UI components

This section explains how to access the interface, navigate the layout, and use the various controls within PMM.

Here’s how the UI is laid out, and what the controls do:

1. Main menu (also called the side menu)
2. Top navigation bar
3. Dashboard actions
4. View controls
5. View selectors

1. Main menu

You’ll find these options in the left-side menu:

Icon	Name	What you can do
	Home	Access the main dashboard with overview panels for database connections, queries, anomaly detection, and upgrade status.
	MySQL	View specialized dashboards for MySQL database performance monitoring.
	PostgreSQL	Access PostgreSQL-specific monitoring dashboards and metrics.
	Operating System	Monitor server-level metrics including CPU, memory, disk, and network performance.
	All Dashboards	Create and organize dashboards, create folders, import dashboards, create playlists, and manage snapshots.
	Query Analytics (QAN)	Analyze database queries over time, identify slow queries, optimize performance, and troubleshoot issues.
	Explore	Investigate metrics without creating dashboards. PromQL builder lets you write custom PromQL queries. You can also enable Explore metrics to visually browse metrics without writing queries. Explore metrics requires enabling the Grafana Metrics Drilldown plugin.
		Alerts
	Advisors	Run health assessment checks on your databases and view recommendations for improving performance.
	Inventory	View and manage all monitored nodes, services, and agents registered in PMM. Check database and agent status, organize services by clusters, and add or remove monitored instances.
	Backups	Configure and manage your database backups and storage locations.
	Configuration	Configure PMM-specific settings like metrics resolution, data retention, and advanced options.
	Users and Access	Access Grafana-specific settings for users, permissions, plugins, and system maintenance.
	Account	Manage your user profile settings, change your password, set notification preferences, and configure your personal PMM experience.
	Help	Access PMM documentation, community forums, and support resources. Export diagnostic logs for troubleshooting and view version information.

2. Top navigation bar

The top bar helps you navigate and understand your current location:

• Dashboard title and breadcrumbs: Shows your current location and navigation path
• Search: Quickly find any dashboard by name
• Enable kiosk mode: Displays the current dashboard in full-screen view, hiding the sidebar and navigation elements. Press Esc to exit.
• View shortcuts: Access frequently used commands
• Quick actions menu — Provides shortcuts to common tasks without navigating through the sidebar

3. Dashboard actions

• Star: Mark the dashboard as a favorite for quick access.
• Make editable: Unlock the dashboard for editing. Built-in dashboards are read-only by default.
• Export: Download the dashboard as a JSON file for backup or import into another PMM instance.
• Share: Share dashboards or panels via direct or shortened links, or export panels as rendered PNG images.

4. View controls

Customize how you view your dashboard data:

• Time range selector: Focus on specific time periods (last hour, day, week)
• Refresh button: Manually update dashboard data or set automatic refresh intervals

5. View selectors

Filter your monitoring data using these contextual options:

• Interval: Control the data granularity (Auto, 1m, 5m, etc.)
• Environment: Focus on specific deployment environments
• Node Names: Filter metrics to specific servers
• PMM Annotations: Toggle visibility of important events on your timelines

These selectors change based on the dashboard you’re viewing, showing only relevant options.

Enable Explore metrics

Starting with PMM 3.8.0, Explore metrics (part of the Grafana Metrics Drilldown app) is no longer enabled by default. To re-enable it:

1. Go to Users and Access > Plugins and data > Plugins.
2. Search for Grafana Metrics Drilldown.
3. Select the plugin and click Enable.

Once enabled, Explore metrics reappears under Explore in the left sidebar.