OpenTelemetry

OpenTelemetry (also referred to as OTel) is an open standard that is created by CNCF. OpenTelemetry includes an open source observability framework that is made up with a collection of tools, APIs, and SDKs.

Instana supports all OpenTelemetry signals:

• Support for OpenTelemetry Traces is in GA. OpenTelemetry and Instana AutoTrace spans can be combined for continuous mixed tracing.
• Support for OpenTelemetry Metrics is in Open Beta and is available to all customers.
• Support for OpenTelemetry Logs is in Closed Beta. Contact your customer service representative to get preview access to this functionality.

Instana can seamlessly integrate with OpenTelemetry and supports many commonly-used definitions in the OpenTelemetry Semantic Conventions, such as resource attributes, span attributes, metrics attributes, and log attributes.

Refer to the following methods to send OpenTelemetry data to Instana:

• Data is sent to the Instana agent in OTLP format. Then, the Instana agent forwards the data to the Instana backend. For more information, see Sending OpenTelemetry data to the Instana agent.

• Data is sent directly to the Instana backend in OTLP format. For more information, see Sending OpenTelemetry data to the Instana backend.

These two methods are recommended because they follow open standards and the implementation is well maintained by the OpenTelemetry community and the Instana product.

You can also forward the OpenTelemetry data to an Instana agent or Instana backend by using the OpenTelemetry Collector.

Note: The following methods for sending OpenTelemetry data are deprecated:

• Use the Instana exporter of the OpenTelemetry Contrib Collector.
• Applications or systems can load related language-based Instana exporter into their codes to work for the corresponding language-based OpenTelemetry SDK. The Instana exporter can use the native Instana protocol to send data directly to the serverless acceptor of the Instana backend.