Observe and act

Monitor infrastructure

Grafana integrations

Integrations reference

Squid

Grafana Cloud

Squid integration for Grafana Cloud

Squid is a popular open-source proxy server that improves web performance and provides content caching for web clients. The Squid integration uses Grafana Alloy to collect metrics for monitoring a Squid instance, including aspects such as cache hits & miss service time, cache hit ratios, client and server requests, server object swaps, and DNS lookup service time. Alloy can also collect Squid logs. The integration provides accompanying dashboards to visualize these metrics and logs.

This integration supports Squid 5 or later.

This integration includes 5 useful alerts and 2 pre-built dashboards to help monitor and visualize Squid metrics and logs.

Before you begin

This integration monitors a Squid proxy server instance.

To scrape these metrics, you must have a running and reachable Squid instance.

Install Squid integration for Grafana Cloud

In your Grafana Cloud stack, click Connections in the left-hand menu.
Find Squid and click its tile to open the integration.
Review the prerequisites in the Configuration Details tab and set up Grafana Alloy to send Squid metrics and logs to your Grafana Cloud instance.
Click Install to add this integration’s pre-built dashboards and alerts to your Grafana Cloud instance, and you can start monitoring your Squid setup.

Configuration snippets for Grafana Alloy

Simple mode

These snippets are configured to scrape a single Squid instance running locally with default ports.

First, manually copy and append the following snippets into your Alloy configuration file.

Logs snippets

darwin

local.file_match "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/cache.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}, {
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/access.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}]
}

loki.source.file "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_integrations_integrations_squid.targets
	forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_loki.receiver]
}

linux

local.file_match "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/cache.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}, {
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/access.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}]
}

loki.source.file "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_integrations_integrations_squid.targets
	forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_loki.receiver]
}

windows

local.file_match "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/cache.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}, {
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/access.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}]
}

loki.source.file "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_integrations_integrations_squid.targets
	forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_loki.receiver]
}

Advanced mode

The following snippets provide examples to guide you through the configuration process.

To instruct Alloy to scrape your Squid instances, manually copy and append the snippets to your Alloy configuration file, then follow subsequent instructions.

Advanced integrations snippets

prometheus.exporter.squid "integrations_squid" {
	address = "<squid_hostname>:<squid_port>"
}

discovery.relabel "integrations_squid" {
	targets = prometheus.exporter.squid.integrations_squid.targets

	rule {
		target_label = "instance"
		replacement  = constants.hostname
	}
}

prometheus.scrape "integrations_squid" {
	targets    = discovery.relabel.integrations_squid.output
	forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.metrics_service.receiver]
	job_name   = "integrations/squid"
}

This integration uses the prometheus.exporter.squid component to generate metrics from a Squid instance.

For the full array of configuration options, refer to the prometheus.exporter.squid component reference documentation.

You must link this exporter with a discovery.relabel component to apply the necessary relabeling rules.

For each Squid instance you want to monitor, you must create a pair of these components.

Configure the following properties within each discovery.relabel component:

instance label: constants.hostname sets the instance label to your Alloy server hostname. If that is not suitable, change it to a value that uniquely identifies this Squid instance. Make sure this label value is the same for all telemetry data collected for this instance.

You can then scrape them by including each discovery.relabel under targets within the prometheus.scrape component.

Advanced logs snippets

darwin

local.file_match "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/cache.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}, {
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/access.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}]
}

loki.source.file "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_integrations_integrations_squid.targets
	forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_loki.receiver]
}

To monitor your Squid instance logs, you use a combination of the following components:

local.file_match defines where to find the log file to scrape. Change the following properties according to your environment:
- __address__: The Squid instance address
- __path__: The path to the log file.
- instance label: constants.hostname sets the instance label to your Alloy server hostname. If that is not suitable, change it to a value that uniquely identifies this Squid instance. Make sure this label value is the same for all telemetry data collected for this instance.
loki.source.file sends logs to Grafana Loki.

linux

local.file_match "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/cache.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}, {
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/access.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}]
}

loki.source.file "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_integrations_integrations_squid.targets
	forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_loki.receiver]
}

To monitor your Squid instance logs, you use a combination of the following components:

local.file_match defines where to find the log file to scrape. Change the following properties according to your environment:
- __address__: The Squid instance address
- __path__: The path to the log file.
- instance label: constants.hostname sets the instance label to your Alloy server hostname. If that is not suitable, change it to a value that uniquely identifies this Squid instance. Make sure this label value is the same for all telemetry data collected for this instance.
loki.source.file sends logs to Grafana Loki.

