Docs » Get started with the Splunk Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector » Components

Components đź”—

The OpenTelemetry Collector includes the following component types:

  • Receivers: Get data into the Collector from multiple sources.

  • Processors: Perform operations on data before it’s exported. For example, filtering.

  • Exporters: Send data to one or more backends or destinations.

  • Extensions: Extend the capabilities of the Collector.

You can activate components by configuring pipelines in the Collector configuration. See Configure the Collector to learn how to define multiple instances of components as well as their pipelines.

The Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector includes and supports the following components.

Receivers¶

Name

Description

Pipeline types

azureeventhub

Pulls logs from an Azure event hub.

Logs

carbon

Receives metrics in Carbon plaintext protocol.

Metrics

cloudfoundry

Connects to the Reverse Log Proxy (RLP) gateway of Cloud Foundry to extract metrics.

Metrics

collectd

Receives data exported through the CollectD write_http plugin. Only supports the JSON format.

Metrics

Databricks receiver (databricks)

Uses the Databricks API to generate metrics about the operation of a Databricks instance.

Metrics

filelog

Tails and parses logs from files.

Logs

Fluent Forward receiver (fluentforward)

Runs a TCP server that accepts events through the Fluentd Forward protocol.

Logs

Host metrics receiver (hostmetrics)

Generates system metrics from various sources. Use this receiver when deploying the Collector as an agent.

Metrics

jaeger

Receives trace data in Jaeger format.

Traces

journald

Parses Journald events from the systemd journal. The journalctl binary must be in the same $PATH of the agent.

Logs

Kubernetes cluster receiver (k8s_cluster)

Collects cluster-level metrics from the Kubernetes API server. It uses the Kubernetes API to listen for updates. You can use a single instance of this receiver to monitor a cluster.

Metrics

k8s_events

Collects all new and updated events from the Kubernetes API server. Supports authentication through service accounts only.

Logs

k8sobjects

Collects objects from the Kubernetes API server. Supports authentication through service accounts only.

Logs

kafkametrics

Collects Kafka metrics such as brokers, topics, partitions, and consumer groups from Kafka server, and converts them to OTLP format.

Metrics

kafka

Receives metrics, logs, and traces from Kafka. Metrics and logs only support the OTLP format.

Metrics, logs, traces

Kubelet stats receiver (kubeletstats)

Pulls pod metrics from the API server on a kubelet.

Metrics

MongoDB Atlas receiver (mongodbatlas)

Retrieves metrics from MongoDB Atlas using their monitoring APIs.

Metrics

Oracle Database receiver (oracledb)

Connects to an Oracle Database instance and obtains metrics such as physical reads, CPU, time, and others.

Metrics

otlp

Receives data through gRPC or HTTP using OTLP format.

Metrics, logs, traces

PostgreSQL receiver (postgresql)

Queries the PostgreSQL statistics collector. Supports PostgreSQL version 9.6 and higher.

Metrics

Prometheus receiver (prometheus)

Provides a simple configuration interface to scrape metrics from a single target.

Metrics

Simple Prometheus receiver (prometheus_simple)

Wraps the prometheus receiver to provide simplified settings for single targets.

Metrics

Receiver creator receiver (receiver_creator)

Instantiates other receivers at runtime based on whether observed endpoints match a configured rule. To use the receiver creator, configure one or more observer extensions to discover networked endpoints.

N/A

redis

Retrieves Redis INFO data from a specific Redis instance and builds metrics from it.

Metrics

sapm

Receives traces from other collectors or from the SignalFx Smart Agent.

Traces

SignalFx receiver (signalfx)

Accepts metrics and logs in the proto format.

Metrics, logs

Smart Agent receiver (smartagent)

Uses the existing Smart Agent monitors as Collector metric receivers. Learn more in Use Smart Agent monitors with the Collector.

Metrics

Splunk HEC receiver (splunk_hec)

Accepts telemetry in the Splunk HEC format.

Metrics, logs, traces

sqlquery

Runs custom SQL queries to generate metrics from a database connection.

Metrics

statsd

Collects StatsD messages to generate metrics.

Metrics

syslog

Parses syslog messages received over TCP or UDP.

Logs

tcplog

Receives logs over TCP.

Logs

windowseventlog

Tails and parses logs from the Windows Event log API.

Logs

Windows Performance Counters receiver (windowsperfcounters) (Windows only)

Collects the configured system, application, or custom performance counter data from the Windows Registry.

Metrics

zipkin

Receives spans from Zipkin versions 1 and 2.

Traces

Note

The previous list might not contain all the latest additions. For a complete list of Collector components, including components that aren’t included in the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector, see the opentelemetry-contrib repository in GitHub.

Processors¶

Name

Description

Pipeline types

Attributes processor (attributes)

Modifies attributes of a span or log record.

Logs, traces

Batch processor (batch)

Accepts spans, metrics, or logs and places them into batches. Batching helps better compress the data and reduce the number of outgoing connections required to transmit the data. This processor supports both size-based and time-based batching.

