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Verify that your PostgreSQL database, Grafana Cloud account, and Alloy installation meet the requirements for Database Observability.

Estimated time: 2 min

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

RequirementDetails
AccountGrafana Cloud account with Editor or Admin role
Database ObservabilityActivated in your Grafana Cloud stack. Open Observability > Database in the navigation menu and click Activate Database Observability if the app isn’t already active.
StackAccess to Grafana Cloud Mimir (metrics) and Grafana Cloud Loki (logs) data sources
PermissionsAbility to view and create dashboards

PostgreSQL requirements

RequirementDetails
VersionPostgreSQL 14.0 or later
pg_stat_statementsExtension loaded through shared_preload_libraries and created in each database you monitor
Query tracking settingscompute_query_id set to on, pg_stat_statements.track set to all, and track_activity_query_size set to 4096. track_activity_query_size (like shared_preload_libraries) needs a PostgreSQL restart; the others apply on a config reload.
ConnectionAlloy must connect directly to the database host — avoid load balancers or connection poolers like PgBouncer
Monitoring userUser with the pg_monitor and pg_read_all_stats roles, plus read access to the schemas you want to monitor

Grafana Alloy requirements

RequirementDetails
VersionGrafana Alloy 1.17.0 or later. Database Observability is generally available, so no --stability.level flag is required.
NetworkOutbound access to Grafana Cloud endpoints
Database accessNetwork connectivity to your PostgreSQL instance

Checklist

Before proceeding, verify:

  • Grafana Cloud account is active with appropriate permissions
  • Database Observability is activated in your Grafana Cloud stack
  • PostgreSQL version is 14.0 or later
  • You can change PostgreSQL configuration and restart PostgreSQL if the query tracking settings need to change
  • Network connectivity exists between the Alloy host and your PostgreSQL database
  • Network connectivity exists between the Alloy host and Grafana Cloud
  • You have administrative access to create a PostgreSQL monitoring user
  • Alloy connects directly to the database, not through a load balancer or PgBouncer

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