---
title: "Test the MySQL monitoring connection | Grafana Labs"
description: "Learn how to verify that Grafana Alloy is successfully collecting MySQL metrics and logs and sending them to Grafana Cloud."
---

# Test the MySQL monitoring connection

In this milestone, you verify that Grafana Alloy is successfully collecting MySQL metrics and logs and sending them to your Grafana Cloud instance. Testing the connection ensures that your monitoring setup is working correctly before installing dashboards and alerts.

The MySQL integration provides a built-in connection test feature that validates both the configuration and data flow to Grafana Cloud.

To test the MySQL monitoring connection, complete the following steps:

1. On the MySQL integration page in Grafana Cloud, scroll to the **Test connection** section.
2. Click the **Test connection** button to validate that data is flowing from your MySQL instance to Grafana Cloud.
3. Wait for the connection test to complete. A successful test indicates that:
   
   - Grafana Alloy is running and configured correctly
   - MySQL metrics are being collected
   - Data is reaching your Grafana Cloud instance

To manually verify data collection, navigate to **Explore** in your Grafana Cloud instance, select your **MySQL** data source, and query for MySQL metrics. For example, search for `mysql_up` to verify that the MySQL exporter is reporting the database status.

The connection test confirms that your MySQL monitoring setup is working correctly.

In the next milestone, you install the pre-built MySQL dashboards and alerts to start monitoring your database.

* * *

### Troubleshooting

Explore the following troubleshooting topics if you need help:

- [Alloy isn’t running after a reboot](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-infrastructure/integrations/troubleshoot/install-troubleshoot-linux-alloy/#alloy-isnt-running-after-a-reboot)
- [No metrics were found for this integration](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-infrastructure/integrations/troubleshoot/install-troubleshoot-linux-alloy/#no-metrics-were-found-for-this-integration)
- [Alloy was not able to reach your application Prometheus metrics endpoint](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-infrastructure/integrations/troubleshoot/install-troubleshoot-linux-alloy/#alloy-was-not-able-to-reach-your-application-prometheus-metrics-endpoint)