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Memcached integration

Memcached integration

Memcached is a distributed, in-memory key-value store used to speed up dynamic database-driven websites by caching data in memory. The Memcached integration monitors cache performance, memory usage, and connection health.

What it monitorsCache hit/miss rate, evictions, memory usage, connections, items stored
How it worksGrafana Alloy’s built-in Memcached exporter scrapes metrics from your instance
What you get4 alerts + 1 dashboard (Memcached Overview)
PrerequisitesGrafana Alloy installed on a host with network access to the Memcached instance

What you’ll see in the dashboard

  • Cache performance — Hit rate, miss rate, and eviction trends
  • Memory utilization — Current bytes stored vs. available memory
  • Connection tracking — Current connections, connection rate, and max connection threshold
  • Item statistics — Items stored, items evicted, and storage throughput
  • Resource usage — CPU time (user and system) and network bytes (read/written)

Key alerts

AlertSeverity
MemcachedDownCritical
MemcachedConnectionLimitApproachingWarning / Critical
MemcachedOutOfMemoryErrorsWarning

Trade-offs

StrengthsConsiderations
Focused on the metrics that matter most for cachingSingle dashboard with essential metrics
Eviction and OOM alerting out of the boxNo slab-level analysis in the default dashboard
Simplest setup of all database integrationsMemcached must be network-accessible from Alloy

Documentation

View the full documentation. Learning path coming soon!

Memcached integration

Script

The Memcached integration monitors cache performance, memory usage, and connection health. It’s the simplest integration in this module, both in terms of what it tracks and how it’s set up.

The dashboard focuses on the metrics that matter most for a caching layer. Cache hit and miss rates, eviction trends, memory utilization, and connection tracking. The built-in alerts cover Memcached being down, approaching the connection limit, and out-of-memory errors.

Setup is straightforward because Memcached exposes its stats protocol directly. Grafana Alloy’s built-in exporter connects and scrapes metrics without any additional components.

If Memcached is what you’re running, the documentation link below takes you to the full setup guide. A guided learning path is coming soon.