Grafana Fleet Management and Alloy Configuration

Fleet Management lets you author pipeline configurations once and distribute them to many Alloy collectors remotely via OpAMP. Collectors poll for updates and apply new configurations without a restart.

Key concepts:

• Collector - an Alloy agent instance, identified by a unique ID and set of attributes
• Pipeline - a named Alloy configuration (YAML) stored in Fleet Management
• Matcher - a label selector that maps a pipeline to matching collectors
• Attributes - key/value labels on a collector used for targeting (e.g. env=production)

---

Step 1: Check the current state

BASE=https://fleet-management-prod-us-east-0.grafana.net
TOKEN=<STACK_ID>:<API_TOKEN>

# List all registered collectors and their health status
curl -s -X POST "$BASE/collector.v1.CollectorService/ListCollectors" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}' | jq '.collectors[] | {id, name, remoteConfigStatus}'

# List all pipelines
curl -s -X POST "$BASE/pipeline.v1.PipelineService/ListPipelines" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}'

In the Grafana Cloud UI: Connections > Collector > Fleet Management > Collector Inventory.

Healthy collectors show REMOTE_CONFIG_STATUS_APPLIED. Degraded collectors show REMOTE_CONFIG_STATUS_FAILED with a remoteConfigStatusMessage describing the error.

---

Step 2: Understand the pipeline YAML format

Pipelines are valid Alloy configuration files. Alloy uses a HCL-like syntax called River.

// Basic metrics pipeline: scrape Prometheus metrics and forward to Grafana Cloud
prometheus.scrape "default" {
  targets    = discovery.relabel.filtered.output
  forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.grafana_cloud.receiver]
  scrape_interval = "60s"
}

prometheus.remote_write "grafana_cloud" {
  endpoint {
    url = "https://prometheus-prod-01-eu-west-0.grafana.net/api/prom/push"
    basic_auth {
      username = "<METRICS_USERNAME>"
      password = env("GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_KEY")
    }
  }
}

Key Alloy component categories:

Category	Example components
Discovery	discovery.kubernetes, discovery.docker, discovery.relabel
Metrics	prometheus.scrape, prometheus.remote_write, prometheus.operator.*
Logs	loki.source.file, loki.source.kubernetes, loki.write
Traces	otelcol.receiver.otlp, otelcol.exporter.otlp
Profiles	pyroscope.scrape, pyroscope.write
Transformation	otelcol.processor.batch, otelcol.processor.filter

Reference: Alloy component documentation

---

Step 3: Create a pipeline

# Create a pipeline via API (contents is plain text Alloy config, not base64)
curl -s -X POST "$BASE/pipeline.v1.PipelineService/CreatePipeline" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "k8s-metrics",
    "contents": "prometheus.scrape \"default\" {\n  targets = []\n  forward_to = []\n}",
    "matchers": [
      {"name": "env", "value": "production", "type": "EQUAL"}
    ]
  }'

In the UI: Fleet Management > Remote Configuration > Create pipeline. The wizard offers:

1. Start from a template (Kubernetes, host metrics, logs, traces, profiles)
2. Duplicate an existing pipeline
3. Write from scratch with the inline editor

---

Step 4: Assign pipelines to collectors with matchers

Matchers use label selectors to map a pipeline to collectors. A collector receives all pipelines whose matchers match its attributes.

{
  "matchers": [
    "env=\"production\"",
    "team=\"platform\""
  ]
}

This assigns the pipeline to any collector with both env=production AND team=platform.

Matcher syntax:

Operator	Example	Meaning
=	env="production"	Exact match
!=	env!="dev"	Not equal
=~	region=~"us-.*"	Regex match
!~	region!~"eu-.*"	Regex not match

Apply matchers when creating or updating a pipeline:

# Matchers are set in CreatePipeline or UpdatePipeline
curl -s -X POST "$BASE/pipeline.v1.PipelineService/UpdatePipeline" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "id": "<PIPELINE_ID>",
    "matchers": [
      {"name": "env",  "value": "production", "type": "EQUAL"},
      {"name": "team", "value": "platform",   "type": "EQUAL"}
    ]
  }'

Matcher type values: EQUAL, NOT_EQUAL, REGEX, NOT_REGEX

A pipeline with no matchers is saved but deployed to zero collectors.

