Red Hat Summit Red Hat SummitSupportConsoleDevelopersStart a trialContact

Chapter 5. Using the Red Hat build of OpenTelemetry

You can set up and use the Red Hat build of OpenTelemetry to send traces to the OpenTelemetry Collector or the TempoStack.

To configure forwarding traces to a TempoStack, you can deploy and configure the OpenTelemetry Collector. You can deploy the OpenTelemetry Collector in the deployment mode by using the specified processors, receivers, and exporters. For other modes, see the OpenTelemetry Collector documentation linked in Additional resources.

Prerequisites

  • The Red Hat build of OpenTelemetry Operator is installed.
  • The Tempo Operator is installed.
  • A TempoStack is deployed on the cluster.

Procedure

  1. Create a service account for the OpenTelemetry Collector.

    Example ServiceAccount

    apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: otel-collector-deployment
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  2. Create a cluster role for the service account.

    Example ClusterRole

    apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: otel-collector
rules:
    1
    2 
    
- apiGroups: ["", "config.openshift.io"]
  resources: ["pods", "namespaces", "infrastructures", "infrastructures/status"]
  verbs: ["get", "watch", "list"]
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    1
    The k8sattributesprocessor requires permissions for pods and namespaces resources.
    2
    The resourcedetectionprocessor requires permissions for infrastructures and status.

  3. Bind the cluster role to the service account.

    Example ClusterRoleBinding

    apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: otel-collector
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: otel-collector-deployment
  namespace: otel-collector-example
roleRef:
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: otel-collector
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  4. Create the YAML file to define the OpenTelemetryCollector custom resource (CR).

    Example OpenTelemetryCollector

    apiVersion: opentelemetry.io/v1alpha1
kind: OpenTelemetryCollector
metadata:
  name: otel
spec:
  mode: deployment
  serviceAccount: otel-collector-deployment
  config: |
    receivers:
      jaeger:
        protocols:
          grpc:
          thrift_binary:
          thrift_compact:
          thrift_http:
      opencensus:
      otlp:
        protocols:
          grpc:
          http:
      zipkin:
    processors:
      batch:
      k8sattributes:
      memory_limiter:
        check_interval: 1s
        limit_percentage: 50
        spike_limit_percentage: 30
      resourcedetection:
        detectors: [openshift]
    exporters:
      otlp:
        endpoint: "tempo-simplest-distributor:4317"
    1 
    
        tls:
          insecure: true
    service:
      pipelines:
        traces:
          receivers: [jaeger, opencensus, otlp, zipkin]
    2 
    
          processors: [memory_limiter, k8sattributes, resourcedetection, batch]
          exporters: [otlp]
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    1
    The Collector exporter is configured to export OTLP and points to the Tempo distributor endpoint, "tempo-simplest-distributor:4317" in this example, which is already created.
    2
    The Collector is configured with a receiver for Jaeger traces, OpenCensus traces over the OpenCensus protocol, Zipkin traces over the Zipkin protocol, and OTLP traces over the GRPC protocol.
Tip

You can deploy tracegen as a test: 

apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: Job
metadata:
  name: tracegen
spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: tracegen
          image: ghcr.io/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/tracegen:latest
          command:
            - "./tracegen"
          args:
            - -otlp-endpoint=otel-collector:4317
            - -otlp-insecure
            - -duration=30s
            - -workers=1
      restartPolicy: Never
  backoffLimit: 4
Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

Sending traces and metrics to the OpenTelemetry Collector is possible with or without sidecar injection.

You can set up sending telemetry data to an OpenTelemetry Collector instance with sidecar injection.

The Red Hat build of OpenTelemetry Operator allows sidecar injection into deployment workloads and automatic configuration of your instrumentation to send telemetry data to the OpenTelemetry Collector.

Prerequisites

  • The Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Tempo) is installed, and a TempoStack instance is deployed.

  • You have access to the cluster through the web console or the OpenShift CLI (oc):

    • You are logged in to the web console as a cluster administrator with the cluster-admin role.
    • An active OpenShift CLI (oc) session by a cluster administrator with the cluster-admin role.
    • For Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated, you must have an account with the dedicated-admin role.

Procedure

  1. Create a project for an OpenTelemetry Collector instance. 

    apiVersion: project.openshift.io/v1
kind: Project
metadata:
  name: observability
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  2. Create a service account. 

    apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: otel-collector-sidecar
  namespace: observability
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  3. Grant the permissions to the service account for the k8sattributes and resourcedetection processors. 

    apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: otel-collector
rules:
- apiGroups: ["", "config.openshift.io"]
  resources: ["pods", "namespaces", "infrastructures", "infrastructures/status"]
  verbs: ["get", "watch", "list"]
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: otel-collector
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: otel-collector-sidecar
  namespace: observability
roleRef:
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: otel-collector
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  4. Deploy the OpenTelemetry Collector as a sidecar. 

