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Chapter 4. Configuring and deploying the OpenTelemetry instrumentation injection

Important

OpenTelemetry instrumentation injection is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

The Red Hat build of OpenTelemetry Operator uses a custom resource definition (CRD) file that defines the configuration of the instrumentation.

The Red Hat build of OpenTelemetry can inject and configure the OpenTelemetry auto-instrumentation libraries into your workloads. Currently, the project supports injection of the instrumentation libraries from Go, Java, Node.js, Python, .NET, and the Apache HTTP Server (httpd).

Auto-instrumentation in OpenTelemetry refers to the capability where the framework automatically instruments an application without manual code changes. This enables developers and administrators to get observability into their applications with minimal effort and changes to the existing codebase.

Important

The Red Hat build of OpenTelemetry Operator only supports the injection mechanism of the instrumentation libraries but does not support instrumentation libraries or upstream images. Customers can build their own instrumentation images or use community images.

4.1.1. Instrumentation options
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Instrumentation options are specified in the OpenTelemetryCollector custom resource.

Sample OpenTelemetryCollector custom resource file

apiVersion: opentelemetry.io/v1alpha1
kind: Instrumentation
metadata:
  name: java-instrumentation
spec:
  env:
    - name: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TIMEOUT
      value: "20"
  exporter:
    endpoint: http://production-collector.observability.svc.cluster.local:4317
  propagators:
    - w3c
  sampler:
    type: parentbased_traceidratio
    argument: "0.25"
  java:
    env:
    - name: OTEL_JAVAAGENT_DEBUG
      value: "true"
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Table 4.1. Parameters used by the Operator to define the Instrumentation
ParameterDescriptionValues
env
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Common environment variables to define across all the instrumentations.

 
exporter
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Exporter configuration.

 
propagators
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Propagators defines inter-process context propagation configuration.

tracecontext, baggage, b3, b3multi, jaeger, ottrace, none 

resource
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Resource attributes configuration.

 
sampler
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Sampling configuration.

 
apacheHttpd
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Configuration for the Apache HTTP Server instrumentation.

 
dotnet
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Configuration for the .NET instrumentation.

 
go
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Configuration for the Go instrumentation.

 
java
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Configuration for the Java instrumentation.

 
nodejs
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Configuration for the Node.js instrumentation.

 
python
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Configuration for the Python instrumentation.

 

When using the instrumentation custom resource (CR) with Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh, you must use the b3multi propagator.

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Table 4.2. Prameters for the .spec.apacheHttpd field
NameDescriptionDefault
attrs
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Attributes specific to the Apache HTTP Server.

 
configPath
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Location of the Apache HTTP Server configuration.

/usr/local/apache2/conf 

env
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Environment variables specific to the Apache HTTP Server.

 
image
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Container image with the Apache SDK and auto-instrumentation.

 
resourceRequirements
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The compute resource requirements.

 
version
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Apache HTTP Server version.

2.4

The PodSpec annotation to enable injection

instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/inject-apache-httpd: "true"
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NameDescription
env
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Environment variables specific to .NET. 

image
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Container image with the .NET SDK and auto-instrumentation. 

resourceRequirements
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The compute resource requirements.

For the .NET auto-instrumentation, the required OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT environment variable must be set if the endpoint of the exporters is set to 4317. The .NET autoinstrumentation uses http/proto by default, and the telemetry data must be set to the 4318 port.

The PodSpec annotation to enable injection

instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/inject-dotnet: "true"
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NameDescription
env
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Environment variables specific to Go. 

image
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Container image with the Go SDK and auto-instrumentation. 

resourceRequirements
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The compute resource requirements.

The PodSpec annotation to enable injection

instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/inject-go: "true"
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Additional permissions required for the Go auto-instrumentation in the OpenShift cluster

apiVersion: security.openshift.io/v1
kind: SecurityContextConstraints
metadata:
  name: otel-go-instrumentation-scc
allowHostDirVolumePlugin: true
allowPrivilegeEscalation: true
allowPrivilegedContainer: true
allowedCapabilities:
- "SYS_PTRACE"
fsGroup:
  type: RunAsAny
runAsUser:
  type: RunAsAny
seLinuxContext:
  type: RunAsAny
seccompProfiles:
- '*'
supplementalGroups:
  type: RunAsAny
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Tip

The CLI command for applying the permissions for the Go auto-instrumentation in the OpenShift cluster is as follows: 

$ oc adm policy add-scc-to-user otel-go-instrumentation-scc -z <service_account>
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NameDescription
env
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Environment variables specific to Java. 

image
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Container image with the Java SDK and auto-instrumentation. 

resourceRequirements
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The compute resource requirements.

The PodSpec annotation to enable injection

instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/inject-java: "true"
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NameDescription
env
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Environment variables specific to Node.js. 

image
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Container image with the Node.js SDK and auto-instrumentation. 

resourceRequirements
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The compute resource requirements.

The PodSpec annotations to enable injection

instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/inject-nodejs: "true"
instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/otel-go-auto-target-exe: "/path/to/container/executable"
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The instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/otel-go-auto-target-exe annotation sets the value for the required OTEL_GO_AUTO_TARGET_EXE environment variable.

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NameDescription
env
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Environment variables specific to Python. 

image
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Container image with the Python SDK and auto-instrumentation. 

resourceRequirements
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The compute resource requirements.

For Python auto-instrumentation, the OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT environment variable must be set if the endpoint of the exporters is set to 4317. Python auto-instrumentation uses http/proto by default, and the telemetry data must be set to the 4318 port.

The PodSpec annotation to enable injection

instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/inject-python: "true"
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The OpenTelemetry SDK variables in your pod are configurable by using the following annotation: 

instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/inject-sdk: "true"
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Note that all the annotations accept the following values:

true
Injects the Instrumentation resource from the namespace.
false
Does not inject any instrumentation.
instrumentation-name
The name of the instrumentation resource to inject from the current namespace.
other-namespace/instrumentation-name
The name of the instrumentation resource to inject from another namespace.

4.1.2.8. Multi-container pods
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The instrumentation is run on the first container that is available by default according to the pod specification. In some cases, you can also specify target containers for injection.

Pod annotation

instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/container-names: "<container_1>,<container_2>"
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Note

The Go auto-instrumentation does not support multi-container auto-instrumentation injection.

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