---
title: "Prerequisites | Grafana Labs"
description: "What you need to follow the journey's hands-on paths"
---

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

# For hands-on exercises

Both approaches need a free Grafana Cloud account ([sign up free](/signup/cloud/connect-account)) and Grafana Alloy, which collects data and sends it to Grafana Cloud. What you need beyond that depends on which approach you’re setting up.

## Database integration requirements

For a database integration you need a running instance of a supported database: MongoDB, Redis, Memcached, Cassandra, Oracle, MySQL, or PostgreSQL. You configure an exporter for that database as part of setup.

## Database Observability version requirements

For Database Observability, you need:

- A running MySQL 8.0 or later or PostgreSQL 14 or later database
- A database user with monitoring privileges
- Versions shown in the following table

| Requirement       | Details                                                                                           |
|-------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Grafana Alloy** | Version 1.17.0 or later                                                                           |
| **MySQL**         | Version 8.0 or later (MySQL 5.7 and MariaDB aren’t supported)                                     |
| **PostgreSQL**    | Version 14 or later, with the `pg_stat_statements` extension enabled in each database you monitor |

Database Observability is available on the Grafana Cloud free tier and needs the Editor or Admin role. It is billed as a per-host hourly fee for each connected database, plus metrics and logs usage. On the free tier, metrics and logs, including query samples, are retained for 14 days. See [Database Observability pricing](/docs/grafana-cloud/platform/pricing-and-usage/database-observability/).

The monitoring user needs two kinds of access. Query statistics need the base privileges: for MySQL, `PROCESS`, `REPLICATION CLIENT`, and `SELECT` on `performance_schema`; for PostgreSQL, the `pg_monitor` and `pg_read_all_stats` roles. Schema details and explain plans also need access to the tables you want to see. Grant `SELECT` and `SHOW VIEW` on each MySQL schema you monitor, or on all schemas if you want every schema. For PostgreSQL, grant `USAGE` on each schema and `SELECT` on all tables in that schema, or grant `pg_read_all_data` if you want every object.

If you’re running MySQL 5.7, MariaDB, or an older PostgreSQL version, Database Observability isn’t available for those.

A [database integration](/docs/learning-hub/intro-to-integrations/) can still monitor the database instance’s overall health, such as connections, throughput, and replication status. However, that’s a different capability, not a substitute. An integration reports aggregate, instance-level metrics, not the per-query explain plans, wait events, and query samples that Database Observability provides.

## Recommended prior knowledge

| Topic                           | Why it helps                                               |
|---------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------|
| Basic Grafana navigation        | You’ll use dashboards and the Configuration page.          |
| Terminal or command line basics | Alloy installation uses the CLI.                           |
| Basic database administration   | You’ll create a monitoring user and configure permissions. |

**Just exploring?** You can complete the journey without hands-on practice. The concepts are valuable on their own.