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Grafana Cloud

Configure Alloy from the Configuration page

Use the Database Observability Configuration page to generate Alloy configuration from the Grafana Cloud UI.

Fleet Management is the recommended setup path for most teams. It lets you manage Alloy configuration centrally, apply configuration to registered collectors, and monitor collector health without manually editing Alloy configuration files.

For more information about Fleet Management, refer to Introduction to Fleet Management.

Before you begin

Before you use the Configuration page setup flow, complete the database-specific setup for your environment:

You also need:

  • Grafana Alloy installed and running in an environment that can connect to your database.
  • The Alloy collector enrolled in Grafana Fleet Management.
  • Network connectivity between the Alloy collector and your database.
  • Database credentials with the required monitoring permissions.

Choose a setup method

Database Observability supports three setup methods: Fleet Management, manual Alloy configuration, and Kubernetes Monitoring Helm chart configuration.

The Setup tab table shows databases configured with Fleet Management. Manually configured and Helm-managed databases don’t appear in this table, but you can still use the setup flow to generate configuration and deploy it with your own tools.

Fleet Management setup

Use Fleet Management setup when you want Grafana Cloud to help create and manage the Alloy configuration for Database Observability.

To start the Fleet Management setup flow:

  1. Open Database Observability in Grafana Cloud.
  2. Go to Configuration.
  3. Open Setup.
  4. Click Add database.
  5. Select your database engine.
  6. Select Fleet Management as the configuration method.
  7. Follow the guided setup flow.

After setup, Fleet Management applies the generated configuration to the selected Alloy collector. You can use Fleet Management to view collector health, update configuration, and troubleshoot configuration issues from Grafana Cloud.

Kubernetes Monitoring Helm chart setup

Use Helm chart setup when you already manage Alloy with the Kubernetes Monitoring Helm chart.

To start the Helm chart setup flow:

  1. Open Database Observability in Grafana Cloud.
  2. Go to Configuration.
  3. Open Setup.
  4. Click Add database.
  5. Select your database engine.
  6. Select Kubernetes Monitoring Helm chart as the configuration method.
  7. Follow the guided setup flow to generate chart values.

After setup, copy the generated values into your k8s-monitoring Helm values.yaml, make sure the referenced Kubernetes Secret exists, and run your normal Helm upgrade. Helm-managed databases appear after the updated Alloy collector starts sending telemetry to Grafana Cloud.

Manual setup

Use manual setup when you need to write or customize the Alloy configuration yourself.

Manual setup is useful when:

  • You can’t use Fleet Management in your environment.
  • You need custom Alloy components, labels, or relabeling rules.
  • You already manage Alloy configuration outside Grafana Cloud.
  • You need raw Alloy configuration instead of k8s-monitoring Helm chart values.
  • You’re troubleshooting an existing manual Alloy setup.

To configure Alloy manually, follow the database-specific setup guide for your environment:

Next steps

After you connect a database, use the Configuration page to: