---
title: "Prerequisites for deploying an integration | Grafana Labs"
description: "What you need to complete the hands-on sections"
---

> 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 practice

If you’d like to follow along with the learning path exercises and deploy integrations on real systems, you’ll need:

- A Grafana Cloud account ([sign up free](/signup/cloud/connect-account))
- A system to monitor (Linux, Windows, database, etc.)
- Permissions to install Grafana Alloy on your target system

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

## Recommended prior knowledge

| Topic                                | Why it helps                       |
|--------------------------------------|------------------------------------|
| Basic Grafana navigation             | You’ll use pre-built dashboards    |
| Terminal/command line basics         | Agent installation uses CLI        |
| Understanding of your infrastructure | Helps choose the right integration |