Migrate from Self-Hosted SigNoz to SigNoz Cloud

Overview

This guide walks you through migrating from a self-hosted SigNoz instance to SigNoz Cloud. The migration involves:

1. Telemetry pipeline: Redirecting your applications and collectors to send data to SigNoz Cloud
2. Dashboards and configuration: Migrating dashboards, alerts, pipelines, saved views, and user settings via SigNoz support

Prerequisites

Before starting the migration:

• SigNoz Cloud account: Sign up for SigNoz Cloud if you haven't already
• Ingestion key: Obtain your ingestion key from SigNoz Cloud settings
• Region: Note your SigNoz Cloud region
• Self-hosted access: Admin access to your self-hosted SigNoz instance and its SQLite database

Migration Approach

The recommended approach is to run both systems in parallel during migration:

1. Configure your telemetry pipeline to send data to SigNoz Cloud
2. Validate data is flowing correctly
3. Migrate dashboards and configurations
4. Continue running self-hosted until you're confident in the cloud setup
5. Decommission self-hosted when ready

This approach ensures zero data loss during the transition.

Step 1: Update Your Telemetry Pipeline

Choose the tab that matches your current setup:

exporters:
  otlp/signoz-cloud:
    endpoint: "https://ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443"
    headers:
      signoz-ingestion-key: "SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY"
    tls:
      insecure: false

service:
  pipelines:
    traces:
      exporters: [otlp/signoz-cloud]
    metrics:
      exporters: [otlp/signoz-cloud]
    logs:
      exporters: [otlp/signoz-cloud]

export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="https://ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443"
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS="signoz-ingestion-key=<your-ingestion-key>"

global:
  cloud: others
  clusterName: <CLUSTER_NAME>
  deploymentEnvironment: <DEPLOYMENT_ENVIRONMENT>
otelCollectorEndpoint: ingest.{region}.signoz.cloud:443
otelInsecure: false
signozApiKey: <your-ingestion-key>
presets:
  otlpExporter:
    enabled: true
  loggingExporter:
    enabled: false

exporters:
  otlp:
    endpoint: "https://ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443"
    headers:
      signoz-ingestion-key: "SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY"
    tls:
      insecure: false

Step 2: Validate Data Flow

Before migrating dashboards, confirm that telemetry data is reaching SigNoz Cloud:

1. Open SigNoz Cloud
2. Check each signal type:
   • Traces: Go to Traces Explorer and filter by your service names
   • Metrics: Go to Metrics Explorer and search for your application metrics
   • Logs: Go to Logs Explorer and verify log ingestion

If data is not appearing, see the Troubleshooting section.

Step 3: Migrate Dashboards and Configuration

SigNoz support handles the migration of metadata from your self-hosted instance, including:

• Dashboards
• Alerts
• Log pipelines
• Saved views
• User accounts and settings

How to Request Migration

1. Locate your SQLite database file

2. Export and compress the file

   # For Docker
   cp ./signoz/deploy/docker/clickhouse-setup/data/signoz/signoz.db ./signoz-backup.db
   gzip signoz-backup.db
   

3. Submit to SigNoz support
   Send the compressed file to SigNoz support with your SigNoz Cloud organization details. The team will import your dashboards, alerts, and configurations.

4. Receive confirmation
   Once the migration is complete, you'll receive confirmation and can verify your configurations in SigNoz Cloud.

Step 4: Verify Complete Migration

After receiving confirmation from support:

1. Review dashboards: Open each migrated dashboard and verify panels display data correctly
2. Test alerts: Check that alert rules are configured and evaluate against incoming data
3. Verify pipelines: If you use log pipelines, confirm they're processing logs as expected
4. Check saved views: Verify your saved views in Traces, Logs, and Metrics explorers

Step 5: Decommission Self-Hosted (Optional)

Once you're confident the migration is complete:

1. Set a cutover date: Communicate to your team when self-hosted access will end
2. Update documentation: Update internal runbooks to reference SigNoz Cloud
3. Shut down self-hosted: Stop the SigNoz services and reclaim infrastructure resources

Estimate Your SigNoz Cloud Costs

To estimate your SigNoz Cloud bill based on current self-hosted usage, collect usage data from your existing instance.

Reset Usage Tables

Connect to your self-hosted ClickHouse instance and truncate the usage tables to start fresh measurement:

TRUNCATE TABLE signoz_traces.usage ON CLUSTER cluster;
TRUNCATE TABLE signoz_metrics.usage ON CLUSTER cluster;
TRUNCATE TABLE signoz_logs.usage ON CLUSTER cluster;

Collect Usage Data

1. Restart your SigNoz OTel collectors to begin fresh tracking
2. Let the system run with normal traffic for at least 24 hours
3. Connect to ClickHouse following the connection guide
4. Export usage data to CSV files:

-- Export traces usage
SELECT * FROM signoz_traces.usage
INTO OUTFILE 'traces_usage.csv'
FORMAT CSVWithNames;

-- Export metrics usage  
SELECT * FROM signoz_metrics.usage
INTO OUTFILE 'metrics_usage.csv'
FORMAT CSVWithNames;

-- Export logs usage
SELECT * FROM signoz_logs.usage
INTO OUTFILE 'logs_usage.csv'
FORMAT CSVWithNames;

Contact SigNoz support with these CSV files for a cost estimate

Next Steps

• Configure alerts in SigNoz Cloud
• Set up SSO for your organization
• Explore SigNoz Cloud features