Metrics, logs, traces

Filter processor (filter)

Can be configured to include or exclude metrics based on metric name in the case of the strict or regexp match types, or based on other metric attributes in the case of the expr match type.

Metrics

groupbyattrs

Reassociates spans, log records, and metric data points to a resource that matches with the specified attributes. As a result, all spans, log records, or metric data points with the same values for the specified attributes are grouped under the same resource.

Metrics, logs, traces

Kubernetes attributes processor (k8sattributes)

Allows automatic tagging of spans, metrics, and logs with Kubernetes metadata. Formerly known as k8s_tagger.

Metrics, logs, traces

memory_limiter

Prevents out of memory situations on the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector.

Metrics, logs, traces

metricstransform

Renames metrics, and adds, renames, or deletes label keys and values.

Metrics

probabilisticsampler

Provides samples based on hash values determined by trace IDs.

Traces

Resource processor (resource)

Applies changes to resource attributes. Attributes represent actions that can be applied on resources.

Metrics, logs, traces

Resource detection processor (resourcedetection)

Detects resource information from the host, in a format that conforms to the OpenTelemetry resource semantic conventions, and appends or overrides the resource value in telemetry data with this information.

Metrics, logs, traces

routing

Reads a header from the incoming HTTP request or reads a resource attribute, and then directs the trace information to specific exporters based on the value.

Metrics, logs, traces

span

Modifies either the span name or attributes of a span based on the span name.

Traces

tail_sampling

Samples traces based on a set of defined policies. All spans for a given trace must be received by the same Collector instance for effective sampling decisions.

Traces

Transform processor (transform)

Modifies telemetry based on OpenTelemetry Transformation Language functions.

Metrics, logs, traces

Note

The previous list might not contain all the latest additions. For a complete list of Collector components, including components that aren’t included in the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector, see the opentelemetry-contrib repository in GitHub.

Exporters¶

Name

Description

Pipeline types

file

Writes pipeline data to a JSON file in Protobuf JSON encoding using the OpenTelemetry protocol.

Metrics, logs, traces

kafka

Exports metrics, logs, and traces to Kafka using a synchronous producer.

Metrics, logs, traces

Logging exporter (logging)

Exports data to the console. By default, logging doesn’t send its output to Windows Event Viewer. Run the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector directly from the PowerShell terminal to send output to the Windows Event Viewer.

Metrics, logs, traces

otlp

Exports data through gRPC using the OTLP format. By default, this exporter requires TLS and provides queued retry capabilities.

Metrics, traces

otlphttp

Exports traces and metrics in OTLP format over the HTTP protocol.

Metrics, traces

Splunk APM exporter (sapm)

Allows the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector to export traces from multiple nodes or services in a single batch.

Traces

SignalFx exporter (signalfx)

Sends metrics, events, and trace correlation to Splunk Observability Cloud.

Logs (events), metrics, traces (trace to metric correlation only)

Splunk APM exporter (sapm)

Exports traces from multiple nodes or services in a single batch.

Traces

Splunk HEC exporter (splunk_hec)

Sends telemetry to a Splunk HEC endpoint.

Metrics, logs, traces

Note

The previous list might not contain all the latest additions. For a complete list of Collector components, including components that aren’t included in the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector, see the opentelemetry-contrib repository in GitHub.

Extensions¶

Name

Description

docker_observer

Detects and reports container endpoints discovered through the Docker API. Only containers that are in the state of Running and not Paused emit endpoints.

ecs_observer

Uses the ECS and EC2 API to discover Prometheus scrape targets from all running tasks and filter them based on service names, task definitions, and container labels. Only compatible with the Prometheus receiver.

file_storage

Persists state to the local file system. Requires read and write access to a diectory.

health_check

Activates an HTTP URL that can be probed to check the status of the OpenTelemetry Collector. You can also use this extension as a liveness or readiness probe on Kubernetes.

http_forwarder

Accepts HTTP requests and optionally adds headers and forwards them. The RequestURIs of the original requests are preserved by the extension.

host_observer

Looks at the current host for listening network endpoints. Uses the /proc file system and requires the SYS_PTRACE and DAC_READ_SEARCH capabilities so that it can determine what processes own the listening sockets. See Receiver creator receiver for more information.

k8s_observer

Uses the Kubernetes API to discover pods running on the local node. See Receiver creator receiver for more information.

memory_ballast

Configures the memory ballast for the Collector process, either as a size in megabytes or as a size expressed as a percentage of the total memory. Sufficient ballast enhances the stability of Collector deployments.

pprof

Activates the golang net/http/pprof endpoint, which is used to collect performance profiles and investigate issues with a service.

smartagent

Provides a mechanism to set configuration options that are applicable to all instances of the Smart Agent receiver. Allows to migrate your existing Smart Agent configuration to the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector.

zpages

Activates an extension that serves zPages, an HTTP endpoint that provides live data for debugging different components.

Note

The previous list might not contain all the latest additions. For a complete list of Collector components, including components that aren’t included in the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector, see the opentelemetry-contrib repository in GitHub.

Next steps¶

Read on to learn how to: