open-telemetry / opentelemetry.io

Troubleshooting and debugging - open-telemetry/opentelemetry.io

Troubleshooting and debugging in the OpenTelemetry project can be approached in several ways. Here are some options with examples:

  1. Check the OpenTelemetry Collector metrics: The OpenTelemetry Collector provides metrics that can help identify issues. For example, the otelcol_receiver_accepted_spans metric can be used to ensure that data points have been received by the Collector, while the otelcol_receiver_refused_spans metric can be used to ensure that data points haven’t been refused by the Collector. (Source: https://grafana.com/docs/opentelemetry/collector/troubleshooting)
  2. Enable logging in OpenTelemetry JS: OpenTelemetry JS will not log anything to its diagnostic logger by default. To enable logging, you can configure the logger as follows:
import { Logger } from 'opentelemetry';
const logger = Logger.forInstrumentation('my-instrumentation');
logger.setLevel('debug');

(Source: https://opentelemetry.io/blog/2022/troubleshooting-nodejs)

  1. Use local exporters to send test data: For certain types of issues, particularly verifying configuration and debugging network issues, it can be helpful to send a small amount of data to a collector configured to output to local logs. For details, see https://opentelemetry.io/docs/collector/troubleshooting/#local-exporters.
  2. Check for common issues in OpenTelemetry Node.js tracing: Some common issues in OpenTelemetry Node.js tracing include missing traces or spans, which can be caused by various factors such as incorrect configuration or missing dependencies. The OpenTelemetry Node.js documentation provides a checklist for troubleshooting these issues (Source: https://opentelemetry.io/blog/2022/troubleshooting-nodejs).
  3. Use OpenTelemetry to fix bugs in OpenTelemetry: OpenTelemetry can be used to identify and fix bugs in OpenTelemetry itself. For example, a bug in the context propagation feature was fixed using OpenTelemetry (Source: https://opentelemetry.io/blog/2022/debug-otel-with-otel).
  4. Join the OpenTelemetry community: The OpenTelemetry community is an open source project that welcomes contributions and feedback from anyone. Joining the community can provide access to resources such as mailing lists, Slack channels, and meeting recordings that can help with troubleshooting and debugging (Source: https://opentelemetry.io/community).

When troubleshooting and debugging issues in the OpenTelemetry project, it’s important to consult the relevant documentation and resources for the specific technology or component involved. The links provided above can serve as a starting point for identifying and resolving common issues.