Enrol an upstream collector (choose a runtime)

A collector runs one of two upstream runtimes — both are stock binaries with no proprietary code in the data path. LinkMesh delivers its config through the runtime’s own native channel: Grafana Alloy pulls via remotecfg, or otelcol-contrib receives pushes via OpAMP. See Native remote config for the model.

Pick a runtime

	Grafana Alloy	otelcol-contrib
Remote-config protocol	remotecfg (HTTP poll, Connect-RPC)	OpAMP (WebSocket)
Config language	Alloy syntax (River)	YAML
Auth	per-collector bearer token (minted in UI)	enrollment token on the OpAMP upgrade
LinkMesh capability	Full (pipelines, processors, destinations)	Full
Best for	Teams standardised on the Grafana stack	OpenTelemetry-native shops

Both runtimes get the same per-component throughput on the topology canvas and the same fleet-management surface. Pick whichever fits your existing tooling, then follow its step-by-step guide:

Grafana Alloy + remotecfgInstall upstream Alloy, add a remotecfg block, paste a minted token.

otelcol-contrib + OpAMPInstall upstream otelcol-contrib, add an OpAMP extension with an enrollment token.

What happens after enrollment

The collector immediately starts pulling its real pipeline config (Alloy via remotecfg, otelcol-contrib via OpAMP RemoteConfig). When you wire a source or destination to it in the LinkMesh UI:

• LinkMesh renders the pipeline as Alloy syntax or OTel YAML.
• The collector pulls (or is pushed) the updated config within ~60s and reloads without downtime.
• Per-component throughput appears on the topology canvas once data flows — the collector pushes its own internal metrics to LinkMesh over OTLP (its own self-telemetry, not LinkMesh scraping anything).

No throughput yet?

Per-edge throughput depends on the collector’s own_metrics push reaching LinkMesh. See Self-telemetry troubleshooting if the collector is online but the canvas stays empty.

Removing a collector

On the host, stop and disable the collector, then remove its config:

sudo systemctl disable --now alloy        # or: otelcol-contrib
sudo rm -f /etc/alloy/config.alloy        # or: /etc/otelcol-contrib/config.yaml

In the LinkMesh UI, deregister the collector from Collectors → … → Deregister. This revokes its token immediately — if the host comes back it will fail to authenticate, and you’ll re-onboard it with a fresh token.

Related

• Collector — what a collector is in the object model, and what enrolling one actually registers
• Enrollment tokens — how the credential a collector authenticates with is issued and revoked
• Manage collector groups — share one configuration across many enrolled collectors
• Enrollment troubleshooting — when a collector doesn’t appear in the fleet