--- title: "Run Grafana Alloy in a Podman container | Grafana Alloy documentation" description: "Learn how to run Grafana Alloy in a Podman container" --- # Run Grafana Alloy in a Podman container Podman is a container engine that runs without a daemon for developing, managing, and running Open Container Initiative (OCI) containers. You can use Podman as a drop-in replacement for Docker to run Alloy. Alloy is available as a Docker container image that you can use with Podman on the following platforms: - Linux for AMD64 and ARM64. - macOS for AMD64 (Intel) and ARM64 (Apple Silicon). - Windows for AMD64. > Note > > On macOS and Windows, Podman runs containers in a Linux virtual machine managed by `podman machine`. The container commands are the same across all platforms once the machine is running. ## Before you begin - Install [Podman](https://podman.io/) or [Podman Desktop](https://podman-desktop.io/) on your computer. - On macOS or Windows, initialize and start the Podman machine: shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```shell podman machine init podman machine start ``` - Create and save an Alloy configuration file on your computer, for example: Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```alloy logging { level = "info" format = "logfmt" } ``` ## Run a rootless Podman container One of the key features of Podman is the ability to run containers without root privileges. To run Alloy as a rootless Podman container, run the following command in a terminal window: shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```shell podman run \ -v :/etc/alloy/config.alloy:Z \ -p 12345:12345 \ docker.io/grafana/alloy:latest \ run --server.http.listen-addr=0.0.0.0:12345 --storage.path=/var/lib/alloy/data \ /etc/alloy/config.alloy ``` Replace the following: - *``* : The absolute path of the configuration file on your host system. > Note > > The `:Z` suffix on the volume mount is required on Linux systems with Security-Enhanced Linux enabled (such as Fedora, RHEL, and CentOS) to set the correct security context for the mounted file. > > If you’re running on macOS, Windows, or a Linux system without Security-Enhanced Linux, you can omit the `:Z` suffix. You can modify the last line to change the arguments passed to the Alloy binary. Refer to the documentation for [run](../../../reference/cli/run/) for more information about the options available to the `run` command. > Note > > Make sure you pass `--server.http.listen-addr=0.0.0.0:12345` as an argument as shown in the example. If you don’t pass this argument, the \[debugging UI]\[UI] won’t be available outside of the Podman container. ## Run a Podman container with root privileges If you need to run Alloy with root privileges, for example to access host-level resources, run the following command: shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```shell sudo podman run \ -v :/etc/alloy/config.alloy:Z \ -p 12345:12345 \ docker.io/grafana/alloy:latest \ run --server.http.listen-addr=0.0.0.0:12345 --storage.path=/var/lib/alloy/data \ /etc/alloy/config.alloy ``` Replace the following: - *``* : The absolute path of the configuration file on your host system. ## Run with systemd integration on Linux On Linux, Podman integrates with systemd to manage containers as services. To generate a systemd unit file for Alloy: 1. Run the container with a name: shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```shell podman run -d --name alloy \ -v :/etc/alloy/config.alloy:Z \ -p 12345:12345 \ docker.io/grafana/alloy:latest \ run --server.http.listen-addr=0.0.0.0:12345 --storage.path=/var/lib/alloy/data \ /etc/alloy/config.alloy ``` Replace the following: - *``* : The absolute path of the configuration file on your host system. 2. Generate a systemd unit file: shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```shell podman generate systemd --name alloy --files --new ``` 3. Move the generated file to the systemd directory: shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```shell mv container-alloy.service ~/.config/systemd/user/ ``` 4. Reload systemd and enable the service: shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```shell systemctl --user daemon-reload systemctl --user enable --now container-alloy.service ``` ## Use Podman Compose If you prefer using Compose files, Podman supports Docker Compose files through `podman-compose`. 1. Create a `compose.yaml` file: YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```yaml services: alloy: image: docker.io/grafana/alloy:latest ports: - "12345:12345" volumes: - :/etc/alloy/config.alloy:Z command: - run - --server.http.listen-addr=0.0.0.0:12345 - --storage.path=/var/lib/alloy/data - /etc/alloy/config.alloy ``` Replace the following: - *``* : The absolute path of the configuration file on your host system. 2. Run the container: shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```shell podman-compose up -d ``` ## BoringCrypto images > Note > > BoringCrypto support is in *Public preview* and is only available on AMD64 and ARM64 platforms. BoringCrypto images are published with every release starting with version 1.1: - The current BoringCrypto image is published as `docker.io/grafana/alloy:boringcrypto`. - A specific version of the BoringCrypto image is published as `docker.io/grafana/alloy:-boringcrypto`, such as `docker.io/grafana/alloy:v1.1.0-boringcrypto`. ## Verify To verify that Alloy is running successfully, navigate to [http://localhost:12345](http://localhost:12345) and make sure the Alloy [UI](../../../troubleshoot/debug/) loads without error. You can also check the container status: shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```shell podman ps ``` ## Next steps - [Configure Alloy](../../../configure/linux/)