alloy-docker-compose

One-file Grafana Alloy setup that ships host (linux) and container (docker) telemetry to Grafana Cloud, plus pulls remote config from Grafana Fleet Management.

• Single container running both node_exporter (host) and cadvisor (containers) collectors.
• Config embedded inline via Compose configs: — no sidecar config.alloy file on disk.
• Env-driven — nine shell variables, no .env file.
• Remote config via remotecfg block (Grafana Fleet Management).

What it collects

Source	Component	Notes
Host metrics	prometheus.exporter.unix	CPU, memory, load, disk I/O, filesystem, network, uname, boot time
Container metrics	prometheus.exporter.cadvisor	CPU, memory, fs usage/limit, network, last_seen
Container logs	loki.source.docker	all running containers, labeled with container, stream, instance
System logs	loki.source.journal (via journal_module)	systemd journal with unit, boot_id, transport, level labels
Remote config	remotecfg	polls Grafana Fleet Management every 60s

keep-filter on metric names trims the firehose down to the standard Grafana Cloud integration dashboards (node-exporter + docker).

Quick start

export ALLOY_HOSTNAME=miti-jp                                                                      # also used as Loki/Prometheus instance label
export REMOTECFG_URL=https://fleet-management-prod-013.grafana.net
export REMOTECFG_ID=miti-jp                                                                        # fleet-management agent id
export REMOTECFG_USER=1431677                                                                      # fleet-management user id
export PROM_URL=https://prometheus-prod-XX-<region>.grafana.net/api/prom/push
export PROM_USER=<prometheus-user-id>
export LOKI_URL=https://logs-prod-XXX.grafana.net/loki/api/v1/push
export LOKI_USER=<loki-user-id>
export GRAFANA_TOKEN=glc_...                                                                       # one Cloud Access Policy token, scopes: metrics:write + logs:write + fleet-management:read

docker compose up -d

Find the PROM_* / LOKI_* / REMOTECFG_* values under Grafana Cloud → your stack → Details on each data source / Fleet Management. The same token is reused for remotecfg, Prometheus, and Loki basic-auth.

Any unset required variable makes docker compose up fail fast.

Multi-host

Same compose file on every host — change ALLOY_HOSTNAME and REMOTECFG_ID per host. Filter in Grafana with instance=~"...".

Security note

Runs privileged: true + network_mode: host, matching the upstream Grafana Cloud docker integration. network_mode: host is required so prometheus.exporter.unix reports the host's real network interfaces (eth0…) instead of the alloy container's veth pair. If you need least-privilege, see the upstream Alloy docker integration docs and tighten capabilities.

Mounts

Mount	Why
/proc:/rootproc:ro	node-exporter cpu/mem/load (referenced via procfs_path)
/sys:/sys:ro	node-exporter + cadvisor cgroups
/:/rootfs:ro	filesystem collector (referenced via rootfs_path)
/dev/disk/:/dev/disk:ro	node-exporter diskstats device labels
/var/run/docker.sock	discovery.docker + loki.source.docker
/var/lib/docker:ro	cadvisor container metadata
/var/log/journal:ro	loki.source.journal
/etc/machine-id:ro	stable host id for the journal reader
alloy-data (named volume)	WAL + remotecfg cache

Known noise (special cases)

• Coolify SSH session spam — only relevant if Coolify manages the host. Safe to ignore otherwise.

License

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE.