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yorickdowne merged 1 commit into from
Jun 5, 2026
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docs: Add comprehensive Grafana Cloud configuration guide and fix Alloy tracing errors #583

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15 changes: 10 additions & 5 deletions website/docs/Usage/Dashboards.md
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Expand Up @@ -7,13 +7,18 @@ sidebar_label: Dashboards
## Choose local or cloud Grafana

You have a choice of running Grafana locally, by including `grafana.yml`, or in the cloud, with `grafana-cloud.yml`.
If you choose Grafana Cloud, you **must** edit `./alloy/prometheus-write.alloy` as well as `./alloy/loki-write.alloy`
and add your cloud remote write credentials. This can also be used to write to a central Grafana stack of your own,
rather than a hosted cloud offering.

`grafana-cloud.yml` runs a local Alloy but no local Grafana, and enables adding custom Alloy config items.
### Grafana Cloud Configuration

If you want to add additional scrape targets, place these into `./alloy`.
If you choose Grafana Cloud, you **must** edit `./alloy/prometheus-write.alloy` as well as `./alloy/loki-write.alloy` and add your cloud remote write credentials. This can also be used to write to a central Grafana stack of your own, rather than a hosted cloud offering.

1. **Metrics**: Edit `./alloy/prometheus-write.alloy`, uncomment `prometheus.remote_write.remote_prometheus.receiver` in the `forward_to` array, and update the `remote_prometheus` block with your Grafana Cloud Mimir endpoint and credentials.
2. **Logs**: Edit `./alloy/loki-write.alloy`, uncomment `loki.write.remote_loki.receiver` in the `forward_to` array, and update the `remote_loki` block with your Grafana Cloud Loki endpoint and credentials.
3. **Traces (Important)**: The default `./alloy/alloy-logs.alloy` is configured to send traces to a local `tempo` service. However, `grafana-cloud.yml` does **not** include a local Tempo container. If left unchanged, Alloy will fail to start with a `"no children to pick from"` error. You have two options:
- **Option A (Recommended)**: Comment out the `tracing` and `otelcol.exporter.otlp "tempo"` blocks in `./alloy/alloy-logs.alloy` if you only need metrics and logs.
- **Option B**: Update the `otelcol.exporter.otlp "tempo"` block to point to your Grafana Cloud Tempo endpoint. **Note:** The `auth` parameter inside the `client` block must be an **attribute** (`auth = otelcol.auth.basic.grafana_cloud.handler`), not a block (`auth { ... }`). Using a block will cause a syntax error.

`grafana-cloud.yml` runs a local Alloy but no local Grafana, and enables adding custom Alloy config items. If you want to add additional scrape targets, place these into `./alloy`.

## Local Grafana dashboards

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