Instana Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector

For Instana to receive the telemetry data that is sent by the vendor-agnostic OpenTelemetry Collector, you must configure the OTLP,gRPC, and HTTP endpoints correctly. The Instana Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector (IDOT) automates the collector configuration process and ensures that Instana receives the telemetry data by default.

Installing the Instana Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector

To install the Instana Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector in your Linux environment, complete the following steps:

  1. Download the latest release of the IDOT Collector installation script from the IDOT GitHub by running the following commands:

    curl -Lo instana_otelcol_setup.sh https://github.com/instana/instana-otel-collector/releases/latest/download/instana-collector-installer-latest.sh

chmod +x instana_otelcol_setup.sh

  2. Run the installation script by using the following command:

    ./instana_otelcol_setup.sh -e <INSTANA_OTEL_ENDPOINT_GRPC> -a <INSTANA_KEY> [-H <INSTANA_OTEL_ENDPOINT_HTTP>] [<install_path>]

The INSTANA_OTEL_ENDPOINT_GRPC and INSTANA_KEY parameters are required to run the installer. You can change these parameters later in the config.env file that is located in the install_path. The default path is /opt/instana.

The installation script installs IDOT Collector and initiates the Instana Collector Service on your system by using the specified parameters.

Managing the Instana Collector Service

The IDOT Collector installation script installs and starts the service by default. You can further manage the Instana Collector Service by running the following commands within the bin directory:

  • Install the service:

    ./instana_collector_service.sh install

  • Uninstall the service:

    ./instana_collector_service.sh uninstall

  • Start the service:

    ./instana_collector_service.sh start

    Or

    service instana-collector start

  • Stop the service:

    ./instana_collector_service.sh stop

    Or

    service instana-collector stop

  • Restart the service:

    ./instana_collector_service.sh restart

    Or

    service instana-collector restart

  • Display the status of the service:

    ./instana_collector_service.sh status

    Or

    service instana-collector status

Configuring the OpenTelemetry Collector

You can configure the Collector according to your business requirements by modifying the /opt/instana/collector/config.yaml file. You can also define and modify the pipelines for telemetry data as required. See the following configuration example to support the data flow for all types of telemetry data:

receivers:
    # Configure OTLP/gRPC endpoint
    otlp:
        protocols:
            grpc:
                endpoint: 0.0.0.0:24317
    # Specifies a file log receiver to include logs from a given path
    filelog:
        include: ["path/to/logs/*.log"]
processors:
    # Set a limit for batch size
    batch:
        send_batch_max_size: 10000
    # Specify a transform processor to add a processed attribute for logs
    transform:
        log_statements:
            - set(log.body, log.attributes["processed"])
exporters:
    # Configure OTLP exporter for telemetry data to be sent to
    otlp:
        endpoint: INSTANA_OTEL_ENDPOINT_GRPC
    headers:
      x-instana-key: INSTANA_KEY
      x-instana-host: INSTANA_HOST
    tls:
      insecure: true
# Assemble the data pipeline from the configured components
services:
    pipelines:
        traces:
            receivers: [otlp]
            processors: [batch]
            exporters: [otlp]
        metrics:
            receivers: [otlp]
            processors: [batch]
            exporters: [otlp]           
        logs:
            receivers: [filelog]
            processors: [transform]
            exporters: [otlp]

Uninstalling the OpenTelemetry Collector

By default, the installation script also adds an uninstallation script under collector/bin in the install_path.

./uninstall.sh

Running this script stops the Instana Collector Service and removes all collector files from the system.

Support

For any support related issues, see Support Strategy for IDOT.