--- title: "Collect OpenTelemetry data and forward to Grafana | Grafana Alloy documentation" description: "Learn how to collect OpenTelemetry data and forward it to the Grafana stack" --- # Collect OpenTelemetry data and forward to Grafana You can configure Alloy to collect [OpenTelemetry](https://opentelemetry.io)-compatible data and forward it to the Grafana stack. This topic describes how to: - Configure Alloy to send your data to Loki. - Configure Alloy to send your data to Tempo. - Configure Alloy to send your data to Mimir or Prometheus Remote Write. ## Components used in this topic - [`loki.write`](../../reference/components/loki/loki.write/) - [`otelcol.auth.basic`](../../reference/components/otelcol/otelcol.auth.basic/) - [`otelcol.exporter.loki`](../../reference/components/otelcol/otelcol.exporter.loki/) - [`otelcol.exporter.otlp`](../../reference/components/otelcol/otelcol.exporter.otlp/) - [`otelcol.exporter.otlphttp`](../../reference/components/otelcol/otelcol.exporter.otlphttp/) - [`otelcol.exporter.prometheus`](../../reference/components/otelcol/otelcol.exporter.prometheus/) - [`otelcol.processor.batch`](../../reference/components/otelcol/otelcol.processor.batch/) - [`otelcol.processor.memory_limiter`](../../reference/components/otelcol/otelcol.processor.memory_limiter/) - [`otelcol.receiver.otlp`](../../reference/components/otelcol/otelcol.receiver.otlp/) - [`prometheus.remote_write`](../../reference/components/prometheus/prometheus.remote_write/) ## Before you begin - Ensure that you have basic familiarity with instrumenting applications with OpenTelemetry. - Have a set of OpenTelemetry applications ready to push telemetry data to Alloy. - Identify where Alloy writes received telemetry data. - Be familiar with the concept of [Components](../../get-started/components/) in Alloy. - Complete the [Collect open telemetry data](../opentelemetry-data/) task. ## The pipeline You can start with the Alloy configuration you created in the [Collect open telemetry data](../opentelemetry-data/) task. Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```alloy otelcol.receiver.otlp "example" { grpc { endpoint = "127.0.0.1:4317" } http { endpoint = "127.0.0.1:4318" } output { metrics = [otelcol.processor.batch.example.input] logs = [otelcol.processor.batch.example.input] traces = [otelcol.processor.batch.example.input] } } otelcol.processor.batch "example" { output { metrics = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input] logs = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input] traces = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input] } } otelcol.exporter.otlp "default" { client { endpoint = "my-otlp-grpc-server:4317" } } ``` The pipeline looks like this: plaintext ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```plaintext Metrics, Logs, Traces: OTLP Receiver → Batch Processor → OTLP HTTP Exporter ``` ## Grafana Cloud Grafana Cloud provides OTLP Endpoints that you can use directly from within Alloy. You can find the OTLP connection details from the OpenTelemetry **Details** page in the [Grafana Cloud Portal](/docs/grafana-cloud/account-management/cloud-portal/#your-grafana-cloud-stack). You must update the configuration file as follows: Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```alloy otelcol.auth.basic "default" { username = "" password = "" } otelcol.exporter.otlphttp "default" { client { endpoint = "" auth = otelcol.auth.basic.default.handler } } ``` Replace the following: - *``* : Your Grafana Cloud account ID. - *``* : Your Grafana Cloud API token. - *``* : Your OTLP endpoint. This configuration uses the credentials stored in `otelcol.auth.basic "default"` to authenticate against the Grafana Cloud OTLP endpoints, and you should start to see your data arrive. > Note > > For Grafana Cloud, use `otelcol.exporter.otlphttp` which sends data over HTTP/HTTPS. Use `otelcol.exporter.otlp` for gRPC endpoints when working with other platforms. ## Other platforms: Grafana Enterprise and Grafana Open Source You can implement the following pipelines to send your data to Loki, Tempo, and Mimir or Prometheus. plaintext ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```plaintext Metrics: OTLP Receiver → Batch Processor → Prometheus Exporter → Prometheus Remote Write Logs: OTLP Receiver → Batch Processor → Loki Exporter → Loki Write Traces: OTLP Receiver → Batch Processor → OTLP Exporter (gRPC/HTTP) ``` ### Grafana Loki [Grafana Loki](/oss/loki/) is a horizontally scalable, highly available, multi-tenant log aggregation system inspired by Prometheus. Similar to Prometheus, to send from OTLP to Loki, you can configure pass-through from the [`otelcol.exporter.loki`](../../reference/components/otelcol/otelcol.exporter.loki/) component to [`loki.write`](../../reference/components/loki/loki.write/) component. Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```alloy otelcol.exporter.loki "default" { forward_to = [loki.write.default.receiver] } loki.write "default" { endpoint { url = "http://loki-endpoint:8080/loki/api/v1/push" } } ``` To use Loki with basic-auth, which Grafana Cloud Logs requires, you must configure the [`loki.write`](../../reference/components/loki/loki.write/) component. You can get the Loki configuration from the Loki **Details** page in the [Grafana Cloud Portal](/docs/grafana-cloud/account-management/cloud-portal/#your-grafana-cloud-stack). Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```alloy otelcol.exporter.loki "grafana_cloud_logs" { forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_logs.receiver] } loki.write "grafana_cloud_logs" { endpoint { url = "https://logs-prod-us-central1.grafana.net/loki/api/v1/push" basic_auth { username = "5252" password = sys.env("GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_KEY") } } } ``` ### Grafana Tempo [Grafana Tempo](/oss/tempo/) is an open source, scalable distributed tracing backend. Tempo can ingest OTLP directly, and you can use the OTLP exporter to send the traces to Tempo. Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```alloy otelcol.exporter.otlp "default" { client { endpoint = "tempo-server:4317" } } ``` To use Tempo with basic-auth, which Grafana Cloud Traces requires, you must use the [otelcol.auth.basic](../../reference/components/otelcol/otelcol.auth.basic/) component. You can get the Tempo configuration from the Tempo **Details** page in the [Grafana Cloud Portal](/docs/grafana-cloud/account-management/cloud-portal/#your-grafana-cloud-stack). Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```alloy otelcol.exporter.otlphttp "grafana_cloud_traces" { client { endpoint = "https://tempo-us-central1.grafana.net:443" auth = otelcol.auth.basic.grafana_cloud_traces.handler } } otelcol.auth.basic "grafana_cloud_traces" { username = "4094" password = sys.env("GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_KEY") } ``` ### Grafana Mimir or Prometheus Remote Write [Prometheus Remote Write](https://prometheus.io/docs/operating/integrations/#remote-endpoints-and-storage) is a popular metrics transmission protocol supported by most metrics systems, including [Grafana Mimir](/oss/mimir/) and Grafana Cloud. To send from OTLP to a Prometheus compatible `remote_write` endpoint, you can configure pass-through from the [`otelcol.exporter.prometheus`](../../reference/components/otelcol/otelcol.exporter.prometheus/) to the [`prometheus.remote_write`](../../reference/components/prometheus/prometheus.remote_write/) component. The Prometheus remote write component in Alloy is a robust protocol implementation, including a Write Ahead Log (WAL) for resiliency. Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```alloy otelcol.exporter.prometheus "default" { forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.default.receiver] } prometheus.remote_write "default" { endpoint { url = "http://prometheus:9090/api/v1/write" } } ``` To use Prometheus with basic-auth, which Grafana Cloud Metrics requires, you must configure the [`prometheus.remote_write`](../../reference/components/prometheus/prometheus.remote_write/) component. You can get the Prometheus configuration from the Prometheus **Details** page in the [Grafana Cloud Portal](/docs/grafana-cloud/account-management/cloud-portal/#your-grafana-cloud-stack). Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```alloy otelcol.exporter.prometheus "grafana_cloud_metrics" { forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.grafana_cloud_metrics.receiver] } prometheus.remote_write "grafana_cloud_metrics" { endpoint { url = "https://prometheus-us-central1.grafana.net/api/prom/push" basic_auth { username = "12690" password = sys.env("GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_KEY") } } } ``` ### Put it all together Instead of referencing `otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input` in the output of `otelcol.processor.batch`, you need to reference the three exporters you set up. For Grafana Cloud, use `otelcol.exporter.otlphttp` for traces to send data over HTTPS. The final configuration becomes: Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```alloy otelcol.receiver.otlp "example" { grpc { endpoint = "127.0.0.1:4317" } http { endpoint = "127.0.0.1:4318" } output { metrics = [otelcol.processor.batch.example.input] logs = [otelcol.processor.batch.example.input] traces = [otelcol.processor.batch.example.input] } } otelcol.processor.batch "example" { output { metrics = [otelcol.exporter.prometheus.grafana_cloud_metrics.input] logs = [otelcol.exporter.loki.grafana_cloud_logs.input] traces = [otelcol.exporter.otlphttp.grafana_cloud_traces.input] } } otelcol.exporter.otlphttp "grafana_cloud_traces" { client { endpoint = "https://tempo-us-central1.grafana.net:443" auth = otelcol.auth.basic.grafana_cloud_traces.handler } } otelcol.auth.basic "grafana_cloud_traces" { username = "4094" password = sys.env("GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_KEY") } otelcol.exporter.prometheus "grafana_cloud_metrics" { forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.grafana_cloud_metrics.receiver] } prometheus.remote_write "grafana_cloud_metrics" { endpoint { url = "https://prometheus-us-central1.grafana.net/api/prom/push" basic_auth { username = "12690" password = sys.env("GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_KEY") } } } otelcol.exporter.loki "grafana_cloud_logs" { forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_logs.receiver] } loki.write "grafana_cloud_logs" { endpoint { url = "https://logs-prod-us-central1.grafana.net/loki/api/v1/push" basic_auth { username = "5252" password = sys.env("GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_KEY") } } } ``` Running Alloy gives you the following: plaintext ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```plaintext ./alloy run alloy-config.alloy ./alloy run alloy-config.alloy ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.300959Z level=info msg="running usage stats reporter" ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.300958Z level=info msg="now listening for http traffic" addr=127.0.0.1:12345 ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.301104Z level=info trace_id=6466516c9e1a556422df7a84c0ade6b0 msg="starting complete graph evaluation" ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.301307Z level=info trace_id=6466516c9e1a556422df7a84c0ade6b0 msg="finished node evaluation" node_id=loki.write.grafana_cloud_logs duration=188.209µs ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.301334Z level=info trace_id=6466516c9e1a556422df7a84c0ade6b0 msg="finished node evaluation" node_id=otelcol.exporter.loki.grafana_cloud_logs duration=18.791µs ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303138Z component=prometheus.remote_write.grafana_cloud_metrics level=info subcomponent=wal msg="replaying WAL, this may take a while" dir=data-alloy/prometheus.remote_write.grafana_cloud_metrics/wal ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303257Z component=prometheus.remote_write.grafana_cloud_metrics level=info subcomponent=wal msg="WAL segment loaded" segment=0 maxSegment=1 ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303302Z component=prometheus.remote_write.grafana_cloud_metrics level=info subcomponent=wal msg="WAL segment loaded" segment=1 maxSegment=1 ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303507Z component=prometheus.remote_write.grafana_cloud_metrics subcomponent=rw level=info remote_name=7f623a url=https://prometheus-us-central1.grafana.net/api/prom/push msg="Starting WAL watcher" queue=7f623a ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303515Z component=prometheus.remote_write.grafana_cloud_metrics subcomponent=rw level=info remote_name=7f623a url=https://prometheus-us-central1.grafana.net/api/prom/push msg="Starting scraped metadata watcher" ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303522Z level=info trace_id=6466516c9e1a556422df7a84c0ade6b0 msg="finished node evaluation" node_id=prometheus.remote_write.grafana_cloud_metrics duration=2.181958ms ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303557Z level=info trace_id=6466516c9e1a556422df7a84c0ade6b0 msg="finished node evaluation" node_id=otelcol.exporter.prometheus.grafana_cloud_metrics duration=30.083µs ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303611Z component=prometheus.remote_write.grafana_cloud_metrics subcomponent=rw level=info remote_name=7f623a url=https://prometheus-us-central1.grafana.net/api/prom/push msg="Replaying WAL" queue=7f623a ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303618Z level=info trace_id=6466516c9e1a556422df7a84c0ade6b0 msg="finished node evaluation" node_id=otelcol.auth.basic.grafana_cloud_traces duration=52.5µs ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303694Z level=info trace_id=6466516c9e1a556422df7a84c0ade6b0 msg="finished node evaluation" node_id=otelcol.exporter.otlphttp.grafana_cloud_traces duration=70.375µs ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303782Z component=otelcol.processor.memory_limiter.default level=info msg="Memory limiter configured" limit_mib=150 spike_limit_mib=30 check_interval=1s ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303802Z level=info trace_id=6466516c9e1a556422df7a84c0ade6b0 msg="finished node evaluation" node_id=otelcol.processor.memory_limiter.default duration=100.334µs ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303853Z level=info trace_id=6466516c9e1a556422df7a84c0ade6b0 msg="finished node evaluation" node_id=otelcol.processor.batch.default duration=44.75µs ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303948Z level=info trace_id=6466516c9e1a556422df7a84c0ade6b0 msg="finished node evaluation" node_id=otelcol.receiver.otlp.default duration=87.333µs ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303968Z level=info trace_id=6466516c9e1a556422df7a84c0ade6b0 msg="finished node evaluation" node_id=tracing duration=10.792µs ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303981Z level=info trace_id=6466516c9e1a556422df7a84c0ade6b0 msg="finished node evaluation" node_id=logging duration=9µs ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.303987Z level=info trace_id=6466516c9e1a556422df7a84c0ade6b0 msg="finished complete graph evaluation" duration=2.960333ms ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.304Z level=info msg="scheduling loaded components" ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.304109Z component=otelcol.receiver.otlp.default level=info msg="Starting GRPC server" endpoint=0.0.0.0:4317 ts=2023-05-09T09:37:15.304234Z component=otelcol.receiver.otlp.default level=info msg="Starting HTTP server" endpoint=0.0.0.0:4318 ``` You can check the pipeline graphically by visiting [http://localhost:12345/graph](http://localhost:12345/graph) [](/media/docs/alloy/otlp-lgtm-graph.png)