Overview:
DataLens is a modern open-source business intelligence and data visualization system, originally developed and used as a primary BI tool at Yandex. It is also available as a service on the Yandex Cloud platform. The project provides a user interface for building charts and dashboards, a backend for connecting to data sources and generating queries, and a metadata storage service. It is designed for teams and organizations that need to visualize and explore data from supported databases, with a focus on self-hosted deployment via Docker or Kubernetes.
Core Features:
Chart and dashboard building: A SPA user interface for creating and viewing data visualizations.
Data source connectors: Includes pre-built connectors for ClickHouse, ClickHouse over YTsaurus, and PostgreSQL.
Data processing engine: A Python backend responsible for generating queries, post-processing data, and computing formulas.
Role-based access control (RBAC): Supports
viewer,editor, andadminroles to manage permissions for collections and workbooks.Metadata management: Uses the UnitedStorage (US) service with PostgreSQL to store and manage all object metadata and configurations.
Native authentication: Provides a built-in authentication layer with auto-generated secrets for production deployments.
Use Cases:
Data visualization for analytics teams: Creating interactive charts and dashboards from data stored in ClickHouse or PostgreSQL.
Multi-user BI environments with access control: Managing viewer, editor, and admin roles to control read, create, and edit permissions across workbooks.
Self-hosted business intelligence: Deploying a full BI system within an organization’s infrastructure using Docker containers or a Kubernetes cluster with Helm charts.
Why It Matters:
DataLens offers a full-stack, self-hosted BI system with authentication and role-based access control out of the box. It is built around a modular architecture with separate services for UI, query processing, metadata storage, and auth, making it suitable for teams that want to deploy and manage their own analytics platform. The project supports a minimal set of connectors (ClickHouse and PostgreSQL), with plans to expand based on community feedback. Its origins as Yandex’s primary BI tool provide a real-world reference for its use in production environments.
