Enrol a Standards collector

The Standards paths add an upstream collector to your fleet with no LinkMesh agent on the host and no proprietary code in the data path. LinkMesh manages the collector through its native remote-config protocol. See Native remote config for the model.

Tip

Want LinkMesh to install and manage the runtime for you (one command, full lifecycle control)? Use the managed agent instead — see Add a collector.

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

otelcol-contrib + OpAMP Install 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 Standards 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.