Configure OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) integration

OTLP exposes HTTP and gRPC endpoints, where OTLP format data can be sent (traces, metrics, and logs).

For details on OTLP, see OpenTelemetry Protocol Specification at GitHub or otlpreceiver at GitHub.

To integrate OTLP with SolarWinds Observability SaaS:

1. In SolarWinds Observability SaaS, click Add Data at the top.

2. In the Add Data dialog Intro, click the Integrations tab, and then click OTLP.

3. In the Add OTLP dialog, select a host with the SolarWinds Observability Agent you want to use for OTLP and click Next.

   To only display Agents running in a Kubernetes cluster, click the List only Agents... toggle.

   If you want to install a dedicated Agent on a dedicated host, add the host and then add the OTLP integration. See Add a self-managed host.

   If you prefer using Docker, see Run the SolarWinds Observability Agent as a Docker image or Kubernetes deployment.

4. Review and adjust the configuration, and then click Deploy to deploy the changes to the agent.

   • Provide a Display Name.

   • Provide at least one of the endpoints. You will be exposing OTLP port for handling the data to be transformed by SolarWinds Observability.

     • gRPC

     • HTTP

5. When the installation is complete, review the summary about the deployed OTLP monitoring plugin. You can find the metrics you are monitoring in the Metrics Explorer, or create a custom dashboard and add widgets to display collected metrics value.

   The OTLP integration is fully customized and collected metrics depend on what you configured on the exporter side.