---
title: "Configure private probes | Grafana Cloud documentation"
description: "Configure Synthetic Monitoring private probe feature flags, access to private IP addresses, browser check requirements, and anonymous usage statistics reporting."
---

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

# Configure private probes

Customize how a Synthetic Monitoring private probe runs your checks by configuring optional features, private-IP access, and browser support. You can also control the agent’s usage reporting. For installation instructions, refer to [Set up a private probe](/docs/grafana-cloud/observe-and-act/testing/synthetic-monitoring/set-up/set-up-private-probes/set-up/).

## Configure feature flags

You can use feature flags to enable optional features in the private probe. Use a comma-separated list of feature names.

You can configure feature flags in either of the following ways:

- On Linux package installations, edit `/etc/synthetic-monitoring/synthetic-monitoring-agent.conf`:
  
  ini ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
  
  ```ini
  FEATURES="<comma-separated-feature-names>"
  ```
  
  Restart the agent service after changing the file.
- Export the list of features as an environment variable:
  
  Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
  
  ```bash
  export FEATURES="<comma-separated-feature-names>"
  ```
  
  When starting the agent directly, pass the variable with `--features="$FEATURES"`.

### Available feature flags

Expand table

| Feature flag name | Description |
|-------------------|-------------|

Current agents don’t require the `adhoc`, `k6`, or `traceroute` feature flags. If your configuration includes these names, remove them from `FEATURES` in your service configuration or from the `--features` command-line option.

Manual tests and traceroute checks are enabled without feature flags. Support for k6-based checks is enabled by default. To disable k6-based checks, start the agent with `--disable-k6`.

Depending on your environment, traceroute checks can require additional permissions for the probe process or container. Browser checks also have [setup requirements](#run-k6-browser-checks-on-a-private-probe) beyond enabling k6 support.

## Run k6 checks targeting private IP addresses

By default, private probes block k6 request targets in the 10.0.0.0/8 CIDR range. You can override this behavior by setting the CLI flag `--blocked-nets=""`.

- When running Docker, append `--blocked-nets=""` to your `docker run` command.
- On Linux installations, run `systemctl edit synthetic-monitoring-agent` and append `--blocked-nets=""` to `ExecStart=`.

## Run k6 browser checks on a private probe

To run [k6 browser checks](/docs/grafana-cloud/observe-and-act/testing/synthetic-monitoring/create-checks/checks/k6-browser/) on private probes, you need a Chromium-compatible web browser on the system where the probe runs. In the probe settings page in your Grafana stack (**Testing &amp; synthetics &gt; Synthetics &gt; Probes**), make sure that both **Disable scripted checks** and **Disable browser checks** are unchecked.

### Linux package installations

Package installations of the [Synthetic Monitoring Agent](https://www.github.com/grafana/synthetic-monitoring-agent) on Ubuntu, Debian, and RPM-based distributions require Chromium and a `chromium` binary available in `$PATH`. To use a specific Chromium installation without adding it to `$PATH`, set `K6_BROWSER_EXECUTABLE_PATH` in the agent’s environment to the binary’s full path. You can also set `K6_BROWSER_ARGS` with additional arguments that the agent uses when launching Chromium.

### Container deployments

For Docker, Kubernetes, and other container-based environments, we provide a special image that already includes an installation of Chromium. These images are tagged with the `-browser` suffix, for example `grafana/synthetic-monitoring-agent:vX.Y.Z-browser`, as opposed to `grafana/synthetic-monitoring-agent:vX.Y.Z`.

Agent images tagged *with* the `-browser` suffix can run all types of checks, while those tagged *without* the `-browser` suffix can run every check type except k6 browser checks. If you do not plan to use browser checks, we recommend using the standard image, as it is lighter and more minimal. Swapping to a `-browser` image can be done at any time without any manual intervention, other than changing the tag.

## Anonymous usage statistics reporting

> Note
> 
> The anonymous usage statistics is *enabled by default*. You can opt out by setting the CLI flag `-disable-usage-reports=true`.

### The statistics server

When usage statistics reporting is enabled, information is collected by a server that Grafana Labs operates. Statistics are sent to `https://stats.grafana.org`.

### Which information is collected

When the usage statistics reporting is enabled, probes collect the following information:

- Information about the **probe**, including:
  
  - A unique hash representation of the probe
  - The probe version, such as `0.39.0`
  - The installation source, such as `docker`
  - The probe id, such as `1100`
  - The tenant id, such as `1100`
  - The features enabled, such as `k6`
- Information about the **environment**, including:
  
  - The operating system, such as `linux`
  - The architecture, such as `amd64`
  - The os details, such as `Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS`