--- title: "Migrate from Prometheus to Grafana Alloy | Grafana Alloy documentation" description: "Learn how to migrate from Prometheus to Grafana Alloy" --- # Migrate from Prometheus to Grafana Alloy The built-in Alloy convert command can migrate your [Prometheus](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/) configuration to an Alloy configuration. This topic describes how to: - Convert a Prometheus configuration to an Alloy configuration. - Run a Prometheus configuration natively using Alloy. ## Components used in this topic - [`prometheus.scrape`](../../../reference/components/prometheus/prometheus.scrape/) - [`prometheus.remote_write`](../../../reference/components/prometheus/prometheus.remote_write/) ## Before you begin - You must have a Prometheus configuration. - You must have a set of Prometheus applications ready to push telemetry data to Alloy. - You must be familiar with the concept of [Components](../../../get-started/components/) in Alloy. ## Convert a Prometheus configuration To fully migrate your configuration from [Prometheus](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/) to Alloy, you must convert your Prometheus configuration into an Alloy configuration. This conversion allows you to take full advantage of the many additional features available in Alloy. In this task, you use the [convert](../../../reference/cli/convert/) CLI command to output an Alloy configuration from a Prometheus configuration. 1. Open a terminal window and run the following command. shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```shell alloy convert --source-format=prometheus --output= ``` Replace the following: - *``* : The full path to the Prometheus configuration. - *``* : The full path to output the Alloy configuration. 2. [Run](../../../reference/cli/run/) Alloy using the new Alloy configuration from *``* : ### Debugging 1. If the `convert` command can’t convert a Prometheus configuration, diagnostic information is sent to `stderr`. You can bypass any non-critical issues and output the Alloy configuration using a best-effort conversion by including the `--bypass-errors` flag. > Caution > > If you bypass the errors, the behavior of the converted configuration may not match the original Prometheus configuration. Make sure you fully test the converted configuration before using it in a production environment. shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```shell alloy convert --source-format=prometheus --bypass-errors --output= ``` Replace the following: - *``* : The full path to the Prometheus configuration. - *``* : The full path to output the Alloy configuration. 2. You can also output a diagnostic report by including the `--report` flag. shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```shell alloy convert --source-format=prometheus --report= --output= ``` Replace the following: - *``* : The full path to the Prometheus configuration. - *``* : The full path to output the Alloy configuration. - *``* : The output path for the report. Using the [example](#example) Prometheus configuration below, the diagnostic report provides the following information: plaintext ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```plaintext (Info) Converted scrape_configs job_name "prometheus" into... A prometheus.scrape.prometheus component (Info) Converted 1 remote_write[s] "grafana-cloud" into... A prometheus.remote_write.default component ``` ## Run a Prometheus configuration If you’re not ready to completely switch to an Alloy configuration, you can run Alloy using your Prometheus configuration. The `--config.format=prometheus` flag tells Alloy to convert your Prometheus configuration to an Alloy configuration and load it directly without saving the new configuration. This allows you to try Alloy without modifying your Prometheus configuration infrastructure. In this task, you use the [run](../../../reference/cli/run/) CLI command to run Alloy using a Prometheus configuration. [Run](../../../reference/cli/run/) Alloy and include the command line flag `--config.format=prometheus`. Your configuration file must be a valid Prometheus configuration file rather than an Alloy configuration file. ### Debug 1. You can follow the convert CLI command [debugging](#debugging) instructions to generate a diagnostic report. 2. Refer to [Debug Alloy](../../../troubleshoot/debug/) for more information about a running Alloy. 3. If your Prometheus configuration can’t be converted and loaded directly into Alloy, diagnostic information is sent to `stderr`. You can bypass any non-critical issues and start Alloy by including the `--config.bypass-conversion-errors` flag in addition to `--config.format=prometheus`. > Caution > > If you bypass the errors, the behavior of the converted configuration may not match the original Prometheus configuration. Don’t use this flag in a production environment. ## Example This example demonstrates converting a Prometheus configuration file to an Alloy configuration file. The following Prometheus configuration file provides the input for the conversion. YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```yaml global: scrape_timeout: 45s scrape_configs: - job_name: "prometheus" static_configs: - targets: ["localhost:12345"] remote_write: - name: "grafana-cloud" url: "https://prometheus-us-central1.grafana.net/api/prom/push" basic_auth: username: password: ``` The convert command takes the YAML file as input and outputs a [Alloy configuration](../../../get-started/configuration-syntax/)] file. shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```shell alloy convert --source-format=prometheus --output= ``` Replace the following: - *``* : The full path to the Prometheus configuration. - *``* : The full path to output the Alloy configuration. The new Alloy configuration file looks like this: Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```alloy prometheus.scrape "prometheus" { targets = [{ __address__ = "localhost:12345", }] forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.default.receiver] job_name = "prometheus" scrape_timeout = "45s" } prometheus.remote_write "default" { endpoint { name = "grafana-cloud" url = "https://prometheus-us-central1.grafana.net/api/prom/push" basic_auth { username = "USERNAME" password = "PASSWORD" } queue_config { capacity = 2500 max_shards = 200 max_samples_per_send = 500 } metadata_config { max_samples_per_send = 500 } } } ``` ## Limitations Configuration conversion is done on a best-effort basis. Alloy issues warnings or errors where the conversion can’t be performed. After the configuration is converted, review the Alloy configuration file created 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 Alloy: - The following configurations aren’t available for conversion to Alloy: `rule_files`, `alerting`, `remote_read`, `storage`, and `tracing`. Any additional unsupported features are returned as errors during conversion. - Check if you are using any extra command line arguments with Prometheus that aren’t present in your configuration file. For example, `--web.listen-address`. - Meta-monitoring metrics exposed by Alloy usually match Prometheus meta-monitoring metrics but uses a different name. Make sure that you use the new metric names, for example, in your alerts and dashboards queries. - The logs produced by Alloy differ from those produced by Prometheus. - Alloy exposes the Alloy [UI](../../../troubleshoot/debug/#alloy-ui).