    apiVersion: opentelemetry.io/v1alpha1
kind: OpenTelemetryCollector
metadata:
  name: otel
  namespace: observability
spec:
  serviceAccount: otel-collector-sidecar
  mode: sidecar
  config: |
    serviceAccount: otel-collector-sidecar
    receivers:
      otlp:
        protocols:
          grpc:
          http:
    processors:
      batch:
      memory_limiter:
        check_interval: 1s
        limit_percentage: 50
        spike_limit_percentage: 30
      resourcedetection:
        detectors: [openshift]
        timeout: 2s
    exporters:
      otlp:
        endpoint: "tempo-<example>-gateway:8090"
    1 
    
        tls:
          insecure: true
    service:
      pipelines:
        traces:
          receivers: [jaeger]
          processors: [memory_limiter, resourcedetection, batch]
          exporters: [otlp]
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap
    1
    This points to the Gateway of the TempoStack instance deployed by using the <example> Tempo Operator.
  5. Create your deployment using the otel-collector-sidecar service account.
  6. Add the sidecar.opentelemetry.io/inject: "true" annotation to your Deployment object. This will inject all the needed environment variables to send data from your workloads to the OpenTelemetry Collector instance.

You can set up sending telemetry data to an OpenTelemetry Collector instance without sidecar injection, which involves manually setting several environment variables.

Prerequisites

  • The Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Tempo) is installed, and a TempoStack instance is deployed.

  • You have access to the cluster through the web console or the OpenShift CLI (oc):

    • You are logged in to the web console as a cluster administrator with the cluster-admin role.
    • An active OpenShift CLI (oc) session by a cluster administrator with the cluster-admin role.
    • For Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated, you must have an account with the dedicated-admin role.

Procedure

  1. Create a project for an OpenTelemetry Collector instance. 

    apiVersion: project.openshift.io/v1
kind: Project
metadata:
  name: observability
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  2. Create a service account. 

    apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: otel-collector-deployment
  namespace: observability
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  3. Grant the permissions to the service account for the k8sattributes and resourcedetection processors. 

    apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: otel-collector
rules:
- apiGroups: ["", "config.openshift.io"]
  resources: ["pods", "namespaces", "infrastructures", "infrastructures/status"]
  verbs: ["get", "watch", "list"]
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: otel-collector
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: otel-collector
  namespace: observability
roleRef:
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: otel-collector
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  4. Deploy the OpenTelemetry Collector instance with the OpenTelemetryCollector custom resource. 

    apiVersion: opentelemetry.io/v1alpha1
kind: OpenTelemetryCollector
metadata:
  name: otel
  namespace: observability
spec:
  mode: deployment
  serviceAccount: otel-collector-deployment
  config: |
    receivers:
      jaeger:
        protocols:
          grpc:
          thrift_binary:
          thrift_compact:
          thrift_http:
      opencensus:
      otlp:
        protocols:
          grpc:
          http:
      zipkin:
    processors:
      batch:
      k8sattributes:
      memory_limiter:
        check_interval: 1s
        limit_percentage: 50
        spike_limit_percentage: 30
      resourcedetection:
        detectors: [openshift]
    exporters:
      otlp:
        endpoint: "tempo-<example>-distributor:4317"
    1 
    
        tls:
          insecure: true
    service:
      pipelines:
        traces:
          receivers: [jaeger, opencensus, otlp, zipkin]
          processors: [memory_limiter, k8sattributes, resourcedetection, batch]
          exporters: [otlp]
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap
    1
    This points to the Gateway of the TempoStack instance deployed by using the <example> Tempo Operator.

  5. Set the environment variables in the container with your instrumented application.

    Expand
    NameDescriptionDefault value
    OTEL_SERVICE_NAME
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Sets the value of the service.name resource attribute.

    "" 

    OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Base endpoint URL for any signal type with an optionally specified port number.

    https://localhost:4317 

    OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_CERTIFICATE
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Path to the certificate file for the TLS credentials of the gRPC client.

    https://localhost:4317 

    OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Sampler to be used for traces.

    parentbased_always_on 

    OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Transport protocol for the OTLP exporter.

    grpc 

    OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TIMEOUT
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Maximum time interval for the OTLP exporter to wait for each batch export.

    10s 

    OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_INSECURE
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Disables client transport security for gRPC requests. An HTTPS schema overrides it.

    False

Back to top
Red Hat logoGithubredditYoutubeTwitter

Learn

Try, buy, & sell

Communities

About Red Hat Documentation

We help Red Hat users innovate and achieve their goals with our products and services with content they can trust. Explore our recent updates.

Making open source more inclusive

Red Hat is committed to replacing problematic language in our code, documentation, and web properties. For more details, see the Red Hat Blog.

About Red Hat

We deliver hardened solutions that make it easier for enterprises to work across platforms and environments, from the core datacenter to the network edge.

Theme

© 2025 Red Hat