OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) exporter

Enable and configure the OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) exporter for tracing in the Apollo Router.

OTLP is the native protocol for OpenTelemetry. It can be used to export traces over HTTP or gRPC to a variety of backends including:

• OpenTelemetry Collector
• Datadog
• Jaeger
• New Relic

For general tracing configuration, refer to Router Tracing Configuration.

OTLP configuration

The Apollo Router can be configured to export tracing data using OTLP either via HTTP or gRPC:

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telemetry:
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  exporters:
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     tracing:
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       otlp:
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         enabled: true
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         # Optional endpoint, either 'default' or a URL (Defaults to http://127.0.0.1:4317 for gRPC and http://127.0.0.1:4318 for HTTP)
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         endpoint: default
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         # Optional protocol (Defaults to grpc)
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         protocol: grpc
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         # Optional Grpc configuration
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         grpc:
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           metadata:
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             "my-header": "value1"
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         # Optional Http configuration
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         http:
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           headers:
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             "my-header": "value1"

enabled

Set to true to enable the OTLP exporter. Defaults to false.

endpoint

The OTLP endpoint.

Defaults to:

• http://127.0.0.1:4317 for gRPC
• http://127.0.0.1:4318 for HTTP

grpc

Settings specific to the gRPC protocol for setting a custom SSL certificate, domain name, and metadata.

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telemetry:
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  exporters:
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    tracing:
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      otlp:
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        grpc:
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          domain_name: "<my-domain>"
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          key: "<key>"
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          ca: "<certificate-authority>"
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          cert: "<certificate>"
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          metadata:
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            key1: value1
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            key2: value2

gRPC configuration reference

http

Settings specific to the HTTP protocol for setting custom headers.

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http:
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  headers:
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    key1: value1
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    key2: value2

HTTP configuration reference

batch_processor

All exporters support configuration of a batch span processor with batch_processor.

You must tune your batch_processor configuration if you see any of the following messages in your logs:

• OpenTelemetry trace error occurred: cannot send span to the batch span processor because the channel is full

• OpenTelemetry metrics error occurred: cannot send span to the batch span processor because the channel is full

The exact settings depend on the bandwidth available for you to send data to your application peformance monitor (APM) and the bandwidth configuration of your APM. Expect to tune these settings over time as your application changes.

An example configuration using OTLP with batch_processor:

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telemetry:
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  exporters:
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    tracing:
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      otlp: 
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        batch_processor: 
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          max_export_batch_size: 512
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          max_concurrent_exports: 1
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          max_export_timeout: 30s 
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          max_queue_size: 2048
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          scheduled_delay: 5s

batch_processor configuration reference

OTLP configuration reference