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Migrate from Grafana Agent Static to Grafana Agent Flow

The built-in Grafana Agent convert command can migrate your Static configuration to a Grafana Agent Flow configuration.

This topic describes how to:

  • Convert a Grafana Agent Static configuration to a Grafana Agent Flow configuration.
  • Run a Grafana Agent Static configuration natively using Grafana Agent Flow.

Components used in this topic

Before you begin

  • You must have an existing Grafana Agent Static configuration.
  • You must be familiar with the Components concept in Grafana Agent Flow.

Convert a Grafana Agent Static configuration

To fully migrate Grafana Agent Static to Grafana Agent Flow, you must convert your Static configuration into a Grafana Agent Flow configuration. This conversion will enable you to take full advantage of the many additional features available in Grafana Agent Flow.

In this task, you will use the convert CLI command to output a Grafana Agent Flow configuration from a Static configuration.

  1. Open a terminal window and run the following command.

    static-binary 
    AGENT_MODE=flow grafana-agent convert --source-format=static --output=<OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH> <INPUT_CONFIG_PATH>
    flow-binary 
    grafana-agent-flow convert --source-format=static --output=<OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH> <INPUT_CONFIG_PATH>

    Replace the following:

    • <INPUT_CONFIG_PATH>: The full path to the Static configuration.
    • _<OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH>_: The full path to output the Grafana Agent Flow configuration.

  2. Run Grafana Agent Flow using the new Grafana Agent Flow configuration from <OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH>:

Debugging

  1. If the convert command can’t convert a Static configuration, diagnostic information is sent to stderr. You can use the --bypass-errors flag to bypass any non-critical issues and output the Grafana Agent Flow configuration using a best-effort conversion.

    Caution

    If you bypass the errors, the behavior of the converted configuration may not match the original Grafana Agent Static configuration. Make sure you fully test the converted configuration before using it in a production environment.
    static-binary 
    AGENT_MODE=flow grafana-agent convert --source-format=static --bypass-errors --output=<OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH> <INPUT_CONFIG_PATH>
    flow-binary 
    grafana-agent-flow convert --source-format=static --bypass-errors --output=<OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH> <INPUT_CONFIG_PATH>

    Replace the following:

    • <INPUT_CONFIG_PATH>: The full path to the Static configuration.
    • <OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH>: The full path to output the Grafana Agent Flow configuration.

