---
title: "Prerequisites | Grafana Labs"
description: "What you need before starting this journey"
---

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

# Prerequisites

To follow along with the path exercises, you need:

- A Grafana Cloud account ([sign up free](/signup/cloud/connect-account))
- Access to at least one cloud provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP), with running resources to monitor such as EC2 instances, Azure VMs, or GCE machines

The permissions you need depend on which path you take.

## Requirements for Cloud Provider Observability

- An [Admin or per-provider Writer role](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-infrastructure/monitor-cloud-provider/rbac/) in Grafana Cloud to configure Cloud Provider Observability
- Cloud provider permissions to create IAM roles or service accounts for data collection
- Without a Grafana Cloud basic role, the `Datasources:Reader` fixed role to see dashboard data
- With no basic role or only the Viewer basic role, the `Alerting:Rules Writer`, `Alerting:Set provisioning status`, and `Folders:Writer` fixed roles to install alerts and access folders

> Note
> 
> Cloud Provider Observability doesn’t support AWS PrivateLink or Azure Private Link.

## Requirements for using a data source

- Permission to add a data source in Grafana
- Read-only credentials for your cloud provider (no Cloud Provider Observability write access or access policy tokens needed)

## Recommended prior knowledge

| Topic                         | Why it helps                               |
|-------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|
| Basic Grafana navigation      | You’ll explore dashboards and data sources |
| Your cloud provider’s console | You’ll configure IAM and collection jobs   |

You can also complete the journey without hands-on practice. The concepts stand on their own.