open-telemetry / opentelemetry.io

Installation - open-telemetry/opentelemetry.io

OpenTelemetry.io is a collection of tools, APIs, and libraries that standardize how you collect, process, and export telemetry data. This guide will walk you through the process of deploying and installing OpenTelemetry in your application. For a comprehensive understanding, please refer to the official OpenTelemetry documentation.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

  1. A project with an application that generates telemetry data.
  2. A target environment where you want to deploy OpenTelemetry. This could be a local development environment, a test environment, or a production environment.
  3. Access to the target environment to install packages, configure settings, and run the application.

Installation

SDK Selection

OpenTelemetry provides SDKs for various languages and platforms. Choose the SDK that best suits your application’s language and environment. You can find the list of available SDKs on the OpenTelemetry GitHub repository.

SDK Installation

Install the chosen SDK using the package manager for your language. For example, if you’re using Node.js, you can install the JavaScript SDK using npm:

npm install @opentelemetry/sdk-node

Configuration

After installing the SDK, you need to configure it to export the collected telemetry data. The configuration process varies depending on the SDK, but generally, you’ll need to set up the following:

  1. Tracing: Configure the exporter for tracing data. This could be Jaeger, Zipkin, or any other tracing backend supported by OpenTelemetry.

  2. Metrics: Configure the exporter for metrics data. This could be Prometheus, InfluxDB, or any other metrics backend supported by OpenTelemetry.

  3. Logs: Configure the exporter for logs data. This could be Elasticsearch, Splunk, or any other log management system supported by OpenTelemetry.

Here’s an example of configuring the JavaScript SDK to export data to a Jaeger backend:

const { NodeTracerProvider } = require('@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-node');
const { JaegerExporter } = require('@opentelemetry/exporter-jaeger');

const provider = new NodeTracerProvider({
instrumentations: [new NodeInstrumentation()],
onStart: () => provider.registerExporter(new JaegerExporter({
serviceName: 'my-service',
agentHost: 'localhost',
agentPort: 6831,
})),
});

provider.register();

Running the Application

With the SDK configured, you can now run your application. The SDK will automatically instrument your application and start collecting telemetry data.

OpenTelemetry Collector

The OpenTelemetry Collector is an optional component that can be used to aggregate and process telemetry data before exporting it to backends. It can be particularly useful in complex environments with multiple services. You can find the installation guide for the OpenTelemetry Collector in the official documentation.

Exporting Data

Once your application is running and sending data to the OpenTelemetry Collector (if used), you can access the data in your chosen backends. For example, if you’re using Prometheus for metrics, you can query the metrics using the Prometheus query language (PromQL).

Updating OpenTelemetry

To update OpenTelemetry in your application, you’ll need to update the SDK package and re-run your application. Be aware that updates may introduce breaking changes, so always check the release notes before updating.

Conclusion

Deploying and installing OpenTelemetry in your application allows you to standardize and centralize your telemetry data collection, making it easier to analyze and troubleshoot issues. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can start collecting and exporting telemetry data with OpenTelemetry.io.