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Grafana Cloud Enterprise Open source
Last reviewed: April 29, 2026

Alertmanager data source

Grafana includes built-in support for Alertmanager implementations in Prometheus and Grafana Mimir. After you add an Alertmanager data source, you can use the Choose Alertmanager drop-down in Grafana Alerting to view and manage Alertmanager resources such as silences, contact points, and notification policies. You can also enable the Alertmanager to receive Grafana-managed alerts.

Alertmanager implementations

The data source supports the following Alertmanager implementations. You can specify the implementation on the data source’s Settings page.

ImplementationSilencesContact pointsNotification policiesTemplates
Mimir (default)Read/writeRead/writeRead/writeRead/write
CortexRead/writeRead/writeRead/writeRead/write
PrometheusRead/writeRead-onlyRead-onlyRead-only

When using the Prometheus implementation, you can manage silences in the Grafana Alerting UI. Contact points, notification policies, and templates are read-only because the Prometheus Alertmanager API does not support write operations for these resources.

Configure the data source

To add and configure the Alertmanager data source, complete the following steps:

  1. Click Connections in the left-side menu.

  2. Under Your connections, click Data sources.

  3. Enter Alertmanager in the search bar.

  4. Click Alertmanager.

    The Settings tab of the data source is displayed.

  5. Set the data source’s basic configuration options:

    NameDescription
    NameSets the name you use to refer to the data source
    DefaultSets whether the data source is pre-selected for new panels and queries
    Alertmanager ImplementationAlertmanager implementation. Mimir, Cortex, and Prometheus are supported
    Receive Grafana AlertsWhen enabled, the Alertmanager can receive Grafana-managed alerts. Important: This works only if receiving alerts is enabled for the Alertmanager in the Grafana Alerting Settings page
    HTTP URLSets the HTTP protocol, IP, and port of your Alertmanager instance, such as https://alertmanager.example.org:9093
    AccessOnly Server access mode is functional

Authentication

The data source supports all standard Grafana HTTP authentication methods, including basic auth and TLS. When SigV4 authentication is enabled globally in Grafana, it’s also available for this data source.

For more information about authentication options and connection settings, refer to Data source management.

Verify the connection

Click Save & test to verify the connection. A successful connection returns Health check passed.

Note

If you’re using the Mimir implementation and Mimir Alertmanager hasn’t been configured yet, the health check may still pass. This is expected behavior when Mimir is running in lazy configuration mode.

Provision the data source

You can provision Alertmanager data sources using configuration files or Terraform.

The jsonData fields used across both methods are:

FieldDescription
implementationThe Alertmanager implementation. Supported values: mimir, cortex, prometheus. Defaults to mimir.
handleGrafanaManagedAlertsWhen true, this Alertmanager receives Grafana-managed alerts. You must also enable alert forwarding in Alerting > Administration in the Grafana UI.

Configuration file

For more information, refer to Provisioning data sources.

YAML 
apiVersion: 1

datasources:
  - name: Alertmanager
    type: alertmanager
    url: http://localhost:9093
    access: proxy
    jsonData:
      implementation: prometheus
      handleGrafanaManagedAlerts: false
    basicAuth: true
    basicAuthUser: <USERNAME>
    secureJsonData:
      basicAuthPassword: <PASSWORD>

Terraform

To provision the data source with Terraform, use the grafana_data_source resource:

hcl 
resource "grafana_data_source" "alertmanager" {
  name = "Alertmanager"
  type = "alertmanager"
  url  = "http://localhost:9093"

  json_data_encoded = jsonencode({
    implementation            = "prometheus"
    handleGrafanaManagedAlerts = false
  })
}

For all available configuration options, refer to the Grafana provider data source resource documentation.

Troubleshoot Alertmanager data source issues

This section covers common issues when configuring or using the Alertmanager data source.

“Health check failed.”

Symptoms:

  • Save & test returns Health check failed.
  • The Alertmanager URL may be unreachable or returning an unexpected response.

Possible causes and solutions:

CauseSolution
Incorrect URLVerify the URL points to your Alertmanager instance and includes the correct protocol, host, and port (for example, http://localhost:9093).
Network or firewall issueVerify that the Grafana server can reach the Alertmanager endpoint. Check firewall rules and DNS resolution.
Wrong implementation selectedIf you changed the implementation type, re-test the connection. See the implementation mismatch errors below.
Incorrect credentialsIf basic auth is enabled, verify the username and password are correct.

“It looks like you have chosen Prometheus implementation, but detected a Mimir or Cortex endpoint.”

Symptoms:

  • Save & test fails with this message when Alertmanager Implementation is set to Prometheus.

Solution:

The URL you entered is a Mimir or Cortex Alertmanager endpoint, not a Prometheus one. Change Alertmanager Implementation to Mimir or Cortex and click Save & test again.

“It looks like you have chosen a Mimir or Cortex implementation, but detected a Prometheus endpoint.”

Symptoms:

  • Save & test fails with this message when Alertmanager Implementation is set to Mimir or Cortex.

Solution:

The URL you entered is a Prometheus Alertmanager endpoint. Change Alertmanager Implementation to Prometheus and click Save & test again.

Grafana-managed alerts are not being received

Symptoms:

  • Grafana-managed alert instances don’t appear in this Alertmanager.
  • The Receive Grafana Alerts toggle is enabled in the data source settings, but no alerts arrive.

Solution:

Enabling Receive Grafana Alerts on the data source alone isn’t enough. You must also enable alert forwarding in Alerting > Administration in the Grafana UI. Both settings must be on for Grafana-managed alerts to be forwarded to this Alertmanager.

Contact points and notification policies are read-only

Symptoms:

  • You can view but not edit contact points, notification policies, or templates in the Grafana Alerting UI.

Cause:

You’re using the Prometheus implementation. The Prometheus Alertmanager API doesn’t support write operations for these resources.

Solution:

If you need full read/write access to contact points and notification policies, switch to a Mimir or Cortex Alertmanager and update the Alertmanager Implementation setting.