redash-analytics-guide

Redash Analytics Guide

Overview

Redash is an open-source data visualization and dashboarding tool with over 28K stars on GitHub. It is designed for analysts and researchers who prefer writing SQL to explore and visualize data. Redash connects to virtually any data source that supports SQL or has an API, and provides a browser-based query editor with autocomplete, visualization builder, and dashboard composer.

For academic research groups, Redash offers a lightweight, self-hosted alternative to commercial BI tools. Its SQL-first approach is natural for researchers who already work with databases, and its sharing features make it straightforward to create dashboards that the entire lab can access. Unlike Metabase which emphasizes no-code exploration, Redash is specifically designed for users who are comfortable writing queries and want direct control over their data retrieval logic.

Redash supports over 35 data source types, including PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, BigQuery, Elasticsearch, MongoDB, Google Sheets, CSV files, and even custom Python scripts. This versatility means researchers can build unified dashboards that pull data from multiple sources: experiment databases, survey platforms, instrument logs, and cloud storage.

Installation and Configuration

Docker Compose Deployment

# Clone the Redash setup repository
git clone https://github.com/getredash/setup.git redash-setup
cd redash-setup

# Generate configuration
./setup.sh

# Or manually configure with Docker Compose

Docker Compose Configuration for Research Labs

version: "3"
services:
  redash:
    image: redash/redash:latest
    command: server
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"
    environment:
      REDASH_DATABASE_URL: postgresql://${POSTGRES_USER}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@postgres/redash
      REDASH_REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379/0
      REDASH_SECRET_KEY: ${REDASH_SECRET_KEY}
      REDASH_MAIL_SERVER: smtp.university.edu
      REDASH_MAIL_PORT: 587
      REDASH_MAIL_USERNAME: ${MAIL_USERNAME}
      REDASH_MAIL_PASSWORD: ${MAIL_PASSWORD}
    depends_on:
      - postgres
      - redis

  worker:
    image: redash/redash:latest
    command: worker
    environment:
      REDASH_DATABASE_URL: postgresql://${POSTGRES_USER}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@postgres/redash
      REDASH_REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379/0
    depends_on:
      - redash

  scheduler:
    image: redash/redash:latest
    command: scheduler
    environment:
      REDASH_DATABASE_URL: postgresql://${POSTGRES_USER}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@postgres/redash
      REDASH_REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379/0
    depends_on:
      - redash

  postgres:
    image: postgres:16
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: redash
      POSTGRES_USER: ${POSTGRES_USER}
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - pg-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    volumes:
      - redis-data:/data

volumes:
  pg-data:
  redis-data: