Grafana Cloud
Last reviewed: October 22, 2026

Private probes

A private probe is a Synthetic Monitoring probe that you install in your environment or another location you choose. It runs checks against the applications and services you monitor by sending requests and recording the responses.

Unlike public probes operated by Grafana Labs, private probes are only accessible to you and only write data to your Grafana Cloud account. Private probes are instances of the open source Grafana Synthetic Monitoring Agent.

This section includes the following topics:

  • Set up a private probe
    Register a Synthetic Monitoring private probe, install the agent using APT, YUM, Docker, or Kubernetes, and assign checks to run from your environment.
  • Network and resource requirements
    Review Synthetic Monitoring private probe firewall access for service connections, script imports, and monitored targets, and estimate CPU and memory requirements.
  • Configure
    Configure Synthetic Monitoring private probe feature flags, access to private IP addresses, browser check requirements, and anonymous usage statistics reporting.
  • Monitor private probes
    Collect Prometheus-style metrics from the Synthetic Monitoring Agent to monitor private probes with Prometheus or Grafana Alloy.
  • Troubleshoot
    Troubleshoot Synthetic Monitoring private probes by checking agent versions, authentication, API connectivity, logs, and metrics, and find community or account support.