---
title: "Set up a Grafana Enterprise Logs cluster | Grafana Enterprise Logs documentation"
description: "Describes how to set up a cluster for Grafana Enterprise Logs."
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

# Set up a Grafana Enterprise Logs cluster

Grafana Enterprise Logs (GEL) is available as a pre-compiled binary, a Docker image, as well as via common OS-specific packaging. For a list of available download options, refer to the [downloads page](/docs/enterprise-logs/v1.9.x/gel-releases/).

> **Note:** You can use [Grafana Cloud](/products/cloud/features/#cloud-logs) to avoid installing, maintaining, and scaling your own instance of GEL. The free forever plan includes 50GB of free logs. [Create an account to get started](/auth/sign-up/create-user?pg=docs-enterprise-logs&plcmt=in-text).

## Get a GEL license

A valid Grafana Enterprise Logs license token is required to run GEL’s many added features. Without a valid license token, not all of GEL’s added features will run. However, GEL will still run with all of the functionality of an open-source Loki binary.

If you already have a license for GEL, download it:

1. From [https://grafana.com](/), select **Login**.
2. From the left-hand menu, select **Licenses** to download the license token.

If you do not yet have a license token to run GEL, [contact a Grafana Labs representative](/contact?about=grafana-enterprise-logs&amp%3Bpg=prod-gme&amp%3Bplcmt=hero-btn-1).

### Choose a name for your GEL cluster

GEL licenses are issued on a per-cluster basis. Each cluster of GEL that you plan to deploy requires a unique license. When we issue a GEL license, we must have a unique cluster name with which to associate the license.

A cluster name must meet the following criteria:

- is 3 to 63 characters long
- contains lowercase letters, numbers, underscores (\_), or hyphens (-)
- begins with a letter or number
- ends with a letter or number

## Deploy your GEL cluster

After you have a Grafana GEL license with an associated cluster name, choose a deployment method to deploy your GEL cluster. Our supported approach to installing Grafana Enterprise Logs is to use our Helm chart on Kubernetes.