---
title: How to Create, Edit, and Delete Dashboards (public)
description: Create, edit, and delete custom dashboards to monitor resource health and performance across your DigitalOcean resources.
product: Insights
url: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/insights/how-to/manage-custom-dashboards/
last_updated: "2026-10-09"
---

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# How to Create, Edit, and Delete Dashboards (public)

DigitalOcean Insights provides observability for supported resources through metrics, logs, traces, custom dashboards, and metric alerts.

**Note**:

  This feature is in [public preview](https://docs.digitalocean.com/platform/product-lifecycle/index.html.md#public-preview). To use it, opt in from the [**Feature Preview** page](https://cloud.digitalocean.com/account/feature-preview).

Dashboards let you visualize and compare metrics from supported DigitalOcean resources in one place. You can customize dashboards with charts, queries, variables, and groups to monitor resource health and performance over a selected time range.

**Note**:

  Metrics are currently available for Droplets, Kubernetes, Managed Databases, Load Balancers, App Platform, Functions, AI/ML products, and networking services.

To access your dashboards, go to the [DigitalOcean Control Panel](https://cloud.digitalocean.com/), in the left menu, click **DATA & LEARNING**, click **Insights**, and then click the **Dashboards** tab.

The **Dashboards** tab lists your existing dashboards and provides options to create, edit, and delete dashboards.

## Enable Insights During Resource Creation

After you opt in to the public preview, you can enable the available Insights telemetry from the resource creation page when you create a supported DigitalOcean resource. For Droplets and GPU Droplets, select **Install the Observability agent** to install the agent during resource creation.

For supported managed resources that do not require the Observability agent, the resource creation page displays the available logs and traces options directly. When creating [Managed Agents](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/index.html.md) resources, Insights is enabled by default.

## Create Dashboard

Create a dashboard to monitor related metrics from supported resources in one place. After creating the dashboard, add charts, groups, and variables to customize how it displays data. Alternatively, [use a dashboard template](#import-a-dashboard) to start with a predefined layout and configuration.

To create a dashboard, in the top-right corner, click **Create dashboard** to open the **Create dashboard** window.

### Choose a Name

In the **Name** field, enter a descriptive name that identifies the application, environment, or resources the dashboard monitors. For example, “Production API”.

### Add a Description

Optionally, in the **Description** field, enter a brief description of the dashboard’s purpose and the metrics it displays, if needed. For example, “Monitors CPU utilization, memory usage, and request latency for the production API”.

### Import a Dashboard

You can create a dashboard by importing a dashboard file from your local machine or by starting from a predefined dashboard template:

### Use Local File

In the **Import Dashboard** section, drag and drop a dashboard file or click **browse** to select a file from your local machine.

Then, click **Create Dashboard**. The new dashboard appears in the **Dashboards** tab. To find a dashboard, enter its name in the **Search dashboards** field.

### Use Dashboard Template

Use a dashboard template to start with a predefined set of charts and settings. Templates provide a starting point for common monitoring tasks, such as reviewing core Droplet metrics.

In the bottom-right corner of the **Create dashboard** window, click **Start from template** to open the **Dashboard templates** window.

Click **View** next to the template you want to use, such as **Droplet Overview**, and then click **Clone template** in the top-right corner.

After cloning the template, you can [edit the dashboard](#edit-dashboard) and [customize its charts, groups, and variables](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/insights/how-to/customize-dashboards/index.html.md).

After you create the dashboard, [set up and customize it](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/insights/how-to/customize-dashboards/index.html.md).

## View a Dashboard

When viewing a dashboard, you can select the region and variable values used to display metric data, and adjust the time range and refresh interval.

### Choose a Region

When viewing a dashboard, click the **Region** dropdown menu to select the region whose metrics you want to display.

### Select a Variable

If the dashboard includes variables, use the variable controls next to the region selector to select or set the values used by the dashboard.

### Set the Time Range

To set the time range, in the top-right corner, click the **Time range** dropdown menu to select a relative range from **Last 5 minutes** through **Last 7 days**, or specify an absolute **From** and **To** range.

Use the **Timezone** field to select the timezone used to display metric timestamps. The default is your local browser timezone.

### Set the Refresh Interval

To set the refresh interval, in the top-right corner, click the **Refresh interval** dropdown menu to select **Off**, **15 sec**, **30 sec**, or **60 sec**.

Click the refresh icon to refresh the metric data immediately.

To change the time range and refresh interval used by default when you open the dashboard, [edit the dashboard](#edit-dashboard).

## Edit Dashboard

To edit your dashboard, find and select the dashboard you want to edit, and then in the top-right corner, click **Settings** to open the **Dashboard Settings** window.