---

Step 5: Set collector attributes

Attributes are the labels that matchers target. Set them from the UI (Collector Inventory > select collector > Edit attributes) or via API:

curl -s -X POST "$BASE/collector.v1.CollectorService/UpdateCollector" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "id": "<COLLECTOR_ID>",
    "attributes": [
      {"name": "env",    "value": "production"},
      {"name": "team",   "value": "platform"},
      {"name": "region", "value": "us-east-1"}
    ]
  }'

Alloy sets some attributes automatically on registration:

• platform - OS platform (linux, darwin, windows)
• arch - CPU architecture (amd64, arm64)
• alloy_version - Alloy version string

Custom attributes must be set explicitly — either via the API or by the collector's startup config.

---

Step 6: Install Alloy with remote configuration enabled

For Alloy to receive remote configuration from Fleet Management, it needs:

1. An API token with Fleet Management access
2. The remotecfg block in its local (bootstrap) configuration

// bootstrap.alloy -- the only local config file Alloy needs
remotecfg {
  url = "https://<FLEET_MANAGEMENT_HOST>"

  basic_auth {
    username = "<STACK_ID>"
    password = env("GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_KEY")
  }

  poll_frequency = "1m"

  // Attributes for this collector instance
  attributes = {
    "env"    = env("ENVIRONMENT"),
    "team"   = "platform",
    "region" = env("AWS_REGION"),
  }
}

Kubernetes deployment:

# values.yaml for grafana/alloy Helm chart
alloy:
  configMap:
    content: |
      remotecfg {
        url = "https://<FLEET_MANAGEMENT_HOST>"
        basic_auth {
          username = "<STACK_ID>"
          password = env("GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_KEY")
        }
        poll_frequency = "1m"
        attributes = {
          "env" = "production",
          "cluster" = env("CLUSTER_NAME"),
        }
      }
  extraEnv:
    - name: GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_KEY
      valueFrom:
        secretKeyRef:
          name: grafana-cloud-credentials
          key: api-key

---

Step 7: Troubleshoot collector health

Check remote config status:

# List collectors with FAILED status
curl -s -X POST "$BASE/collector.v1.CollectorService/ListCollectors" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}' | jq '.collectors[] | select(.remoteConfigStatus == "REMOTE_CONFIG_STATUS_FAILED") | {id, name, remoteConfigStatusMessage}'

Common failure patterns:

Status message	Root cause	Fix
syntax error at line N	Invalid Alloy River syntax	Fix the pipeline YAML; validate before deploying
component not found: X	Alloy version too old for a component	Upgrade Alloy or use an older API
failed to unmarshal config	Base64 encoding error	Re-encode the config correctly
authentication failed	Wrong API token	Rotate and re-apply the token
connection refused	Collector can't reach Fleet Management	Check network/firewall rules

Check Alloy logs directly:

# Kubernetes
kubectl logs -n monitoring -l app.kubernetes.io/name=alloy --tail=50 | grep -i "remote\|error"

# Systemd
journalctl -u alloy --since "1h ago" | grep -i "remote\|error"

Check the Alloy UI (port 12345 by default) at http://<COLLECTOR_HOST>:12345:

• Graph tab: shows component wiring and health per component
• Components tab: lists all components and their current config
• Clustering tab: shows clustering state if enabled

---

Step 8: Use the Grafana Assistant for pipeline work

The Grafana Assistant understands Fleet Management and can:

• Explain what a pipeline configuration does
• Identify syntax errors and suggest fixes
• Optimize pipelines for performance or cost
• Generate Mermaid diagrams of component wiring

Via the UI: In the Remote Configuration page, select a pipeline and click the Assistant button. Options: Explain, Validate/Fix, Optimize, Visualize.

Via API (for automation): The Assistant exposes Fleet Management tools:

• fleetManagementRead - list collectors and pipelines
• fleetManagementWrite - update pipeline configurations
• alloyConfigValidation - validate Alloy River syntax

---

References

• Alloy documentation
• Fleet Management API docs
• Alloy component reference
• OpAMP specification