alloy

Introducing Grafana Alloy

Grafana Alloy is an open-source project that provides a robust OpenTelemetry Collector distribution. It is equipped with built-in Prometheus pipelines and supports various telemetry types such as metrics, logs, traces, and profiles, making it an essential tool for observability.

What Can Alloy Do?

• Programmable Pipelines: Alloy allows users to configure powerful observability pipelines using a rich, expression-based syntax. This feature enables efficient data processing and customization according to specific needs.

• OpenTelemetry Collector Distribution: Being a distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector, Alloy incorporates numerous components, including new ones that are optimized for its programmable pipelines. This allows for comprehensive support across different telemetry data.

• Big Tent Philosophy: Alloy embraces Grafana's "big tent" approach, supporting seamless integration with a variety of vendors and open-source databases. It has components for smooth interoperability with diverse telemetry ecosystems like OpenTelemetry Collector, Prometheus, Grafana Loki, and Grafana Pyroscope.

• Kubernetes-native: It offers components to interact with both native and custom Kubernetes resources, streamlining operations without the necessity of acquainting oneself with a separate Kubernetes operator.

• Shareable Pipelines: Through modules, Alloy enables users to share their pipeline configurations with the community, enhancing collaboration and reuse.

• Automatic Workload Distribution: Users can configure Alloy instances to form a cluster, allowing for automatic workload distribution. This ensures balanced resource utilization and improved efficiency.

• Centralized Configuration Support: Alloy supports fetching its configuration from a centralized server, facilitating easier configuration management across different environments.

• Debugging Utilities: The built-in user interface provides tools for visualizing and debugging pipelines, aiding in efficient problem resolution.

Example

Below is a simple example of how Alloy can be configured for telemetry data processing:

otelcol.receiver.otlp "example" {
  grpc {
    endpoint = "127.0.0.1:4317"
  }

  output {
    metrics = [otelcol.processor.batch.example.input]
    logs    = [otelcol.processor.batch.example.input]
    traces  = [otelcol.processor.batch.example.input]
  }
}

otelcol.processor.batch "example" {
  output {
    metrics = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input]
    logs    = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input]
    traces  = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input]
  }
}

otelcol.exporter.otlp "default" {
  client {
    endpoint = "my-otlp-grpc-server:4317"
  }
}

Getting Started

For those interested in exploring Grafana Alloy, the documentation provides comprehensive guidance, including installation instructions and a detailed list of components.

Release Cadence

Grafana Alloy follows a regular release schedule, aiming for new minor releases every six weeks. This cadence allows for the timely integration of updates, including dependency adjustments from the upstream OpenTelemetry Collector code. However, releases can also occur outside this schedule if necessary.

Community Engagement

The Grafana Alloy community is active and welcoming. Users can join the community Slack channel, engage on the Grafana community site, file issues for improvements or bugs, and participate in monthly community calls.

Contributing

Contributors are welcome, and the contributors' guide offers all necessary information to get involved with the project. The contributions are appreciated and enhance the development and growth of Alloy.

Grafana Alloy is a powerful tool for observability, offering flexibility, integration capabilities, and community support. Whether you're just starting or looking to optimize your current setup, Alloy provides the resources and infrastructure to meet your telemetry needs effectively.