The 24Observe Sensor is the fastest way to get a Linux server reporting. It wraps Grafana Alloy — installed from Grafana's signed apt repo, never an unsigned binary piped onto your box — and ships journald logs and host metrics to 24Observe over OTLP out of the box.
Open the dashboard and go to Settings → Linux Hosts → “Generate install command.” That mints a scoped enrollment token (owner/admin only) and gives you the exact one-liner with the token already filled in. The enrollment token can only enroll hosts — it cannot read your data — and one token can onboard your whole fleet.
The command looks like this:
curl -sSL https://api.24observe.com/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- --enroll-token=<TOKEN>
Run it on the host as root. The Sensor installs Alloy, exchanges the enrollment token for a
per-host token that can only ship logs + metrics, writes its
config, and starts a systemd service. Re-running it on the same host rotates
the host token automatically.
Layer extra log sources on top of the base journald + metrics pipeline with repeatable
--profile flags (the dashboard checkboxes add these for you):
curl -sSL https://api.24observe.com/install.sh \ | sudo bash -s -- --enroll-token=<TOKEN> --profile=docker --profile=nginx
--profile=docker — Docker container stdout/stderr logs.--profile=nginx — nginx access + error logs.systemctl status alloy # is the Sensor running? journalctl -u alloy -f # follow what it's shipping
Within a minute the host appears under Settings → Linux Hosts → Enrolled hosts, and its logs show up in Explore / Logs. Edge redaction is on by default, so secrets are stripped before anything leaves the box.
curl -sSL https://api.24observe.com/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- --uninstall
Use the Sensor when you want a server reporting in one command — it's opinionated (Alloy, journald, host metrics) and self-enrolling. Use the OpenTelemetry Collector when you already run OTel, need OTLP/gRPC in, or have legacy sources (syslog, Fluent Bit). Both land in the same place; pick by how much you want to configure.
Supported today: Ubuntu/Debian + systemd. RHEL and other init systems are on the roadmap.