Chapter 4. Configuring the instrumentation
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.
4.1. OpenTelemetry instrumentation configuration options
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.
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
Instrumentation options are specified in an Instrumentation custom resource (CR).
Sample Instrumentation CR
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"
| Parameter | Description | Values |
|---|---|---|
|
| Common environment variables to define across all the instrumentations. | |
|
| Exporter configuration. | |
|
| Propagators defines inter-process context propagation configuration. |
|
|
| Resource attributes configuration. | |
|
| Sampling configuration. | |
|
| Configuration for the Apache HTTP Server instrumentation. | |
|
| Configuration for the .NET instrumentation. | |
|
| Configuration for the Go instrumentation. | |
|
| Configuration for the Java instrumentation. | |
|
| Configuration for the Node.js instrumentation. | |
|
| Configuration for the Python instrumentation. |
4.1.2. Configuration of the Apache HTTP Server auto-instrumentation
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
|
| Attributes specific to the Apache HTTP Server. | |
|
| Location of the Apache HTTP Server configuration. | /usr/local/apache2/conf |
|
| Environment variables specific to the Apache HTTP Server. | |
|
| Container image with the Apache SDK and auto-instrumentation. | |
|
| The compute resource requirements. | |
|
| Apache HTTP Server version. | 2.4 |
The PodSpec annotation to enable injection
instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/inject-apache-httpd: "true"
4.1.3. Configuration of the .NET auto-instrumentation
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
|
| Environment variables specific to .NET. |
|
| Container image with the .NET SDK and auto-instrumentation. |
|
| 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"
4.1.4. Configuration of the Go auto-instrumentation
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
|
| Environment variables specific to Go. |
|
| Container image with the Go SDK and auto-instrumentation. |
|
| The compute resource requirements. |
The PodSpec annotation to enable injection
instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/inject-go: "true"
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
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>
4.1.5. Configuration of the Java auto-instrumentation
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
|
| Environment variables specific to Java. |
|
| Container image with the Java SDK and auto-instrumentation. |
|
| The compute resource requirements. |
The PodSpec annotation to enable injection
instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/inject-java: "true"
4.1.6. Configuration of the Node.js auto-instrumentation
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
|
| Environment variables specific to Node.js. |
|
| Container image with the Node.js SDK and auto-instrumentation. |
|
| 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"
The instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/otel-go-auto-target-exe annotation sets the value for the required OTEL_GO_AUTO_TARGET_EXE environment variable.
4.1.7. Configuration of the Python auto-instrumentation
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
|
| Environment variables specific to Python. |
|
| Container image with the Python SDK and auto-instrumentation. |
|
| 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"
4.1.8. Configuration of the OpenTelemetry SDK variables
The OpenTelemetry SDK variables in your pod are configurable by using the following annotation:
instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/inject-sdk: "true"
Note that all the annotations accept the following values:
true-
Injects the
Instrumentationresource 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.
4.1.9. Multi-container pods
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>"
The Go auto-instrumentation does not support multi-container auto-instrumentation injection.
4.1.10. Using the instrumentation CR with Service Mesh
When using the instrumentation custom resource (CR) with Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh, you must use the b3multi propagator.
