I already run a collector and want to send data to Grafana Cloud

Suppose you already run a collector, a tool that gathers data and sends it somewhere, for example Prometheus or Graphite. You want that data in Grafana Cloud, but you don’t want to change how you collect it. That’s when you point the tool you already run at Grafana Cloud.

Here’s what this option does:

• Changes only the destination, so how you collect stays the same
• Stores what your collector sends in Grafana Cloud, where you can query it
• Installs nothing new on your machines

Considerations

• What you send counts toward usage: Usage-based billing works differently for each signal type. For details, refer to Grafana Cloud pricing.
• Dashboards come after collection: You build dashboards and alerts once your data has been collected.
• The guide details one method: Sending metrics, numbers recorded over time, from Prometheus, using its remote write feature. For other collectors and methods, refer to Send data from external collectors.

Before you start

• A Grafana Cloud account: sign up free if you don’t have one
• The Admin role in your Grafana Cloud stack. Your tool authenticates with a token, a generated credential, and creating one takes an administrator.
• A collector already running, for example Prometheus or Graphite

Try it yourself

The guide below runs in your own Grafana Cloud stack. You collect your stack’s connection details and a token, point Prometheus at Grafana Cloud with its remote write feature, and confirm data is arriving with a query in Explore.

Prometheus is the example, but the pattern is the same for any collector: Gather connection details, point the tool at Grafana Cloud, and confirm data arrives.