create-config-file.md

---

title: Create a config file
weight: 50
aliases:
- ../../set-up/create-config-file/
- ../../configuration/create-config-file/

---

Create a configuration file

The Grafana Agent supports configuring multiple independent "subsystems." Each subsystem helps you collect data for a specific type of telemetry.

• The Metrics subsystem allows you collect metrics to send to Prometheus.

• The Logs subsystem allows you to collect logs to send to Grafana Loki.

• The Traces subsystem allows you to collect spans to send to Grafana Tempo.

• The Integrations subsystem allows you to collect metrics for common applications, such as MySQL.

Integrations are recommended for first-time users of observability platforms, especially newcomers to Prometheus. Users with more experience with Prometheus or users that already have an existing Prometheus config file can configure the Prometheus subsystem manually.

Integrations

Integrations are individual features that collect metrics for you. For example, the agent integration collects metrics from that running instance of the Grafana Agent. The node_exporter integration will collect metrics from the Linux machine that the Grafana Agent is running on.

metrics:
  wal_directory: /tmp/wal
  global:
    remote_write:
      - url: http://localhost:9009/api/prom/push

integrations:
  agent:
    enabled: true

In this example, we first must configure the wal_directory which is used to store metrics in a Write-Ahead Log. This is required, but ensures that samples will be redelivered in case of failure (e.g., network issues, machine reboot). We also configure remote_write, which is where all metrics should be sent by default.

Then, the individual integrations are configured. In this example, just the agent integration is enabled. Finally, prometheus_remote_write is configured with a location to send metrics. You will have to replace this URL with the appropriate URL for your remote_write system (such as a Grafana Cloud Hosted Prometheus instance).

When the Agent is run with this file, it will collect metrics from itself and send those metrics to the default remote_write endpoint. All metrics from integrations will have an instance label matching the hostname of the machine the Grafana Agent is running on. This label helps to uniquely identify the source of metrics if you are running multiple Grafana Agents across multiple machines.

Full configuration options can be found in the [configuration reference]({{< relref "../configuration/_index.md" >}}).

Prometheus config/migrating from Prometheus

The Prometheus subsystem config is useful for those migrating from Prometheus and those who want to scrape metrics from something that currently does not have an associated integration.

To migrate from an existing Prometheus config, use this Agent config as a template and copy and paste subsections from your existing Prometheus config into it:

metrics:
  global:
  # PASTE PROMETHEUS global SECTION HERE
  configs:
    - name: agent
      scrape_configs:
        # PASTE scrape_configs SECTION HERE
      remote_write:
        # PASTE remote_write SECTION HERE

For example, this configuration file configures the Grafana Agent to scrape itself without using the integration:

server:
  log_level: info

metrics:
  global:
    scrape_interval: 1m
  configs:
    - name: agent
      scrape_configs:
        - job_name: agent
          static_configs:
            - targets: ['127.0.0.1:12345']
      remote_write:
        - url: http://localhost:9009/api/prom/push

Like with integrations, full configuration options can be found in the [configuration]({{< relref "../configuration/_index.md" >}}).

Loki Config/Migrating from Promtail

The Loki Config allows for collecting logs to send to a Loki API. Users that are familiar with Promtail will notice that the Loki config for the Agent matches their existing Promtail config with the following exceptions:

• The deprecated field client is not present

• The server field is not present

To migrate from an existing Promtail config, make sure you are using clients instead of client and remove the server block if present. Then paste your Promtail config into the Agent config file inside of a logs section:

logs:
  configs:
  - name: default
    # PASTE YOUR PROMTAIL CONFIG INSIDE OF HERE

Full config example

Here is an example full config file, using integrations, Prometheus, Loki, and Tempo:

server:
  log_level: info

metrics:
  global:
    scrape_interval: 1m
    remote_write:
      - url: http://localhost:9009/api/prom/push
  configs:
    - name: default
      scrape_configs:
        - job_name: agent
          static_configs:
            - targets: ['127.0.0.1:12345']

logs:
  configs:
  - name: default
    positions:
      filename: /tmp/positions.yaml
    scrape_configs:
      - job_name: varlogs
        static_configs:
          - targets: [localhost]
            labels:
              job: varlogs
              __path__: /var/log/*log
    clients:
      - url: http://localhost:3100/loki/api/v1/push

traces:
  configs:
  - name: default
    receivers:
      jaeger:
        protocols:
          grpc: # listens on the default jaeger grpc port: 14250
    remote_write:
      - endpoint: localhost:55680
        insecure: true  # only add this if TLS is not required
    batch:
      timeout: 5s
      send_batch_size: 100

integrations:
  node_exporter:
    enabled: true