---
title: "Distribute Prometheus metrics scrape load | Grafana Cloud documentation"
description: "Learn how to distribute your Prometheus metrics scrape load"
---

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

# Distribute Prometheus metrics scrape load

A good predictor for the size of an Alloy deployment is the number of Prometheus targets each Alloy scrapes. [Clustering](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/alloy/configure/clustering) with target auto-distribution allows a fleet of Alloys to work together to dynamically distribute their scrape load, providing high-availability.

## Before you begin

- Familiarize yourself with how to [configure](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/alloy/configure) Alloy installations.
- [Configure Prometheus metrics collection](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/alloy/collect/prometheus-metrics).
- [Configure clustering](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/alloy/configure/clustering).
- Ensure that all of your clustered Alloys have the same configuration file.

## Steps

To distribute Prometheus metrics scrape load with clustering:

1. Add the following block to all `prometheus.scrape` components, which should use auto-distribution:
   
   Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```alloy
   clustering {
     enabled = true
   }
   ```
2. Restart or reload Alloys for them to use the new configuration.
3. Validate that auto-distribution is functioning:
   
   1. Using the Alloy [UI](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/alloy/troubleshoot/debug/#component-detail-page) on each Alloy, navigate to the details page for one of the `prometheus.scrape` components you modified.
   2. Compare the Debug Info sections between two different Alloy to ensure that they’re not scraping the same sets of targets.