Grafana Cloud

The Grafana Cloud destination sends telemetry from a Bindplane pipeline to a Grafana Cloud stack over OTLP/HTTP. It exports metrics, logs, and traces, authenticating to the Grafana Cloud OTLP endpoint with your instance ID and an Access Policy token.

Supported Telemetry

Metrics	Logs	Traces
✓	✓	✓

Prerequisites

To export to Grafana Cloud the collector needs a reachable OTLP endpoint, your Grafana Cloud instance ID, and an Access Policy token with write permission for the signals being sent.

• A Grafana Cloud stack. Sign in to the Grafana Cloud Portal and open (or create) a stack.
• OTLP endpoint and instance ID. From the stack Overview, open the OpenTelemetry tile and click Configure. The page lists the OTLP Endpoint (a URL such as https://otlp-gateway-prod-us-central-0.grafana.net/otlp) and the Instance ID for your stack. See Send data to the Grafana Cloud OTLP endpoint.
• An Access Policy token. Create an Access Policy with Write scope for the telemetry you intend to export (metrics, logs, and/or traces), then add a token to it. The token value is shown only once, so copy it when it is created. See Create access policies and tokens.

The instance ID is used as the basic-auth username and the Access Policy token as the password when the collector authenticates to the OTLP endpoint.

Configuration

Connection

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Choose Telemetry Type	Telemetry Selector	No	Logs, Metrics, Traces	Which signals this destination exports. By default all three are sent.
OTLP Endpoint	String	Yes	(empty)	The URL to send OTLP data to. Found in the Cloud Portal under the OpenTelemetry card.
Grafana Cloud Instance ID	String	Yes	(empty)	The ID for your Grafana Cloud instance. Found in the Cloud Portal under the OpenTelemetry card. Used as the basic-auth username.
Cloud Access Policy Token	String (sensitive)	Yes	(empty)	A token created for an Access Policy in Grafana Cloud. The Access Policy needs write permission for the telemetry being sent. Used as the basic-auth password.

Advanced

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Compression	Enum: none, gzip, deflate, snappy, zlib, zstd	No	gzip	Compression algorithm to use when sending data to Grafana Cloud. The Grafana Cloud OTLP endpoint accepts none or gzip.
Drop Raw Copy	Boolean	No	true	When enabled, the raw copy of the log stored in log.record.original is dropped before export. Logs only.

Retry on Failure

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Enable Retry on Failure	Boolean	No	true	Attempt to resend telemetry data that has failed to be transmitted to the destination.
Initial interval	Integer	No	5	Time (in seconds) to wait after the first failure before retrying. Applies when retry on failure is enabled.
Max interval	Integer	No	30	The upper bound (in seconds) on backoff. Applies when retry on failure is enabled.
Max elapsed time	Integer	No	300	The maximum amount of time (in seconds) spent trying to send a batch, used to avoid a never-ending retry loop. Applies when retry on failure is enabled.

Sending Queue

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Enable Sending Queue	Boolean	No	true	Buffer telemetry data temporarily before sending to help ensure data is not lost during a temporary network outage.
Number of Consumers	Integer	No	10	Number of consumers that dequeue batches. Applies when the sending queue is enabled.
Queue Size	Integer	No	5000	Maximum number of batches kept in memory before dropping. Applies when the sending queue is enabled.
Enable Persistent Queuing	Boolean	No	true	Buffer telemetry data to disk before sending to help ensure data is not lost during network outages or collector restarts. Applies when the sending queue is enabled.
Persistent Queue Storage	Extension	Yes	file_storage_persistent_queue	The storage to use for the persistent queue. Applies when the sending queue and persistent queuing are enabled.

Examples

This example exports only metrics to Grafana Cloud. The endpoint, instance ID, and token are set for the target stack, compression is gzip, and retry on failure, the sending queue, and the persistent queue are enabled with their default values.

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Destination
metadata:
  name: grafana-cloud
spec:
  type: grafana_cloud_otlphttp
  parameters:
    - name: telemetry_types
      value:
        - Metrics
    - name: endpoint
      value: https://otlp-gateway-prod-us-central-0.grafana.net/otlp
    - name: instance_id
      value: "123456"
    - name: token
      value: <access-policy-token>
    - name: compression
      value: gzip
    - name: retry_on_failure_enabled
      value: true
    - name: sending_queue_enabled
      value: true
    - name: persistent_queue_enabled
      value: true

Configuration Tips

• The Grafana Cloud OTLP endpoint accepts only none or gzip compression. Keep the default gzip to reduce egress; do not select deflate, snappy, zlib, or zstd for this destination.
• Scope the Access Policy to exactly the signals you export. A token without write permission for a signal causes that signal to be rejected while others continue to flow.
• Leave the persistent queue enabled so buffered telemetry survives collector restarts. The default storage writes to ${OIQ_OTEL_COLLECTOR_HOME}/storage with fsync enabled.

Troubleshooting

Authentication fails after the token expires

Symptoms: exports that previously succeeded begin returning 401/403 errors and data stops arriving in Grafana Cloud.

Solutions:

1. Access Policy tokens can be created with an expiration date. When the token expires the collector can no longer authenticate, and Bindplane must be reconfigured with a new token. Create a new token on the same Access Policy in the Cloud Portal and update the Cloud Access Policy Token parameter on this destination.
2. To avoid recurring outages, track each token's expiration and rotate it ahead of time, or create the token without an expiration where your security policy allows.

Permission denied for one signal type

Symptoms: one signal (for example traces) is rejected while metrics and logs succeed.

Solutions:

1. Confirm the Access Policy has Write scope for the rejected signal. Update the policy scopes in the Cloud Portal, then retry.
2. Confirm Choose Telemetry Type includes only the signals the token is authorized to write.

Endpoint unreachable or wrong region

Symptoms: connection or DNS errors, or data does not appear in the expected stack.

Solutions:

1. Verify the OTLP Endpoint matches the value shown on your stack's OpenTelemetry card. The hostname is region-specific (for example otlp-gateway-prod-us-central-0.grafana.net).
2. Verify the Grafana Cloud Instance ID matches the same card. A mismatched instance ID authenticates against the wrong stack.

Standalone Destination

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Destination
metadata:
  name: grafana-cloud
spec:
  type: grafana_cloud_otlphttp
  parameters:
    - name: telemetry_types
      value:
        - Logs
        - Metrics
        - Traces
    - name: endpoint
      value: https://otlp-gateway-prod-us-central-0.grafana.net/otlp
    - name: instance_id
      value: "123456"
    - name: token
      value: <access-policy-token>

Related Resources

• OTLP/HTTP Exporter (otlphttpexporter)
• Send data to the Grafana Cloud OTLP endpoint
• Create access policies and tokens