---
title: "Check the operation of your configuration pipelines | Grafana Cloud documentation"
description: "Check the operation of your configuration pipelines in Grafana Fleet Management."
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

# Check the operation of your configuration pipelines

Configuration pipelines are a cornerstone feature of Grafana Fleet Management. They not only allow you to remotely configure your collectors but also afford you greater control over how and when a collector is configured. In this section, learn to check how a pipeline is functioning.

## Validate the configuration

Fleet Management runs two validation checks on Grafana Alloy configuration pipelines: one on the configuration syntax and another to see if the pipeline can be loaded by several of the most recent versions of Alloy.

1. In your Grafana Cloud instance, click **Connections** > **Fleet Management**.
2. On the **Remote configuration** tab, click **Add configuration pipeline**.
3. Name your pipeline and type, paste, or build your Alloy configuration. If Fleet Management detects a problem in the pipeline, the editor reports warnings or failures in real time. Configuration error messages include the Alloy version where the issue was found. Compare that version to the Alloy version of your matched collectors to decide whether the warning is something you need to fix now or a notice for a future upgrade.
4. After you clear all failures, the validation check passes and the **Save** button is enabled. Warnings are non-blocking.

> Note
> 
> You can use [Grafana Assistant](/docs/grafana-cloud/machine-learning/assistant/) to validate and optimize your configuration pipelines. Click the **Assistant** button to explain, validate, optimize, or visualize the pipeline. If you don’t see the Assistant button, it hasn’t been enabled on your stack. Contact your administrator for more details.

## Inspect configuration pipeline metadata

You can quickly view the metadata of a configuration pipeline without entering edit mode.

1. In your Grafana Cloud instance, click **Connections** > **Fleet Management**.
2. On the **Remote configuration** tab, click the name of a configuration pipeline in the list. A details drawer opens on the **Overview** tab and displays:
   
   - Status: Whether the pipeline is active or inactive.
   - Configuration type: The configuration language, such as Alloy or OpenTelemetry.
   - Matching attributes: The [matchers](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/fleet-management/introduction/glossary/#attribute-matching) assigned to the pipeline.
   - Source: The origin of the pipeline, if it was synced from an external source such as GitHub or Terraform or autogenerated by a Grafana Cloud application.
   - Created: The timestamp of when the pipeline was created.
   - Last modified: The timestamp of the most recent change to the pipeline.
   
   For Alloy pipelines, a static visualization of the pipeline appears below the metadata. Refer to [Visualize an Alloy pipeline](#visualize-an-alloy-pipeline) for details.

## Visualize an Alloy pipeline

Fleet Management renders a static visualization of each Alloy configuration pipeline, showing the components and the connections between them.

1. In your Grafana Cloud instance, click **Connections** > **Fleet Management**.
2. On the **Remote configuration** tab, click the name of an Alloy configuration pipeline in the list. A details drawer opens on the **Overview** tab showing the component graph.
3. Hover over a component to see its stage, signal types, a short description, and a link to the component documentation.
4. Switch to the **Configuration** tab.
5. From this view of the graph, click a component to jump the pipeline editor to that component’s block.

The Alloy component graph categorizes components by **stage** and color-codes the connections between them by **signal**:

- Stages indicate the role each component plays in the pipeline: **Collect**, **Transform & Process**, **Send**, or **Other**.
- Signals indicate the telemetry type flowing between components: **Metrics**, **Logs**, **Traces**, **Profiles**, or **Other**.

Stages and signals are inferred from the component type. For example `prometheus.scrape.*` is classified as Collect/Metrics and `loki.write.*` is classified as Send/Logs. Components that don’t map to a known type appear as **Other**.

> Note
> 
> The graph reflects the pipeline’s configured topology as written in the Alloy configuration. It does not represent live data flow or throughput between components. To investigate runtime behavior, refer to [Monitor configuration load performance by collector](#monitor-configuration-load-performance-by-collector) and [Check component performance](#check-component-performance).

