grafana-alloy

OpenTelemetry and Grafana Alloy with GreptimeDB

This docker-compose file demos how to ingest data from Grafana Alloy to GreptimeDB, as well as using GreptimeDB as an OpenTelemetry data collector.

It uses Grafana Alloy as a Prometheus data source (combination of Prometheus Node Exporter and Prometheus Agent), and ingest data into GreptimeDB using following protocols:

• Prometheus Remote Write
• OpenTelemetry OTLP

In the real world, you will use Grafana Alloy as a Prometheus agent or an OpenTelemetry data collector, with both sinks connected to GreptimeDB.

Additionally, we send Alloy meta logs to GreptimeDB via OpenTelemetry as well.

How to run this demo

Ensure you have git, docker, docker-compose and mysql client installed. Docker Compose version 2.24 or higher is required. To run this demo:

git clone https://github.com/GreptimeTeam/demo-scene.git
cd demo-scene/grafana-alloy
docker compose up

You can access GreptimeDB using mysql client. Just run mysql -h 127.0.0.1 -P 4002 to connect to the database and use SQL query like SHOW TABLES as a start.

mysql -h 127.0.0.1 -P 4002
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 8
Server version: 8.4.2 Greptime

Copyright (c) 2000, 2024, Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> show tables;
+---------------------------------------------+
| Tables                                      |
+---------------------------------------------+
| greptime_physical_table                     |
| node_boot_time_seconds                      |
| node_context_switches_total                 |
| node_cooling_device_cur_state               |
| node_cooling_device_max_state               |
| node_cpu_frequency_hertz                    |
| node_cpu_frequency_max_hertz                |
| node_cpu_frequency_min_hertz                |
| node_cpu_scaling_frequency_hertz            |
| node_cpu_scaling_frequency_max_hertz        |
| node_cpu_scaling_frequency_min_hertz        |
| node_cpu_scaling_governor                   |
| node_cpu_seconds_total                      |
| node_disk_discard_time_seconds_total        |
| node_disk_discarded_sectors_total           |
| node_disk_discards_completed_total          |
| node_disk_discards_merged_total             |
| ...                                         |

How it works

The topology is illustrated in this diagram.

flowchart LR
  greptimedb[(GreptimeDB)]
  grafana[Grafana]

  subgraph alloy[Alloy]
    prometheus_exporter_unix --> prometheus_relabel
    prometheus_relabel --> prometheus_remote_write

    prometheus_relabel --> otelcol_receiver_prometheus
    otelcol_receiver_prometheus --> otelcol_processor_transform
    otelcol_processor_transform --> otelcol_exporter_otlphttp

    logging --> otelcol_receiver_loki
    otelcol_receiver_loki --> otelcol_processor_attributes_enrichment
    otelcol_processor_attributes_enrichment --> otelcol_exporter_otlphttp
  end

  prometheus_remote_write --> |PRW| greptimedb
  otelcol_exporter_otlphttp --> |OTLP HTTP/Protobuf| greptimedb

  greptimedb --> grafana

Loading

Grafana Alloy is a telemetry data pipeline that ingests data in Prometheus, Loki, and OpenTelemetry formats. It also provides processing capabilities, such as Prometheus relabeling and OpenTelemetry OTTL (OpenTelemetry Transformation Language) functions.

In this example, we generate metrics data from Alloy's built-in data source called prometheus.exporter.unix and export the data to both a Prometheus remote write sink and an OpenTelemetry-compatible collector, which is GreptimeDB.

Run in GreptimeCloud

By default, this example writes data into a GreptimeDB instance within the docker compose. It's also possible to write to your own GreptimeCloud instance by creating a greptime.env file from our sample greptime.env.sample and providing your host, dbname and authentication information.Then use docker compose down and docker compose up to recreate the compose cluster and apply new settings.

Screenshots

GreptimeCloud Visualization

Grafana Dashboard

Grafana Alloy Topology Graph

Grafana Alloy Component Detail

What's Next

• Use Grafana Alloy for Log ingestion into GreptimeDB