  2. You can use the --report flag to output a diagnostic report.

    static-binary 
    AGENT_MODE=flow grafana-agent convert --source-format=static --report=<OUTPUT_REPORT_PATH> --output=<OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH> <INPUT_CONFIG_PATH>
    flow-binary 
    grafana-agent-flow convert --source-format=static --report=<OUTPUT_REPORT_PATH> --output=<OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH> <INPUT_CONFIG_PATH>
 ```

    Replace the following:

    • <INPUT_CONFIG_PATH>: The full path to the Static configuration.
    • <OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH>: The full path to output the Grafana Agent Flow configuration.
    • <OUTPUT_REPORT_PATH>: The output path for the report.

    Using the example Grafana Agent Static configuration below, the diagnostic report provides the following information.

    plaintext 
    (Warning) Please review your agent command line flags and ensure they are set in your Grafana Agent Flow configuration file where necessary.

Run a Static mode configuration

If you’re not ready to completely switch to a Grafana Agent Flow configuration, you can run Grafana Agent using your existing Grafana Agent Static configuration. The --config.format=static flag tells Grafana Agent to convert your Static configuration to Grafana Agent Flow and load it directly without saving the new configuration. This allows you to try Grafana Agent Flow without modifying your existing Grafana Agent Static configuration infrastructure.

In this task, you will use the run CLI command to run Grafana Agent Flow using a Static configuration.

Run Grafana Agent Flow and include the command line flag --config.format=static. Your configuration file must be a valid Static configuration file.

Debugging

  1. You can follow the convert CLI command debugging instructions to generate a diagnostic report.

  2. Refer to the Grafana Agent Flow debugging UI for more information about running Grafana Agent Flow.

  3. If your Static configuration can’t be converted and loaded directly into Grafana Agent Flow, diagnostic information is sent to stderr. You can use the --config.bypass-conversion-errors flag with --config.format=static to bypass any non-critical issues and start Grafana Agent Flow.

    Caution

    If you bypass the errors, the behavior of the converted configuration may not match the original Grafana Agent Static configuration. Do not use this flag in a production environment.

Example

This example demonstrates converting a Static configuration file to a Grafana Agent Flow configuration file.

The following Static configuration file provides the input for the conversion.

yaml 
server:
  log_level: info

metrics:
  global:
    scrape_interval: 15s
    remote_write:
      - url: https://prometheus-us-central1.grafana.net/api/prom/push
        basic_auth:
          username: USERNAME
          password: PASSWORD
  configs:
    - name: test
      host_filter: false
      scrape_configs:
        - job_name: local-agent
          static_configs:
            - targets: ['127.0.0.1:12345']
              labels:
                cluster: 'localhost'

logs:
  global:
    file_watch_config:
      min_poll_frequency: 1s
      max_poll_frequency: 5s
  positions_directory: /var/lib/agent/data-agent
  configs:
    - name: varlogs
      scrape_configs:
        - job_name: varlogs
          static_configs:
            - targets:
              - localhost
              labels:
                job: varlogs
                host: mylocalhost
                __path__: /var/log/*.log
          pipeline_stages:
            - match:
                selector: '{filename="/var/log/*.log"}'
                stages:
                - drop:
                    expression: '^[^0-9]{4}'
                - regex:
                    expression: '^(?P<timestamp>\d{4}/\d{2}/\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}) \[(?P<level>[[:alpha:]]+)\] (?:\d+)\#(?:\d+): \*(?:\d+) (?P<message>.+)$'
                - pack:
                    labels:
                      - level
      clients:
        - url: https://USER_ID:API_KEY@logs-prod3.grafana.net/loki/api/v1/push

The convert command takes the YAML file as input and outputs a River file.

static-binary 
AGENT_MODE=flow grafana-agent convert --source-format=static --output=<OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH> <INPUT_CONFIG_PATH>
flow-binary 
grafana-agent-flow convert --source-format=static --output=<OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH> <INPUT_CONFIG_PATH>

Replace the following:

  • <INPUT_CONFIG_PATH>: The full path to the Static configuration.
  • <OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH>: The full path to output the Grafana Agent Flow configuration.

The new Grafana Agent Flow configuration file looks like this:

river 
prometheus.scrape "metrics_test_local_agent" {
	targets = [{
		__address__ = "127.0.0.1:12345",
		cluster     = "localhost",
	}]
	forward_to      = [prometheus.remote_write.metrics_test.receiver]
	job_name        = "local-agent"
	scrape_interval = "15s"
}

prometheus.remote_write "metrics_test" {
	endpoint {
		name = "test-3a2a1b"
		url  = "https://prometheus-us-central1.grafana.net/api/prom/push"

		basic_auth {
			username = "<USERNAME>"
			password = "<PASSWORD>"
		}

		queue_config { }

		metadata_config { }
	}
}

local.file_match "logs_varlogs_varlogs" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/*.log",
		host        = "mylocalhost",
		job         = "varlogs",
	}]
}

loki.process "logs_varlogs_varlogs" {
	forward_to = [loki.write.logs_varlogs.receiver]

	stage.match {
		selector = "{filename=\"/var/log/*.log\"}"

		stage.drop {
			expression = "^[^0-9]{4}"
		}

		stage.regex {
			expression = "^(?P<timestamp>\\d{4}/\\d{2}/\\d{2} \\d{2}:\\d{2}:\\d{2}) \\[(?P<level>[[:alpha:]]+)\\] (?:\\d+)\\#(?:\\d+): \\*(?:\\d+) (?P<message>.+)$"
		}

		stage.pack {
			labels           = ["level"]
			ingest_timestamp = false
		}
	}
}

loki.source.file "logs_varlogs_varlogs" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_varlogs_varlogs.targets
	forward_to = [loki.process.logs_varlogs_varlogs.receiver]

	file_watch {
		min_poll_frequency = "1s"
		max_poll_frequency = "5s"
	}
}

loki.write "logs_varlogs" {
	endpoint {
		url = "https://USER_ID:API_KEY@logs-prod3.grafana.net/loki/api/v1/push"
	}
	external_labels = {}
}

Integrations Next

You can convert integrations next configurations by adding the extra-args flag for convert or config.extra-args for run.

static-binary 
AGENT_MODE=flow grafana-agent convert --source-format=static --extra-args="-enable-features=integrations-next" --output=<OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH> <INPUT_CONFIG_PATH>
flow-binary 
grafana-agent-flow convert --source-format=static --extra-args="-enable-features=integrations-next" --output=<OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH> <INPUT_CONFIG_PATH>

Replace the following:

  • <INPUT_CONFIG_PATH>: The full path to the Static configuration.
  • <OUTPUT_CONFIG_PATH>: The full path to output the Grafana Agent Flow configuration.

Environment Vars

You can use the -config.expand-env command line flag to interpret environment variables in your Grafana Agent Static configuration. You can pass these flags to convert with --extra-args="-config.expand-env" or to run with --config.extra-args="-config.expand-env".

It’s possible to combine integrations-next with expand-env. For convert, you can use --extra-args="-enable-features=integrations-next -config.expand-env"

Limitations

Configuration conversion is done on a best-effort basis. Grafana Agent will issue warnings or errors where the conversion can’t be performed.

After the configuration is converted, review the Grafana Agent Flow configuration file and verify that it’s correct before starting to use it in a production environment.

The following list is specific to the convert command and not Grafana Agent Flow:

  • The Traces and Agent Management configuration options can’t be automatically converted to Grafana Agent Flow. However, traces are fully supported in Grafana Agent Flow and you can build your configuration manually. Any additional unsupported features are returned as errors during conversion.
  • There is no gRPC server to configure for Grafana Agent Flow, as any non-default configuration will show as unsupported during the conversion.
  • Check if you are using any extra command line arguments with Static that aren’t present in your configuration file. For example, -server.http.address.
  • Check if you are using any environment variables in your Static configuration. These will be evaluated during conversion and you may want to replace them with the Grafana Agent Flow Standard library env function after conversion.
  • Review additional Prometheus Limitations for limitations specific to your Metrics configuration.
  • Review additional Promtail Limitations for limitations specific to your Logs configuration.
  • The logs produced by Grafana Agent Flow mode will differ from those produced by Static.
  • Grafana Agent exposes the Grafana Agent Flow UI.