Docs » Get started with the Splunk Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector » Collector deployment tools and options » Deploy the Collector with Salt

Deploy the Collector with Salt ๐Ÿ”—

You can use a formula to install and configure the Collector to collect metrics, traces, and logs from Linux machines and send data to Splunk Observability Cloud. See the GitHub repository to download the Salt module.

Formulas are pre-written Salt States. They are as open-ended as Salt States themselves and can be used for tasks such as installing a package, configuring and starting a service, setting up users or permissions, and many other common tasks.

Prerequisites ๐Ÿ”—

You need the following resources to use Salt:

Linux ๐Ÿ”—

Currently, we support the following Linux distributions and versions:

  • Amazon Linux: 2, 2023. Log collection with Fluentd isnโ€™t supported for Amazon Linux 2023.

  • CentOS, Red Hat, Oracle: 7, 8, 9

  • Debian: 9, 10, 11

  • SUSE: 12, 15 (Note: Only for Collector versions 0.34.0 or higher. Log collection with Fluentd not currently supported.)

  • Ubuntu: 18.04, 20.04, 22.04

Getting started ๐Ÿ”—

Salt uses key-value stores known as โ€œpillarsโ€ for user-defined data to be made available to a โ€œminionโ€. Salt defines a minion as a server running a Salt minion daemon which can listen to commands from a manager and run the requested tasks. Generally, minions are servers which are to be controlled using Salt.

You can configure all attributes in the splunk-otel-collector pillar. For example:

splunk-otel-collector:
splunk_access_token: "MY_ACCESS_TOKEN"
splunk_realm: "SPLUNK_REALM"
splunk_repo_base_url: https://splunk.jfrog.io/splunk
splunk_otel_collector_config: '/etc/otel/collector/agent_config.yaml'
splunk_service_user: splunk-otel-collector
splunk_service_group: splunk-otel-collector

Attributes for Linux ๐Ÿ”—

For Linux, the formula accepts the attributes described in the following table:

Name

Description

Default value

collector_version

Version of the Collector package to install, for example, 0.25.0. The version should correspond to Github Releases without the preceding v. Note that on Linux, the latest Collector version is installed if this parameter is not specified.

None

splunk_access_token

The Splunk access token to authenticate requests. This attribute is required.

None

splunk_realm

Which realm to send the data to, for example, us0. The Splunk ingest and API URLs are inferred by this value. The SPLUNK_REALM environment variable is set with this value for the collector service. This attribute is required. To find your Splunk realm, see Note about realms.

None

splunk_ingest_url

Sets the Splunk ingest URL explicitly instead of the URL inferred by the $splunk_realm parameter. The SPLUNK_INGEST_URL environment variable is set with this value for the Collector service.

https://ingest.${splunk_realm}.signalfx.com

splunk_api_url

Sets the Splunk API URL explicitly instead of the URL inferred by the $splunk_realm parameter. The SPLUNK_API_URL environment variable is set with this value for the Collector service.

https://api.${splunk_realm}.signalfx.com

splunk_trace_url

Sets the Splunk trace endpoint URL explicitly instead of the URL inferred by the $splunk_ingest_url parameter. The SPLUNK_TRACE_URL environment variable is set with this value for the Collector service.

${splunk_ingest_url}/v2/trace

splunk_hec_url

Sets the Splunk HEC endpoint URL explicitly instead of the URL inferred by the $splunk_ingest_url parameter. The SPLUNK_HEC_URL environment variable is set with this value for the Collector service.

${splunk_ingest_url}/v1/log

splunk_hec_token

Sets the Splunk HEC authentication token if different than $splunk_access_token. The SPLUNK_HEC_TOKEN environment variable is set with this value for the Collector service.

$splunk_access_token

splunk_bundle_dir

The path to the Smart Agent bundle directory. The default path is provided by the Collector package. If the specified path is changed from the default value, the path should be an existing directory on the node. The SPLUNK_BUNDLE_DIR environment variable is set to this value for the Collector service.

/usr/lib/splunk-otel-collector/agent-bundle

splunk_collectd_dir

The path to the collectd configuration directory for the Smart Agent bundle. The default path is provided by the Collector package. If the specified path is changed from the default value, the path should be an existing directory on the node. The SPLUNK_COLLECTD_DIR environment variable is set to this value for the Collector service.

${splunk_bundle_dir}/run/collectd

splunk_memory_total_mib

Total memory in MIB to allocate to the Collector; automatically calculates the ballast size. The SPLUNK_MEMORY_TOTAL_MIB environment variable is set to this value for the Collector service.

512

splunk_ballast_size_mib

Sets the ballast size for the Collector explicitly instead of the value calculated from the $splunk_memory_total_mib parameter. This should be set to 1/3 to 1/2 of configured memory. The SPLUNK_BALLAST_SIZE_MIB environment variable is set to this value for the Collector service.

