How to export telemetry to the OTEL collector

This guide explains how to export Aidbox telemetry in OpenTelemetry format

Aidbox produces three types of signals: logs, metrics and traces in OTEL specification.

Aidbox supports exporting telemetry using the Protobuf protocol in line with the OTEL specification. This guide configures Aidbox to export telemetry to the OpenTelemetry collector, but the setup can also be modified to export to other telemetry consumers that adhere to this specification.

Prerequisites

1. OTEL collector should be deployed and configured to receive logs, metrics and traces.

2. Aidbox should be configured with Aidbox configuration project.

How to enable export telemetry to the OTEL collector

To enable exporting telemetry to the OTEL collector:

1. Import aidbox.log, aidbox.telemetry.metrics, aidbox.telemetry.trace

2. Define open-telemetry-appender, open-telemetry-metrics-exporter, otel-trace-exporter

3. Add otel-appender to the services

4. Restart Aidbox

{:ns     main
 :import #{aidbox
           aidbox.log               ; import aidbox.log
           aidbox.telemetry.metrics ; import aidbox.telemetry.metrics
           aidbox.telemetry.trace   ; import aidbox.telemetry.trace
           config}

 open-telemetry-appender
 {:zen/tags   #{aidbox/service}
  :engine     aidbox.log/open-telemetry-appender
  :config     {:url "http://url-to-otel-collector/v1/logs"}} ; logs consumer endpoint

 open-telemetry-metrics-exporter
 {:zen/tags #{aidbox.telemetry.metrics/otlp-exporter}
  :url "http://url-to-otel-collector/v1/metrics" ; metrics consumer endpoint
  :period 5 #_"sec"} ; period in seconds to send metrics 
 
 otel-trace-exporter
 {:zen/tags #{aidbox.telemetry.trace/exporter}
  :engine   aidbox.telemetry.trace/otlp-exporter
  :url      "http://otel-collector-url/v1/traces"} ; traces consumer endpoint

 box
 {:zen/tags #{aidbox/system}
  :config   config/zen-config
  :services {:otel-appender open-telemetry-appender}}} ; add otel-appender

How to check the OTEL collector receives telemetry

Set up logging exporter and logs, metrics, traces pipelines in the OTEL collector configuration:

receivers:
  otlp:
    protocols:
      http:

exporters:
  logging:
    loglevel: debug

service:
  pipelines:
    logs:
      receivers: [otlp]
      exporters: [logging] # OTEL prints logs to the stdout
    metrics:
      receivers: [otlp]
      exporters: [logging] # OTEL prints metrics to the stdout
    traces:
      receivers: [otlp]
      exporters: [logging] # OTEL prints traces to the stdout

Run any request in Aidbox

Use Aidbox REST console to perform a request like this:

GET /fhir/Patient

See Aidbox telemetry in the OTEL collector stdout

Open OTEL collector stdout and see the logs, metrics and traces.