
 You can use OpenTelemetry and collectd metrics concurrently for external monitoring. During the {% data variables.release-phases.public_preview %}, collectd remains enabled and cannot be disabled.
 
 {% else %}

content/admin/monitoring-and-managing-your-instance/monitoring-your-instance/opentelemetry-metrics/configuring-opentelemetry-for-your-instance.md

@@ -170,4 +170,5 @@ sudo journalctl -u victoriametrics -f
 ## Next steps
 
 * To enable advanced monitoring dashboards, see [AUTOTITLE](/admin/monitoring-and-managing-your-instance/monitoring-your-instance/opentelemetry-metrics/advanced-dashboards)
+* Exploring OpenTelemetry metrics, see [AUTOTITLE](/admin/monitoring-and-managing-your-instance/monitoring-your-instance/opentelemetry-metrics/using-grafana-to-analyze-opentelemetry-metrics).
 * To set up external monitoring, see [AUTOTITLE](/admin/monitoring-and-managing-your-instance/monitoring-your-instance/opentelemetry-metrics/setting-up-external-monitoring-with-opentelemetry).

content/admin/monitoring-and-managing-your-instance/monitoring-your-instance/opentelemetry-metrics/index.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 title: OpenTelemetry metrics
-intro: 'You can configure monitoring and alerting using OpenTelemetry so that you''re aware of potential issues before they negatively impact application performance or availability.'
+intro: You can configure monitoring and alerting using OpenTelemetry so that you're aware of potential issues before they negatively impact application performance or availability.
 versions:
   feature: ghes-opentelemetry
 topics:
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ children:
   - /about-opentelemetry-metrics
   - /configuring-opentelemetry-for-your-instance
   - /advanced-dashboards
+  - /using-grafana-to-analyze-opentelemetry-metrics
   - /setting-up-external-monitoring-with-opentelemetry
 shortTitle: OpenTelemetry metrics
 ---

content/admin/monitoring-and-managing-your-instance/monitoring-your-instance/opentelemetry-metrics/using-grafana-to-analyze-opentelemetry-metrics.md

@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+---
+title: Using Grafana to analyze OpenTelemetry metrics
+intro: Monitor the health and performance of your instance using dashboards and metrics provided by the OpenTelemetry metrics stack.
+versions:
+  feature: ghes-opentelemetry
+topics:
+  - Enterprise
+  - Fundamentals
+  - Infrastructure
+  - Monitoring
+  - Performance
+type: how_to
+shortTitle: Using Grafana to analyze metrics
+contentType: other
+---
+
+## Prerequisites
+
+OpenTelemetry metrics must be enabled on the instance. For configuration instructions, see [AUTOTITLE](/admin/monitoring-and-managing-your-instance/monitoring-your-instance/opentelemetry-metrics/configuring-opentelemetry-for-your-instance).
+
+## Navigating to the monitor dashboards
+
+{% data reusables.enterprise_site_admin_settings.access-settings %}
+{% data reusables.enterprise_site_admin_settings.management-console %}
+{% data reusables.enterprise_management_console.type-management-console-password %}
+1. Click the **Monitor** tab.
+
+
+### Metric labels
+
+The OpenTelemetry stack exporters automatically attach labels to metrics. Common labels are:
+
+* `job` — the name of the exporter that produced the metric
+* `instance` — the instance name from which the metric originated
+
+For some exporters (like `node_exporter` or `haproxy_exporter`), open-source documentation may be available by searching for the `job` label value.
+
+Label availability varies by exporter and metric. Some GitHub application-level metrics may provide fewer labels than infrastructure/exporter metrics, and labels are subject to change from version to version.
+
+
+## Inspecting panel queries
+
+> [!IMPORTANT] Pre-built dashboards can be opened and edited for inspection, but changes cannot be saved. Create a copy of a dashboard to apply and retain any customizations.
+
+To understand which metrics and queries power a given panel, use the graph panel menu *(3 vertical dots)* when viewing a Grafana dashboard:
+
+* **Edit**: Opens the panel editor. This is the most direct way to review and adjust the queries that power the visualization.  
+* **Explore**: Opens Grafana Explore with the panel’s queries pre-populated, allowing interactive analysis.  
+* **Metrics Drilldown**: Opens a side panel for discovering related metrics and breaking down the metric by label values.
+
+## Exploring metrics in Grafana
+
+Grafana provides multiple ways to discover and analyze the metrics available on your instance.
+
+### Grafana Drilldown
+
+Grafana Drilldown provides a guided workflow to discover metrics by filtering on metric prefixes, labels, and label values. After selecting a metric, Grafana can break down the series by available label values. For example, `haproxy_backend_response_errors_total` can be grouped by proxy/back-end label values.
+
+### Grafana Explore
+
+Grafana Explore enables interactive analysis using PromQL (Prometheus Query Language), including a query builder that can help users discover available metrics and labels.
+
+Tips for working in Grafana Explore:
+
+* Use **Code mode's Metric browser** to discover metrics and labels. Selecting labels and label values can reveal associated metrics, and selecting a metric can reveal associated labels and label values.
+* After selecting a metric, switch to **Builder mode** for suggestions to refine the query.
+* Access additional operations via the **+ Operations** button.
+* Customize legend labels in the **Options** panel using the **Legend** setting, for example `{{<label_name>}}`. By default, Grafana assigns legend labels based on unique label sets.
+
+## Further reading
+
+* [AUTOTITLE](/admin/monitoring-and-managing-your-instance/monitoring-your-instance/opentelemetry-metrics/advanced-dashboards)
+* [AUTOTITLE](/admin/monitoring-and-managing-your-instance/monitoring-your-instance/about-the-monitor-dashboards#creating-new-dashboards)
+* [Get Started with Explore](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/visualizations/explore/get-started-with-explore/) in the Grafana documentation 
+* [Promql - Querying Basics](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/basics/) in the Prometheus documentation