---
title: "Receive traces and metrics from Datadog-instrumented applications | Grafana Alloy documentation"
description: "Learn how to configure Grafana Alloy to use the Datadog receiver"
---

# Receive traces and metrics from Datadog-instrumented applications

You can configure Alloy to collect [Datadog](https://www.datadoghq.com/) traces and metrics and forward them to any OpenTelemetry-compatible database.

This topic describes how to:

- Configure Alloy to send traces and metrics.
- Configure the Alloy Datadog Receiver.
- Configure the Datadog Agent to forward traces and metrics to the Alloy Datadog Receiver.

## Before you begin

- Ensure that at least one instance of the [Datadog Agent](https://docs.datadoghq.com/agent/) is collecting metrics and traces.
- Identify where to write the collected telemetry. Metrics can be written to [Prometheus](https://prometheus.io) or any other OpenTelemetry-compatible database such as Grafana Mimir, Grafana Cloud, or Grafana Enterprise Metrics. Traces can be written to Grafana Tempo, Grafana Cloud, or Grafana Enterprise Traces.
- Be familiar with the concept of [Components](../../get-started/components/) in Alloy.

## Configure Alloy to send traces and metrics

Before components can collect Datadog telemetry signals, you must have a component responsible for writing this telemetry somewhere.

The [otelcol.exporter.otlp](../../reference/components/otelcol/otelcol.exporter.otlp/) component is responsible for delivering OTLP data to OpenTelemetry-compatible endpoints.

1. Add the following `otelcol.exporter.otlp` component to your configuration file.
   
   Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```alloy
   otelcol.exporter.otlp "default" {
     client {
       endpoint = "<OTLP_ENDPOINT_URL>"
       auth     = otelcol.auth.basic.auth.handler
     }
   }
   ```
   
   Replace the following:
   
   - *`<OTLP_ENDPOINT_URL>`* : The full URL of the OpenTelemetry-compatible endpoint where metrics and traces are sent, such as `https://otlp-gateway-prod-eu-west-2.grafana.net/otlp`.
2. If your endpoint requires basic authentication, paste the following inside the `endpoint` block.
   
   Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```alloy
   basic_auth {
     username = "<USERNAME>"
     password = "<PASSWORD>"
   }
   ```
   
   Replace the following:
   
   - *`<USERNAME>`* : The basic authentication username.
   - *`<PASSWORD>`* : The basic authentication password or API key.

## Configure the Alloy Datadog Receiver

1. Add the following `otelcol.processor.batch` component to your configuration file.
   
   Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```alloy
   otelcol.processor.batch "default" {
     output {
       metrics = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input]
       traces  = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input]
     }
   }
   ```
2. Add the following `otelcol.processor.deltatocumulative` component to your configuration file.
   
   Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```alloy
   otelcol.processor.deltatocumulative "default" {
     max_stale = "<MAX_STALE>"
     max_streams = <MAX_STREAMS>
     output {
       metrics = [otelcol.processor.batch.default.input]
     }
   }
   ```
   
   Replace the following:
   
   - *`<MAX_STALE>`* : How long until a series not receiving new samples is removed, such as “5m”.
   - *`<MAX_STREAMS>`* : The upper limit of streams to track. New streams exceeding this limit are dropped.
3. Add the following `otelcol.receiver.datadog` component to your configuration file.
   
   Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```alloy
   otelcol.receiver.datadog "default" {
     endpoint = "<HOST>:<PORT>"
     output {
       metrics = [otelcol.processor.deltatocumulative.default.input]
       traces  = [otelcol.processor.batch.default.input]
     }
   }
   ```
   
   Replace the following:
   
   - *`<HOST>`* : The host address where the receiver listens.
   - *`<PORT>`* : The port where the receiver listens.
4. If your endpoint requires basic authentication, paste the following inside the `endpoint` block.
   
   Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```alloy
   basic_auth {
     username = "<USERNAME>"
     password = "<PASSWORD>"
   }
   ```
   
   Replace the following:
   
   - *`<USERNAME>`* : The basic authentication username.
   - *`<PASSWORD>`* : The basic authentication password or API key.

## Configure Datadog Agent to forward telemetry to the Alloy Datadog Receiver

You can set up your Datadog Agent to forward Datadog metrics and traces simultaneously to Alloy and Datadog.

We recommend this approach for current Datadog users who want to try using Alloy.

1. Add the following environment variables to your Datadog-agent installation.
   
   Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```bash
   DD_ADDITIONAL_ENDPOINTS='{"http://<DATADOG_RECEIVER_HOST>:<DATADOG_RECEIVER_PORT>": ["datadog-receiver"]}'
   DD_APM_ADDITIONAL_ENDPOINTS='{"http://<DATADOG_RECEIVER_HOST>:<DATADOG_RECEIVER_PORT>": ["datadog-receiver"]}'
   ```
   
   `DD_ADDITIONAL_ENDPOINTS` is used for forwarding metrics, whereas `DD_APM_ADDITIONAL_ENDPOINTS` is for traces.
   
   Replace the following:
   
   - *`<DATADOG_RECEIVER_HOST>`* : The hostname where the Alloy receiver is found.
   - *`<DATADOG_RECEIVER_PORT>`* : The port where the Alloy receiver is exposed.

Alternatively, you might want your Datadog Agent to send metrics only to Alloy. You can do this by setting up your Datadog Agent in the following way:

1. Replace the DD\_URL in the configuration YAML:
   
   YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```yaml
    dd_url: http://<DATADOG_RECEIVER_HOST>:<DATADOG_RECEIVER_PORT>
   ```
   
   Or by setting an environment variable:
   
   Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```bash
   DD_URL='{"http://<DATADOG_RECEIVER_HOST>:<DATADOG_RECEIVER_PORT>": ["datadog-receiver"]}'
   ```

## Run Alloy

The `otelcol.receiver.datadog` component is experimental. To use this component, you need to start Alloy with additional command line flags:

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

```bash
alloy run config.alloy --stability.level=experimental
```