---
title: "Configure Grafana Alloy on Kubernetes | Grafana Alloy documentation"
description: "Learn how to configure Grafana Alloy on Kubernetes"
---

# Configure Grafana Alloy on Kubernetes

This page describes how to apply a new configuration to Alloy when running on Kubernetes with the Helm chart. It assumes that:

- You have [installed Alloy on Kubernetes using the Helm chart](../../set-up/install/kubernetes/).
- You already have a Alloy configuration that you want to apply to your Helm chart installation.

Refer to [Collect and forward data](../../collect/) for information about configuring Alloy to collect and forward data.

## Configure the Helm chart

To modify Alloy’s Helm chart configuration, perform the following steps:

1. Create a local `values.yaml` file with a Helm chart configuration.
   
   1. You can use your own copy of the values file or download a copy of the default [`values.yaml`](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grafana/alloy/main/operations/helm/charts/alloy/values.yaml).
   2. Make changes to your `values.yaml` to customize settings for the Helm chart.
      
      Refer to the inline documentation in the default [`values.yaml`](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grafana/alloy/main/operations/helm/charts/alloy/values.yaml) for more information about each option.
2. Run the following command in a terminal to upgrade your Alloy installation:
   
   shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```shell
   helm upgrade --namespace <NAMESPACE> <RELEASE_NAME> grafana/alloy -f <VALUES_PATH>
   ```
   
   Replace the following:
   
   - *`<NAMESPACE>`* : The namespace you used for your Alloy installation.
   - *`<RELEASE_NAME>`* : The name you used for your Alloy installation.
   - *`<VALUES_PATH>`* : The path to your copy of `values.yaml` to use.

## Kustomize considerations

If you are using [Kustomize](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/manage-kubernetes-objects/kustomization/) to inflate and install the [Helm chart](https://github.com/grafana/alloy/tree/main/operations/helm/charts/alloy), be careful when using a `configMapGenerator` to generate the ConfigMap containing the configuration. By default, the generator appends a hash to the name and patches the resource mentioning it, triggering a rolling update.

This behavior is undesirable for Alloy because the startup time can be significant, for example, when your deployment has a large metrics Write-Ahead Log. You can use the [Helm chart](https://github.com/grafana/alloy/tree/main/operations/helm/charts/alloy) sidecar container to watch the ConfigMap and trigger a dynamic reload.

The following is an example snippet of a `kustomization` that disables this behavior:

YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```yaml
configMapGenerator:
  - name: alloy
    files:
      - config.alloy
    options:
      disableNameSuffixHash: true
```

## Configure Alloy

This section describes how to modify the Alloy configuration, which is stored in a ConfigMap in the Kubernetes cluster. There are two methods to perform this task.

### Method 1: Modify the configuration in the values.yaml file

Use this method if you prefer to embed your Alloy configuration in the Helm chart’s `values.yaml` file.

1. Modify the configuration file contents directly in the `values.yaml` file:
   
   YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```yaml
   alloy:
     configMap:
       content: |-
         // Write your Alloy config here:
         logging {
           level = "info"
           format = "logfmt"
         }
   ```
2. Run the following command in a terminal to upgrade your Alloy installation:
   
   shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```shell
   helm upgrade --namespace <NAMESPACE> <RELEASE_NAME> grafana/alloy -f <VALUES_PATH>
   ```
   
   Replace the following:
   
   - *`<NAMESPACE>`* : The namespace you used for your Alloy installation.
   - *`<RELEASE_NAME>`* : The name you used for your Alloy installation.
   - *`<VALUES_PATH>`* : The path to your copy of `values.yaml` to use.

### Method 2: Create a separate ConfigMap from a file

Use this method if you prefer to write your Alloy configuration in a separate file.

1. Write your configuration to a file, for example, `config.alloy`.
   
   Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```alloy
   // Write your Alloy config here:
   logging {
     level = "info"
     format = "logfmt"
   }
   ```
2. Create a ConfigMap called `alloy-config` from the above file:
   
   shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```shell
   kubectl create configmap --namespace <NAMESPACE> alloy-config "--from-file=config.alloy=./config.alloy"
   ```
   
   Replace the following:
   
   - *`<NAMESPACE>`* : The namespace you used for your Alloy installation.
3. Modify Helm Chart’s configuration in your `values.yaml` to use the existing ConfigMap:
   
   YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```yaml
   alloy:
     configMap:
       create: false
       name: alloy-config
       key: config.alloy
   ```
4. Run the following command in a terminal to upgrade your Alloy installation:
   
   shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```shell
   helm upgrade --namespace <NAMESPACE> <RELEASE_NAME> grafana/alloy -f <VALUES_PATH>
   ```
   
   Replace the following:
   
   - *`<NAMESPACE>`* : The namespace you used for your Alloy installation.
   - *`<RELEASE_NAME>`* : The name you used for your Alloy installation.
   - *`<VALUES_PATH>`* : The path to your copy of `values.yaml` to use.