Verify Kafka metrics collection

With Grafana Alloy configured and your Kafka dashboards installed, you should now confirm that metrics are successfully flowing to Grafana Cloud. Using the Explore view, you can query for Kafka-specific metric names to verify the integration is working correctly.

Common Kafka metrics to check include message rates, byte rates, and request metrics. These metrics provide immediate confirmation that Alloy is successfully connecting to your Kafka brokers via JMX and forwarding the data to your Grafana Cloud stack.

1. Navigate to Explore from the main menu.

2. In the data source dropdown, select your Prometheus data source (typically named grafanacloud-[your-stack]-prom).

3. In the metrics browser, type kafka_ to search for Kafka metrics, then select a metric such as kafka_server_brokertopicmetrics_messagesin_total.

4. Click the Run query button to execute the query.

5. Verify that data points appear in the graph and table views. Check the labels to confirm they include your broker information (instance, job, topic).

6. Try querying additional Kafka metrics to ensure comprehensive data collection.

Kafka metrics appear with recent timestamps and update as new data arrives from your brokers, typically within 1-2 minutes of the first scrape.

In the next milestone, you learn about the pre-built dashboards included with the Kafka integration.

More to explore (optional)

At this point in your journey, you can explore the following paths:

• Query and visualize data in Explore
• Prometheus query basics

Troubleshooting

Explore the following troubleshooting topics if you need help:

• No Kafka metrics appear in Grafana Cloud
• Check Alloy service status and logs
• Verify JMX connectivity from Alloy to Kafka brokers