Configuring OpenTelemetry Contrib Collector

Created 21 Oct 2021, Updated 29 Aug 2023

Follow the instructions below to integrate mainframe traces and metrics into your monitoring tools by configuring your OpenTelemetry Contrib Collector. We also recommend taking a look at the official OpenTelemetry documentation to get a basic understanding of the necessary steps to configure a OpenTelemetry Collector.

Receivers

Traces

An OTLP receiver with the GRPC protocol needs to be configured in your OpenTelemetry Contrib Collector in order to receive mainframe traces from your z/IRIS IronTap servers.

Example

Configure an OTLP receiver with the GRPC protocol at endpoint 4317.

CODE

receivers:
  otlp:
    protocols:
      grpc:
        endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4317

Metrics

A configured InfluxDB receiver is needed in your OpenTelemetry Contrib Collector to receive mainframe metrics from your z/IRIS IronTap servers. See the official InfluxDB receiver documentation for detailed information.

Example

Configure a InfluxDB receiver at endpoint 16000.

CODE

receivers:
  influxdb:
    endpoint: 0.0.0.0:16000

TLS + mTLS

To enable TLS the cert_file and key_file parameters are required:

CODE

receivers:
  otlp:
    protocols:
      grpc:
        endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4317
        tls:
          cert_file: <path-to-certificate-file>
          key_file: <path-to-key-file>

A client ca certificate must also be specified for mTLS to enable the server to verify client certificates:

CODE

receivers:
  otlp:
    protocols:
      grpc:
        endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4317
        tls:
          client_ca_file: <path-to-client-ca-file>
          cert_file: <path-to-certificate-file>
          key_file: <path-to-key-file>

Exporters

At least one exporter needs to be configured to send mainframe traces or metrics into one of your monitoring tools.

Any other APM tool exporter not listed here but supported by the OpenTelemetry Contrib Collector can be used.

Jaeger

See the official Jaeger exporter documentation for detailed information on configuring a Jaeger exporter correctly.

Basic example

Configure a Jaeger exporter without client transport security.

CODE

exporters:
  jaeger:
    endpoint: "<Jaeger gRPC endpoint>"
    insecure: true

Datadog

See the official Datadog exporter documentation for detailed information.

Datadog recommends to configure a batch processor with a timeout setting of 10s.

Basic example

Configure a Datadog exporter to the Datadog EU site.

CODE

exporters:
  datadog:
    api:
      key: "<API key>"
      site: datadoghq.eu

New Relic

See the official New Relic exporter documentation for detailed information on configuring a New Relic exporter correctly. Alternatively an OTLP exporter for New Relic can be used as well, which is described on the New Relic website.

Basic example

Configure an OTLP exporter for the New Relic EU site.

CODE

exporters:
  otlp:
    newrelic:
      endpoint: otlp.eu01.nr-data.net:4317
      headers:
        api-key: "<API key>"

Service

After configuring receivers, exporters and optionally processors, they additionally need to be enabled via a service pipeline. See the official OpenTelemetry documentation for detailed information.

Basic example for metrics

Enable a pipeline consisting of a InfluxDB receiver, a batch processor and a Datadog exporter.

CODE

service:
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers: [influxdb]
      processors: [batch]
      exporters: [datadog]

Basic example for traces

Enable a pipeline consisting of a OTLP receiver, a batch processor and a Jaeger exporter.

CODE

service:
  pipelines:
    traces:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [batch]
      exporters: [jaeger]

Summary

Complete configuration example

CODE

receivers:
  otlp:
    protocols:
      grpc:
        endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4317
  influxdb:
    endpoint: 0.0.0.0:16000
processors:
  batch:
    timeout: 10s
exporters:
  jaeger:
    endpoint: "<Jaeger gRPC endpoint>"
    insecure: true
  datadog:
    api:
      key: "<API key>"
      site: datadoghq.eu
service:
  pipelines:
    traces:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [batch]
      exporters: [jaeger, otlp/newrelic, datadog]
    metrics:
      receivers: [influxdb]
      processors: [batch]
      exporters: [datadog]