Collect data using OpenTelemetry

Most recent version: v0.0.1

See the changelog of the OpenTelemetry Listener type here.

Overview

Onum supports integration with the OpenTelemetry.

OpenTelemetry is a collection of APIs, SDKs, and tools. Use it to instrument, generate, collect, and export telemetry data (metrics, logs, and traces) to help you analyze your software’s performance and behavior.

Prerequisites

Contact Onum to get the cert information needed for TLS communication, which will be needed on the Listener setup.

Open Telemetry Setup

In order to begin sending data, you must firstly Implement OpenTelemetry SDK and Instrumentation.

Then, you'll need to configure the OpenTelemetry Collector.

The Collector is configured via a YAML file (config.yaml), which defines a processing pipeline with three main component types:

• Receivers: Define how the Collector accepts incoming telemetry. The most common is otlp (OpenTelemetry Protocol), which listens for data from your applications over gRPC (port 4317) or HTTP (port 4318).

• Processors: Define how data is modified, filtered, or enriched (e.g., batch for efficient export, memory_limiter to prevent crashes, or processors to add metadata).

• Exporters: Define where the Collector sends the data.

A minimal configuration to receive OTLP data and export it to an external backend looks like this:

receivers:
  otlp:
    protocols:
      grpc:
      http:

processors:
  batch:

exporters:
  otlp/example:  # OTLP exporter to send to your backend service
    endpoint: "YOUR_BACKEND_ADDRESS:4317" # Replace with your observability tool's OTLP endpoint
    insecure: false  # Use true for HTTP, false for HTTPS/TLS

service:
  pipelines:
    traces:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [batch]
      exporters: [otlp/example]
    metrics:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [batch]
      exporters: [otlp/example]

Start the Collector, pointing it to your configuration file.

otelcol --config=config.yaml

Set an environment variable in your application's host environment:

• OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318 (as you will be running the collector locally over HTTP).

The application will now generate telemetry and send it to Onum.

Onum Setup

1

Log in to your Onum tenant and click Listeners > New listener.

2

Double-click the Open Telemetry Listener.

3

Enter a Name for the new Listener. Optionally, add a Description and some Tags to identify the Listener.

4

Configure your OTLP/gRPC or OTLP/HTTP endpoint. Set the desired type as true to enable more options.

Set Allow gRPC protocol as true if you want to configure the gRPC port* to establish the connection with the protocol.

5

Set Allow HTTP protocol as true if you want to configure OTLP/HTTP:

• HTTP Port* to establish the connection with the protocol.

• The traces path for the endpoint URL e.g. http://collector:port/v1/traces

• The metrics path for the endpoint URL e.g. http://collector:port/v1/metrics

• The logs path for the endpoint URL e.g. http://collector:port/v1/logs

6

Choose your required authentication method in the Authentication Type parameter (Choose None if you don't need any authentication method).

Enter your Username and Password for basic authentication, or enter your Token Name and choose the required Bearer Token for authentication.

7

The credentials are saved in Onum as Secrets. In the authentication form, click New secret to create a new one:

• Give the token a Name.

• Turn off the Expiration date option.

• Click Add new value.

• Click Save.

Learn more about secrets in Onum in this article.

You can now select the secret you just created in the Token/Password fields.

8

Set Allow TLS configuration as true if you decide to include TLS authentication in this Listener:

• Add your TLS Certificate* from your Secrets or create one.

• Add your Private Key* from your Secrets or create one.

• Add your CA Chain* from your Secrets or create one.

• Select the Minimum TLS Version* from the menu.

9

Finally, click Create labels. Optionally, you can set labels to be used for internal Onum routing of data. By default, data will be set as Unlabeled. Click Create listener when you're done.

Learn more about labels in this article.

Click Create listener when you're done.