OpenTelemetry Collector

The SolarWinds OpenTelemetry (OTel) Collector is a next-generation observability solution built on OpenTelemetry. It is a customized distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector, incorporating components from opentelemetry-collector and opentelemetry-collector-contrib, along with specialized SolarWinds enhancements for streamlined deployment and improved telemetry data collection.

By consolidating log, metric, and trace collection into a single collector, the SolarWinds OTel Collector enables seamless monitoring of complex distributed systems. This helps organizations quickly identify issues, optimize performance, and enhance overall system reliability.

What sets the SolarWinds OTel Collector apart is its flexibility and scalability. It can be deployed as a containerized application across any cloud platform and supports various data sources. This ensures organizations can achieve deep visibility into their infrastructure and applications, regardless of their hosting environment.

Add a SolarWinds OTel Collector to SolarWinds Observability SaaS

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

2. In the Add Data dialog, click Infrastructure tab.

3. Click SolarWinds OTel Collector.

4. Select the deployment method:

   • Docker - Deploys the collector in a Docker container.

   • Installer - Installs the collector as a service using an installer file.

5. Choose a distribution and click Next. See Distributions for more information.

6. Type an ingestion token name or select an existing token.

7. Complete the following steps based on the installation method you selected.

   Docker deployments

   1. On the Configuration screen, enter a name for the collector.

   2. Download the config.yaml file, edit it and click Next.

      The default configuration includes a placeholder nop receiver that doesn’t collect any data. Update the configuration to specify which data to monitor. See examples in the solarwinds-otel-collector repository.

   3. On the Installation screen, copy the generated command and run it to deploy the collector.

   Installer deployments

   1. Enter a name for the collector.

   2. Review the default configuration and click Next.

      The default configuration includes a placeholder nop receiver that doesn’t collect any data. The installer uses the default configuration. You will edit the defaults later, after installation completes.

   3. On the Installation screen, select the target host operating system.

      If you choose Linux, also select a package manager to be used.

   4. Copy the generated commands and run them on the target host with root privileges.

   5. After installation completes, edit the configuration file to specify the receiver and the data to monitor. See examples in the solarwinds-otel-collector repository.

      The configuration file path is displayed in the wizard.

8. Wait for the metrics to be pulled from the target collector.

You can find the created SolarWinds OTel Collector in the Entity Explorer. The detail view shows the version and uptime. Related metrics and traces are shown in the Metrics and Traces tabs.

Distributions

The components available in the following distributions are listed in the SolarWinds OTel Collector repository.

Verified

The verified distribution contains only specific components. With the verified distribution, you will receive support with configuration, and the components have been tested by SolarWinds.

Playground

The playground distribution contains all components from the verified distribution, plus most of the components from opentelemetry-collector-contrib and opentelemetry-collector repositories. When using the playground distribution, we will not provide support with configuration. Also, we cannot guarantee that all components from the mentioned repositories are working as expected.

k8s

The k8s distribution contains only the components required for the Kubernetes monitoring in SolarWinds Observability SaaS.