--- title: "Set up Grafana Alloy for Application Observability | OpenTelemetry documentation" description: "Set up Grafana Alloy, an OpenTelemetry Collector distribution, for Application Observability." --- # Set up Grafana Alloy for Application Observability Grafana Labs recommends using Grafana Alloy, an OpenTelemetry Collector distribution, for production observability. Alloy packages upstream OpenTelemetry Collector components and Prometheus exporters to provide stability, support, and seamless integration with Grafana Application Observability and other Grafana products. ## Recommended setup For production, run Alloy on every host to enable seamless correlation between infrastructure and application observability data. Instrument your applications using the **OpenTelemetry (OTLP)** with Grafana Alloy [Grafana Cloud integration tile](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/otlp/send-data-otlp/#recommended-opentelemetry-setup-via-grafana-cloud-integrations). This approach provides all binaries, configuration, and connection parameters needed to set up OpenTelemetry and Application Observability. If you already run Alloy on each host, see the [configure your application](#configure-your-application) section. ## Advanced manual setup For advanced use cases, manually configure the Alloy `alloy-config.river` configuration file: Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```alloy otelcol.receiver.otlp "default" { // https://grafana.com/docs/alloy/latest/reference/components/otelcol.receiver.otlp/ // configures the default grpc endpoint "0.0.0.0:4317" grpc { } // configures the default http/protobuf endpoint "0.0.0.0:4318" http { } output { metrics = [otelcol.processor.resourcedetection.default.input] logs = [otelcol.processor.resourcedetection.default.input] traces = [otelcol.processor.resourcedetection.default.input] } } otelcol.processor.resourcedetection "default" { // https://grafana.com/docs/alloy/latest/reference/components/otelcol.processor.resourcedetection/ detectors = ["env", "system"] // add "gcp", "ec2", "ecs", "elastic_beanstalk", "eks", "lambda", "azure", "aks", "consul", "heroku" if you want to use cloud resource detection system { hostname_sources = ["os"] } output { metrics = [otelcol.processor.transform.drop_unneeded_resource_attributes.input] logs = [otelcol.processor.transform.drop_unneeded_resource_attributes.input] traces = [otelcol.processor.transform.drop_unneeded_resource_attributes.input] } } otelcol.processor.transform "drop_unneeded_resource_attributes" { // https://grafana.com/docs/alloy/latest/reference/components/otelcol.processor.transform/ error_mode = "ignore" trace_statements { context = "resource" statements = [ "delete_key(attributes, \"k8s.pod.start_time\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"os.description\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"os.type\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.command_args\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.executable.path\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.pid\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.runtime.description\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.runtime.name\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.runtime.version\")", ] } metric_statements { context = "resource" statements = [ "delete_key(attributes, \"k8s.pod.start_time\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"os.description\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"os.type\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.command_args\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.executable.path\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.pid\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.runtime.description\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.runtime.name\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.runtime.version\")", ] } log_statements { context = "resource" statements = [ "delete_key(attributes, \"k8s.pod.start_time\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"os.description\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"os.type\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.command_args\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.executable.path\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.pid\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.runtime.description\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.runtime.name\")", "delete_key(attributes, \"process.runtime.version\")", ] } output { metrics = [otelcol.processor.transform.add_resource_attributes_as_metric_attributes.input] logs = [otelcol.processor.batch.default.input] traces = [ otelcol.processor.batch.default.input, otelcol.connector.host_info.default.input, ] } } otelcol.connector.host_info "default" { // https://grafana.com/docs/alloy/latest/reference/components/otelcol.connector.host_info/ host_identifiers = ["host.name"] output { metrics = [otelcol.processor.batch.default.input] } } otelcol.processor.transform "add_resource_attributes_as_metric_attributes" { // https://grafana.com/docs/alloy/latest/reference/components/otelcol.processor.transform/ error_mode = "ignore" metric_statements { context = "datapoint" statements = [ "set(attributes[\"deployment.environment\"], resource.attributes[\"deployment.environment\"])", "set(attributes[\"service.version\"], resource.attributes[\"service.version\"])", ] } output { metrics = [otelcol.processor.batch.default.input] } } otelcol.processor.batch "default" { // https://grafana.com/docs/alloy/latest/reference/components/otelcol.processor.batch/ output { metrics = [otelcol.exporter.otlphttp.grafana_cloud.input] logs = [otelcol.exporter.otlphttp.grafana_cloud.input] traces = [otelcol.exporter.otlphttp.grafana_cloud.input] } } otelcol.exporter.otlphttp "grafana_cloud" { // https://grafana.com/docs/alloy/latest/reference/components/otelcol.exporter.otlphttp/ client { endpoint = env("GRAFANA_CLOUD_OTLP_ENDPOINT") auth = otelcol.auth.basic.grafana_cloud.handler } } otelcol.auth.basic "grafana_cloud" { // https://grafana.com/docs/alloy/latest/reference/components/otelcol.auth.basic/ username = env("GRAFANA_CLOUD_INSTANCE_ID") password = env("GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_KEY") } ``` Set the following environment variables in your configuration file: Expand table | Environment Variable | Description | Example | |-------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------| | `GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_KEY` | API key generated above | `eyJvSomeLongStringJ9fQ==` | | `GRAFANA_CLOUD_OTLP_ENDPOINT` | **OTLP endpoint** from **Grafana Cloud > OpenTelemetry > Configure** | `https://otlp-endpoint-***.grafana.net/otlp` | | `GRAFANA_CLOUD_INSTANCE_ID` | **Instance ID** from **Grafana Cloud > OpenTelemetry > Configure** | `11111` | ## Run Grafana Alloy Create the `alloy-config.river` configuration file, set the required environment variables, and [run Grafana Alloy](/docs/alloy/latest/set-up/run/). ## Configure your application Set the following environment variables to configure your application to use Alloy: Expand table | Configuration | Options | Result | |-------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------| | `export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=` | `http://localhost:4318`, remote host address | The default local host address or a remote host address. | | `export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=` | `grpc`, `http/protobuf` | The default `http/protobuf` protocol or `grpc`. | For example, to use a local Grafana Alloy, set: shell ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```shell export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4317 export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=grpc ``` Then restart your application. ## Resource Refer to the [Alloy `otelcol` components documentation](/docs/alloy/latest/reference/components/otelcol/) and specifically the [`otelcol.exporter.otlp` component documentation](/docs/alloy/latest/reference/components/otelcol/otelcol.exporter.otlp/) for more information on configuring Alloy. ## Next steps [Observe your services in Application Observability](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-applications/application-observability/manual/)