windows

local.file_match "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/cache.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}, {
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/access.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}]
}

loki.source.file "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_integrations_integrations_squid.targets
	forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_loki.receiver]
}

To monitor your Squid instance logs, you use a combination of the following components:

local.file_match defines where to find the log file to scrape. Change the following properties according to your environment:
- __address__: The Squid instance address
- __path__: The path to the log file.
- instance label: constants.hostname sets the instance label to your Alloy server hostname. If that is not suitable, change it to a value that uniquely identifies this Squid instance. Make sure this label value is the same for all telemetry data collected for this instance.
loki.source.file sends logs to Grafana Loki.

Kubernetes instructions

Before you begin with Kubernetes

Note: These instructions assume the use of the Kubernetes Monitoring Helm chart.

Metrics

To monitor your Squid instance metrics in Kubernetes, you need the following information to correctly configure the scrape snippets:

squid-service: the name of the Squid service
squid-namespace: the namespace where the Squid pod(s) live
squid-port: the configured port of your Squid deployment

Logs

To monitor your Squid instance logs in Kubernetes, you use a combination of the following components:

Note: There are two loki.process components: one for the cache logs and another for the access logs.

discovery.relabel is used to filter logs from the various components. Change the following properties according to your environment:
- squid-namespace: The namespace where the Squid pod(s) live.
- squid-pod-name: Regex to match the name of the Squid pod(s).
- squid-cluster-name: The name of your Squid cluster.
- instance label: This value needs to match the address value provided to the metrics exporter component.

Update the provided logs snippet for the Kubernetes Monitoring Helm chart with the variables above configured as appropriate.

Configuration snippets for Kubernetes Helm chart

The following snippets provide examples to guide you through the configuration process.

To scrape your Squid instances, manually modify your Kubernetes Monitoring Helm chart with these configuration snippets.

Replace any values between the angle brackets <> in the provided snippets with your desired configuration values.

Metrics snippets

alloy-metrics:
    extraConfig: |-
        prometheus.exporter.squid "squid_exporter" {
            address = "<squid-service>.<squid-namespace>.svc.cluster.local:<squid-port>"
        }
        
        prometheus.scrape "integrations_squid_default" {
            targets      = prometheus.exporter.squid.squid_exporter.targets
            job_name     = "integrations/squid"
            forward_to   = [prometheus.remote_write.grafana_cloud_metrics.receiver]
        }

Logs snippets

alloy-logs:
    extraConfig: |-
        loki.process "squid_cache_logs_process" {
            forward_to = [loki.relabel.squid_cache_logs_label.receiver]
        
            stage.drop {
                expression = `^\d+\.\d+`
            }
            stage.multiline {
                firstline = `^\d{4}/\d{2}/\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}`
            }
            stage.regex {
                expression = `^\d{4}/\d{2}/\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}`
            }
        }
        
        loki.process "squid_access_logs_process" {
            forward_to = [loki.relabel.squid_access_logs_label.receiver]
        
            stage.drop {
                expression = `^\s+listening port: \d+`
            }
            stage.drop {
                expression = `^\d{4}/\d{2}/\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}`
            }
            stage.regex {
                expression = `^\d+\.\d+`
            }
        }
        
        loki.relabel "squid_cache_logs_label" {
            forward_to = [loki.write.logs_service.receiver]
            rule {
                replacement = "cache"
                target_label = "log_type"
            }
        }
        
        loki.relabel "squid_access_logs_label" {
            forward_to = [loki.write.logs_service.receiver]
            rule {
                replacement = "access"
                target_label = "log_type"
            }
        }
        
        discovery.relabel "squid_logs" {
            targets = discovery.relabel.pod_logs.output
        
            rule {
                replacement  = "<your-squid-cluster>"
                target_label = "squid_cluster"
            }
        
            rule {
                replacement   = "integrations/squid" 
                target_label  = "job"
            }
        
            rule {
                replacement   = "<squid-exporter-address-value>"
                target_label  = "instance"
            }
        }
        
        loki.source.kubernetes "squid_logs" {
            targets      = discovery.relabel.squid_logs.output
            forward_to   = [loki.process.squid_access_logs_process.receiver,loki.process.squid_cache_logs_process.receiver]
        }

Dashboards

The Squid integration installs the following dashboards in your Grafana Cloud instance to help monitor your system.

