Monitoring a Linux host using the Linux host integration

This guide will show you how to install the Linux node integration and then deploy the Grafana Agent to a Linux node and use it to push metrics to Grafana Cloud and use the preconfigured dashboard to visualize those metrics.

Prerequisites

• A Grafana Cloud account, as shown in Quickstarts
• A Linux machine
• Command line (terminal) access to that Linux machine

Note: The installation process for integrations is changing rapidly. What you see may differ slightly from what is shown here.

Install the integration and agent

1. Login to Grafana.com to enter the Cloud Portal.

2. Click Log In in the Grafana box. The first time you log in to Grafana from the Cloud Portal you are automatically taken to the Walkthrough. If this is not your first time, follow the next two steps, otherwise you can skip ahead.

3. Click the Onboarding logo (it looks like a lightning bolt) in the left column.

4. Click Walkthrough.

5. Click Yes, Please to continue with the walkthrough. You will see a list of available Integrations. Select Linux Server then scroll down to the bottom of the list and click Next step.
   If at any point you exit the walkthrough, you can always navigate back to it by clicking the Onboarding icon (lightning bolt) on the menu bar and selecting Walkthrough. You can manage your integrations at any time using Integrations Management.

6. To install and configure the Grafana Agent on your Linux machine, follow the instructions you are provided. When you are done installing the agent and it is running, click Check Connection to confirm the agent is sending metrics that Grafana Cloud is receiving. NOTE: The gcloud_api_key shown in this screenshot has publisher rights and can be found in your portal account API Keys list with the name $instance_name-easystart_prom-publisher.

1. If metrics are being received, you will receive a notification. Click See the dashboard.

2. Click Close wizard to view the Manage Dashboards page where you find a list of all of the preconfigured dashboards. The Linux server dashboard is called Nodes and is found in the Linux Node folder. Click it to open the dashboard.

Conclusion

Using this guide, you have installed the Linux integration into Grafana, which installed a preconfigured dashboard for metrics visualization. During the process, you installed the Grafana Agent on your Linux machine and configured the agent to send metrics to Grafana Cloud to make use of that integration.

This is the result.