---
title: "Prerequisites for deploying an integration | Grafana Labs"
description: "What you need to complete the hands-on sections"
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

# Prerequisites for deploying an integration

If you’d like to follow along with the path exercises and deploy integrations on real systems, you’ll need:

- A Grafana Cloud account ([sign up free](/signup/cloud/connect-account))
- A system to monitor (Linux, Windows, database, etc.)
- Permissions to install Grafana Alloy on your target system

**Just exploring?** You can read the journey without installing anything.

## Recommended prior knowledge

These skills aren’t required, but they make the journey smoother:

| Topic                        | Why it helps                    |
|------------------------------|---------------------------------|
| Basic Grafana navigation     | You’ll use prebuilt dashboards  |
| Terminal/command line basics | Collector installation uses CLI |