Squid logs
Squid overview

Squid overview dashboard (client)

Squid overview dashboard (server)

Squid logs dashboard

Alerts

The Squid integration includes the following useful alerts:

Alert	Description
SquidHighHTTPServerRequestErrors	Critical: There are a high number of HTTP server errors.
SquidHighFTPServerRequestErrors	Critical: There are a high number of FTP server request errors.
SquidHighOtherServerRequestErrors	Critical: There are a high number of other server request errors.
SquidHighClientRequestErrors	Critical: There are a high number of HTTP client request errors.
SquidLowCacheHitRatio	Warning: The cache hit ratio has fallen below the configured threshold (%).

Metrics

The most important metrics provided by the Squid integration, which are used on the pre-built dashboards and Prometheus alerts, are as follows:

squid_Cache_Hits_50
squid_Cache_Hits_75
squid_Cache_Hits_95
squid_Cache_Misses_50
squid_Cache_Misses_75
squid_Cache_Misses_95
squid_DNS_Lookups_50
squid_DNS_Lookups_75
squid_DNS_Lookups_95
squid_HTTP_Requests_All_50
squid_HTTP_Requests_All_75
squid_HTTP_Requests_All_95
squid_client_http_errors_total
squid_client_http_hit_kbytes_out_bytes_total
squid_client_http_hits_total
squid_client_http_kbytes_in_kbytes_total
squid_client_http_kbytes_out_kbytes_total
squid_client_http_requests_total
squid_server_ftp_errors_total
squid_server_ftp_kbytes_in_kbytes_total
squid_server_ftp_kbytes_out_kbytes_total
squid_server_ftp_requests_total
squid_server_http_errors_total
squid_server_http_kbytes_in_kbytes_total
squid_server_http_kbytes_out_kbytes_total
squid_server_http_requests_total
squid_server_other_errors_total
squid_server_other_kbytes_in_kbytes_total
squid_server_other_kbytes_out_kbytes_total
squid_server_other_requests_total
squid_swap_ins_total
squid_swap_outs_total
up

Changelog

# 1.1.2 - October 2026

* Fixed the Kubernetes logs snippet so it parses: removed the escaped backticks and doubled backslashes from the raw-string regular expressions
* Removed the outdated Promtail mention from the overview
* Updated the `discovery.relabel` link in the Kubernetes instructions to the Alloy documentation

# 1.1.1 - June 2026

* Fixed issue with default filtering selectors

# 1.1.0 - April 2026

* Updated dashboards to follow new stylistic standards
* Added a Squid logs dashboard dedicated to viewing log data

# 1.0.0 - July 2024

* Support for the Kubernetes plugin

# 0.0.3 - September 2023

* New Filter Metrics option for configuring the Grafana Agent, which saves on metrics cost by dropping any metric not used by this integration. Beware that anything custom built using metrics that are not on the snippet will stop working.
* New hostname relabel option, which applies the instance name you write on the text box to the Grafana Agent configuration snippets, making it easier and less error prone to configure this mandatory label.

# 0.0.2 - August 2023

* Add regex filter for logs datasource

# 0.0.1 - July 2023

* Initial Release

Cost

By connecting your Squid instance to Grafana Cloud, you might incur charges. To view information on the number of active series that your Grafana Cloud account uses for metrics included in each Cloud tier, see Active series and dpm usage and Cloud tier pricing.

Was this page helpful?

Email docs@grafana.com

Help and support

Community

Squid integration for Grafana Cloud

Before you begin

Install Squid integration for Grafana Cloud

Configuration snippets for Grafana Alloy

Simple mode

Logs snippets

darwin

linux

windows

Advanced mode

Advanced integrations snippets

Advanced logs snippets

darwin

linux

windows

Kubernetes instructions

Before you begin with Kubernetes

Metrics

Logs

Configuration snippets for Kubernetes Helm chart

Metrics snippets

Logs snippets

Dashboards

Alerts

Metrics

Changelog

Cost

Was this page helpful?

Still have questions?

Get every update

Squid integration for Grafana Cloud

Before you begin

Install Squid integration for Grafana Cloud

Configuration snippets for Grafana Alloy

Simple mode

Logs snippets

darwin

linux

windows

Advanced mode

Advanced integrations snippets

Advanced logs snippets

darwin

linux

windows

Kubernetes instructions

Before you begin with Kubernetes

Metrics

Logs

Configuration snippets for Kubernetes Helm chart

Metrics snippets

Logs snippets

Dashboards

Alerts

Metrics

Changelog

Cost

Was this page helpful?

Related resources from Grafana Labs