In the **General** tab, you can edit the following:

- In the **Name** field, enter a descriptive name that identifies the application, environment, or resources the dashboard monitors, such as “Production API”.
- In the **Description** field, enter a brief summary of the dashboard’s purpose and the metrics it displays.
- Click the **Default time range** dropdown menu to select the time range shown when the dashboard opens. Options range from 5 minutes through 7 days. The default is **1 hour**. Use shorter ranges for recent activity and longer ranges for broader trends.
- Click the **Default refresh interval** dropdown menu to select **Off**, **15 sec**, **30 sec**, or **60 sec**. The default is **30 sec**. Select a shorter interval for frequently changing metrics or **Off** when automatic updates are unnecessary.
- To delete the dashboard, in the bottom-left corner, click **Delete dashboard** to open the **Delete dashboard** window. Deleting a dashboard permanently removes the dashboard and its panel layout configuration. In the **Dashboard name** field, enter the dashboard name to confirm the deletion. Then, click **Delete**.

After updating the settings, click **Save**.

### Edit Dashboard Variables

To edit the dashboard’s custom variables, click the **Variables** tab. Variables let you define reusable values that you can reference across dashboard queries and controls.

**Note**:

  Built-in variables are read-only. You can view their values, but you cannot edit them.

To add a custom variable, in the top-right corner, click **+ Add variable**.

In the **Variable** field, enter a unique name for the variable. Use a name that identifies the value the variable represents, such as `environment`.

In the **Display Name** field, enter the name shown in the dashboard’s variable controls, such as “Environment”.

Then, select **Text** or **List**. If you select **List**, choose the source that populates the list (either **Static List**, **Label names**, or **Label values**).

### Text

In the **Variable Type** section, select **Text**.

In the **Value** field, enter the text value for the variable, for example, `production`.

Optionally, enable the **Constant** toggle to prevent dashboard viewers from changing the value. The toggle is disabled by default. Enable it when the variable should always use the configured value.

### Static List

In the **Variable Type** section, select **List**, then click the **Source** dropdown menu, and then select **Static List**.

In the **Label** field, enter the name displayed for the option, such as “Production”.

In the **Value** field, enter the corresponding value, such as `prod`.

Afterwards, click **+ Add option** to add another option to the list.

To delete an option, click the trash icon next to the option.

### Label Names

In the **Variable Type** section, select **List**, then click the **Source** dropdown menu, and then select **Label names**.

In the **Metric (optional)** field, enter a metric to limit the list to label names associated with that metric, such as `do.droplets.cpu.utilization`.

In the **Capturing regexp** field, optionally enter a regular expression to filter or transform list values. For example, `^(do:app:.*)$` keeps matching App Platform URNs unchanged and excludes values that don’t match.

### Label Values

In the **Variable Type** section, select **List**, then click the **Source** dropdown menu, and then select **Label values**.

In the **Metric (optional)** field, enter a metric to limit the available values to those associated with that metric, such as `do.droplets.cpu.utilization`.

In the **Label** field, enter the label whose values you want to use for the list, such as `resource.urn`.

In the **Capturing regexp** field, optionally enter a regular expression to filter or transform list values. For example, `^(do:app:.*)$` keeps matching App Platform URNs unchanged and excludes values that don’t match.

After configuring the list, in the **Dropdown Options** section, configure how the list appears and behaves.

In the **Default Value** field, enter the value selected by default, such as `prod`.

Then, enable the **Allow multiple values** toggle to let users select more than one value. To configure multiple default values, enter them as a comma-separated list in the **Default Value** field.

Then, enable the **Allow all values** toggle to add an option that selects all available values. In the **Custom all value** field, enter the value to use when all options are selected. The default is `$__all`.

Then, click the **Sort** dropdown menu to select how to order the available values (which are **None**, **Alphabetical**, **Case-insensitive**, or **Numerical**).

After configuring the variable, click **Add Variable**. To manage an existing variable, click the eye icon to show or hide it, or click the trash icon to delete it.

To save your changes, in the top-right corner, click **x** to close the settings page. Then, in the top-right corner of the dashboard, click **Save** to save the dashboard and display the variable.

### Edit Dashboard Schema

To edit the dashboard’s schema, click the **JSON** tab. The schema contains the dashboard’s underlying configuration and is intended for advanced edits.

**Note**:

  Only change fields you understand, and use the dashboard controls when an equivalent setting is available in the Control Panel.

After editing the schema, click **Apply**.

To save your changes, in the top-right corner, click **x** to close the settings page. Then, in the top-right corner of the dashboard, click **Save** to save the dashboard.

## Delete Dashboard

To delete a dashboard, find and select the dashboard you want to delete, click **…**, and then click **Delete** to open the **Delete dashboard** window.

Deleting a dashboard permanently removes the dashboard and all of its chart, group, variable, and layout configurations.

In the **Dashboard name** field, enter the dashboard name to confirm the deletion. Then, click **Delete**.