1/3 of the splunk_memory_total_mib total

splunk_otel_collector_config_source

The source path to a Collector configuration YAML file on your control host that is uploaded and set in place of splunk_otel_collector_config in remote hosts. To use a custom Collector configuration, add the configuration file in the Salt dir. For example, salt://templates/agent_config.yaml.

"", meaning that nothing is copied and the existing splunk_otel_collector_config file is used

service_user and $service_group

Sets the user or group ownership for the Collector service. The user or group is created if they do not exist.

splunk-otel-collector

install_fluentd

Whether to install or manage Fluentd and dependencies for log collection. On Linux, the dependencies include capng_c for activating Linux capabilities, fluent-plugin-systemd for systemd journal log collection, and the required libraries and development tools.

false

td_agent_version

Version of the td-agent (Fluentd) package to install

3.7.1-0 for Debian 9 and 4.3.0 for other distros

splunk_fluentd_config

The path to the Fluentd configuration file on the remote host.

/etc/otel/collector/fluentd/fluent.conf

splunk_fluentd_config_source

The source path to a Fluentd configuration file on your control host that is uploaded and set in place of the splunk_fluentd_config file on remote hosts. To use a custom Fluentd configuration file, add the configuration file into the Salt dir. For example, salt://templates/td_agent.conf.

"" meaning that nothing is copied and the existing splunk_fluentd_config file is used.

fluentd_config_dest

Destination path to the Fluentd configuration file on the node. Only applicable if $with_fluentd is set to true.

/etc/otel/collector/fluentd/fluent.conf

Configure auto instrumentation for Java (Linux only) ๐Ÿ”—

You can automatically instrument your Java applications along with the Collector installation. Auto instrumentation removes the need to install and configure the Java agent separately. See Configure automatic instrumentation for Java for more information.

The following table shows the variables that can be configured for this Salt module:

Name

Description

Default value

install_auto_instrumentation

Whether to install or manage Splunk OpenTelemetry Zero Configuration Auto Instrumentation for Java. When set to true, the splunk-otel-auto-instrumentation deb/rpm package is downloaded and installed from the Collector repository. The Java application on the node needs to be started or restarted separately after installation for auto instrumentation to take effect.

false

auto_instrumentation_version

Version of the splunk-otel-auto-instrumentation package to install, for example, 0.50.0. The minimum supported version is 0.48.0. The Java application on the node needs to be started or restarted separately after installation for auto instrumentation to take effect.

latest

auto_instrumentation_ld_so_preload

By default, the /etc/ld.so.preload file on the node is configured for the /usr/lib/splunk-instrumentation/libsplunk.so shared object library provided by the splunk-otel-auto-instrumentation package and is required for auto instrumentation. Configure this variable to include additional library paths, for example, /path/to/my.library.so. The Java application on the node needs to be started or restarted separately after installation for auto instrumentation to take effect.

''

auto_instrumentation_java_agent_path

Path to the Splunk OpenTelemetry Java agent. The default path is provided by the splunk-otel-auto-instrumentation package. If the path is changed from the default value, the path should be an existing file on the node. The specified path is added to the /usr/lib/splunk-instrumentation/instrumentation.conf configuration file on the node. The Java application on the node needs to be started or restarted separately after installation for auto instrumentation to take effect.

/usr/lib/splunk-instrumentation/splunk-otel-javaagent.jar

auto_instrumentation_resource_attributes

Configure the OpenTelemetry instrumentation resource attributes, for example, deployment.environment=prod. The specified resource attributes are added to the /usr/lib/splunk-instrumentation/instrumentation.conf configuration file on the node. The Java application on the node needs to be started or restarted separately after installation for auto instrumentation to take effect.

''

auto_instrumentation_service_name

Explicitly sets the service name for the instrumented Java application, for example, my.service. By default, the service name is automatically derived from the arguments of the Java executable on the node. However, if this variable is set to a non-empty value, the value overrides the derived service name and is added to the /usr/lib/splunk-instrumentation/instrumentation.conf configuration file on the node. The Java application on the node needs to be started or restarted separately after installation for auto instrumentation to take effect.

''

auto_instrumentation_generate_service_name

Set to false to prevent the preloader from setting the OTEL_SERVICE_NAME environment variable.

true

auto_instrumentation_disable_telemetry

Prevents the preloader from sending the splunk.linux-autoinstr.executions metric to the Collector.

false

auto_instrumentation_enable_profiler

Activates or deactivates AlwaysOn CPU Profiling.

false

auto_instrumentation_enable_profiler_memory

Activates or deactivates AlwaysOn Memory Profiling.

false

auto_instrumentation_enable_metrics

Activates or deactivates JVM metrics.

false