## See the configuration contents of a pipeline

You can read a pipeline’s configuration contents without entering edit mode.

1. In your Grafana Cloud instance, click **Connections** > **Collector** > **Fleet Management**.
2. On the **Remote configuration** tab, click the name of a configuration pipeline in the list.
3. In the details drawer, switch to the **Configuration** tab. The tab displays the pipeline contents in a read-only, syntax-highlighted editor. If the pipeline has no configuration content, the tab displays `No configuration content`. For Alloy pipelines, a [static visualization](#visualize-an-alloy-pipeline) of the components appears above the editor, and clicking a component scrolls the editor to that component’s block.
4. To make changes to the pipeline, click the Edit icon in the drawer header.

> Note
> 
> Pipelines synced from GitHub or Terraform, and pipelines created by the [Instrumentation Hub](/docs/grafana-cloud/get-started/inst-hub-setup/) setup workflow are read-only in Fleet Management.

## See the collectors matched to a configuration pipeline

You can see which collectors are currently matched to a configuration pipeline.

1. In your Grafana Cloud instance, click **Connections** > **Fleet Management**.
2. On the **Remote configuration** tab, click the name of a configuration pipeline in the list.
3. In the details drawer, switch to the **Matched collectors** tab. The tab displays a table of collectors that match the pipeline’s attributes.
4. Browse the list or use the search field to filter collectors by ID.
5. To view the details of a matched collector, click on a collector ID. You are taken to the collector’s details view on the **Inventory** tab.

> Note
> 
> If the pipeline has no matching attributes, the **Matched collectors** tab displays a message prompting you to edit the pipeline and assign matching attributes.

## See the remote configuration running on a collector

You can combine configuration pipelines in any way that suits your observability needs, which means collectors might receive multiple configuration pipelines. In the Fleet Management interface, you can see the entire remote configuration—including all configuration pipelines—assigned to a collector.

1. In your Grafana Cloud instance, click **Connections** > **Fleet Management**.
2. On the **Inventory** tab, search, filter, or sort to find the collector.
3. Click on the collector ID to open the details view.
4. Click on the **Configuration** tab. For Alloy v1.12.0 or later, this tab displays the read-only [effective configuration](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/fleet-management/introduction/glossary/#effective-configuration) assigned to and running on the collector. If you’ve recently made changes to one of the configuration pipelines matched to the collector, you see both the effective configuration and the [server configuration](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/fleet-management/introduction/glossary/#server-configuration) until the collector polls for and successfully loads the updated configuration. A status banner at the top of the tab indicates whether the server configuration has been successfully applied, is pending rollout, appears stalled, or can’t be applied due to errors.
   
   If you are running a version of Alloy older than 1.12.0, the **Configuration** tab displays the server configuration only.
5. To see the configuration pipelines that make up the remote configuration, expand the **Connected pipelines** panel.

> Note
> 
> If you see an error banner at the top of the **Configuration** tab, configuration errors are present. Refer to [Troubleshoot remote configuration errors](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/fleet-management/manage-fleet/collectors/troubleshoot-unhealthy-collector/remote-configuration-errors/) for help troubleshooting the problem.

## Monitor configuration load performance by collector

You can monitor the load performance of a remote configuration by viewing the corresponding dashboard in a matching collector’s details view **Health** tab.

1. On the Inventory tab, click on a collector ID to open the details view.
2. On the Health tab, choose **Remote Configuration** from the **Alloy health dashboards** dropdown menu. The panels tell you the configuration’s last load status and load status over time, and they report logs with remote configuration errors.

## Check component performance

You can use Alloy internal telemetry to check the health status of running components. To see this telemetry, click on the collector in the **Inventory** tab to open its details view.

Fleet Management does not confirm data flows between components for application telemetry. The details view might provide some debugging information, for example, if a log is emitted when a component is unavailable. For a more comprehensive check of the performance of these components, refer to [Debug Grafana Alloy](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/alloy/troubleshoot/debug/).