---
title: "Check requirements | Grafana Labs"
description: "Verify that your MySQL database, Grafana Cloud account, and Alloy installation meet the requirements for Database Observability."
---

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

# Check requirements

Before starting the setup, verify that your environment meets the requirements for Database Observability. Getting these right upfront prevents troubleshooting later.

## Grafana Cloud requirements

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| Requirement            | Details                                                                                           |
|------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Account                | Grafana Cloud account with Editor or Admin role                                                   |
| Database Observability | Activated in your Grafana Cloud stack. Go to **Databases** in the navigation menu to activate it. |
| Stack                  | Access to Grafana Cloud Mimir (metrics) and Grafana Cloud Loki (logs) data sources                |
| Permissions            | Ability to view and create dashboards                                                             |

## MySQL requirements

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| Requirement        | Details                                                                                    |
|--------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Version            | MySQL 8.0 or later (MySQL 5.7 and earlier are not supported)                               |
| MariaDB            | Not supported — Performance Schema implementation differs from MySQL                       |
| Performance Schema | Must be enabled (enabled by default in MySQL 8.0+)                                         |
| Monitoring user    | User with `PROCESS`, `REPLICATION CLIENT`, and `SELECT` privileges on `performance_schema` |

## Grafana Alloy requirements

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| Requirement     | Details                                     |
|-----------------|---------------------------------------------|
| Version         | Grafana Alloy 1.14.0 or later               |
| Stability flag  | Run with `--stability.level=public-preview` |
| Network         | Outbound access to Grafana Cloud endpoints  |
| Database access | Network connectivity to your MySQL instance |

## Checklist

Before proceeding, verify:

- Grafana Cloud account is active with appropriate permissions
- Database Observability is activated in your Grafana Cloud stack
- MySQL version is 8.0 or later (not MariaDB)
- Network connectivity exists between the Alloy host and your MySQL database
- Network connectivity exists between the Alloy host and Grafana Cloud
- You have administrative access to create a MySQL monitoring user

In the next milestone, you’ll prepare your MySQL database for monitoring.