Application Observability with OpenTelemetry Collector
Grafana Application Observability is compatible with the OpenTelemetry Collector, however the feature is experimental.
There are Grafana users that successfully use the upstream Collector with Grafana Application Observability, Grafana can provide the correct configuration to support the required features where possible.
Before you begin
To set up OpenTelemetry Collector as the data collector to send to Grafana Cloud:
- Create and/or login to a Grafana Cloud account
- Install an OpenTelemetry Collector
There are two distributions of the OpenTelemetry Collector: core and contrib. Application Observability requires the contrib distribution.
If you’ve already set up a Collector, configure your application to use it.
Configure the Collector
You need a config.yaml
configuration file for the OpenTelemetry Collector to run. It’s recommended to use the OpenTelemetry Collector integration to generate a configuration file.
To find this integration, navigate to OpenTelemetry > Application and click Add service. Choose the OpenTelemetry Collector integration from the list.
The OpenTelemetry Collector integration generates OpenTelemetry Collector configuration to use with Grafana Application Observability:
# Tested with OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib v0.98.0
receivers:
otlp:
# https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector/tree/main/receiver/otlpreceiver
protocols:
grpc:
http:
hostmetrics:
# Optional. Host Metrics Receiver added as an example of Infra Monitoring capabilities of the OpenTelemetry Collector
# https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/tree/main/receiver/hostmetricsreceiver
scrapers:
load:
memory:
processors:
batch:
# https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector/tree/main/processor/batchprocessor
resourcedetection:
# Enriches telemetry data with resource information from the host
# https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/tree/main/processor/resourcedetectionprocessor
detectors: ["env", "system"]
override: false
transform/drop_unneeded_resource_attributes:
# https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/tree/main/processor/transformprocessor
error_mode: ignore
trace_statements:
- context: resource
statements:
- delete_key(attributes, "k8s.pod.start_time")
- delete_key(attributes, "os.description")
- delete_key(attributes, "os.type")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.command_args")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.executable.path")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.pid")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.runtime.description")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.runtime.name")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.runtime.version")
metric_statements:
- context: resource
statements:
- delete_key(attributes, "k8s.pod.start_time")
- delete_key(attributes, "os.description")
- delete_key(attributes, "os.type")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.command_args")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.executable.path")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.pid")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.runtime.description")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.runtime.name")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.runtime.version")
log_statements:
- context: resource
statements:
- delete_key(attributes, "k8s.pod.start_time")
- delete_key(attributes, "os.description")
- delete_key(attributes, "os.type")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.command_args")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.executable.path")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.pid")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.runtime.description")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.runtime.name")
- delete_key(attributes, "process.runtime.version")
transform/add_resource_attributes_as_metric_attributes:
# https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/tree/main/processor/transformprocessor
error_mode: ignore
metric_statements:
- context: datapoint
statements:
- set(attributes["deployment.environment"], resource.attributes["deployment.environment"])
- set(attributes["service.version"], resource.attributes["service.version"])
exporters:
otlphttp/grafana_cloud:
# https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector/tree/main/exporter/otlphttpexporter
endpoint: "${env:GRAFANA_CLOUD_OTLP_ENDPOINT}"
auth:
authenticator: basicauth/grafana_cloud
extensions:
basicauth/grafana_cloud:
# https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/tree/main/extension/basicauthextension
client_auth:
username: "${env:GRAFANA_CLOUD_INSTANCE_ID}"
password: "${env:GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_KEY}"
connectors:
grafanacloud:
# https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/tree/main/connector/grafanacloudconnector
host_identifiers: ["host.name"]
service:
extensions:
[
basicauth/grafana_cloud,
]
pipelines:
traces:
receivers: [otlp]
processors:
[resourcedetection, transform/drop_unneeded_resource_attributes, batch]
exporters: [otlphttp/grafana_cloud, grafanacloud]
metrics:
receivers: [otlp, hostmetrics]
processors:
[
resourcedetection,
transform/drop_unneeded_resource_attributes,
transform/add_resource_attributes_as_metric_attributes,
batch,
]
exporters: [otlphttp/grafana_cloud]
metrics/grafanacloud:
receivers: [grafanacloud]
processors: [batch]
exporters: [otlphttp/grafana_cloud]
logs:
receivers: [otlp]
processors:
[
resourcedetection,
transform/drop_unneeded_resource_attributes,
batch,
]
exporters: [otlphttp/grafana_cloud]
The instrumented application sends traces, metrics, and logs to the collector via OTLP. The collector receives data and processes it with defined pipelines.
The traces
pipeline receives traces with the otlp
receiver and exports them to the Grafana Cloud Tempo with the otlp exporter.
The resourcedetection processor here and in the further pipelines is used to enrich telemetry data with resource information from the host.
Consult the resource detection processor README.md for a list of configuration options.
The metrics
pipeline receives traces from the otlp
receiver, and applies a transform processor to add deployment.environment
, and service.version
labels to metrics,
and exports metrics to the Grafana Cloud Metrics with the prometheusremotewrite exporter.
The hostmetrics receiver is optional. It’s added here as an example of Infra Monitoring capabilities of the OpenTelemetry Collector.
The logs
pipeline receives logs with the otlp
receiver and exports them to the Grafana Cloud Loki with the loki exporter.
The configuration file requires several environmental variable to be set. They are described in the following table.
Environment Variable | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_KEY | API key generated above | eyJvSomeLongStringJ9fQ== |
GRAFANA_CLOUD_OTLP_ENDPOINT | OTLP endpoint from Grafana Cloud > OpenTelemetry > Configure | https://otlp-endpoint-***.grafana.net/otlp |
GRAFANA_CLOUD_INSTANCE_ID | Instance ID from Grafana Cloud > OpenTelemetry > Configure | 11111 |
Run OpenTelemetry Collector
Create the config.yaml
file, set the necessary environment variables, and start the OpenTelemetry Collector.
Configure your application
Set the following environment variables to configure the Collector for your application:
Configuration | Options | Result |
---|---|---|
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=<host> | http://localhost:4318 , remote host address | The default local host address, or a remote host address. |
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=<protocol> | grpc , http/protobuf | The default http/protobuf protocol or grpc |
For example, for a local OpenTelemetry Collector set the following environment variables:
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4317
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=grpc
Then restart your application.