Docs » Get started with the Splunk Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector » Splunk Add-On for the OpenTelemetry Collector » Configure the deployment mode of your Splunk Add-on Collector instance

Configure the deployment mode of your Splunk Add-on Collector instance 🔗

The OpenTelemetry Collector has different deployment modes:

  • Host monitoring (agent): This is the default value and the simplest configuration. The Splunk Add-on for the OpenTelemetry Collector, when configured as an agent, sends data to Splunk Observability Cloud.

  • Data forwarding (gateway): When configured as a gateway, your Splunk Add-on for the OpenTelemetry Collector collects data from one or more agents before forwarding it to Splunk Observability Cloud.

  • As an agent that sends data to a gateway: To use a gateway instance, you create one or more instances of Splunk add-on for the OpenTelemetry Collector as agents that send data to that gateway instance.

Deploy the Splunk Add-on for the OpenTelemetry Collector as an agent 🔗

As an agent, the OpenTelemetry Collector sends data directly to Splunk Observability Cloud. This is the default configuration. Learn more at Host monitoring (agent) mode.

If your instance is not configured as an agent and you want to configure it as an agent, edit your inputs.conf file and update the variable Splunk_config to reflect your agent configuration file name. You can find this file in your directory at /otelcol/config/. The default file name is ta-agent-config.yaml. If you are using a custom configuration file, provide that file name.

Deploy the Splunk Add-on for the OpenTelemetry Collector as a gateway 🔗

If deployed as a gateway, the Collector instance can collect data from one or more Collector instances deployed as agents. The gateway instance then sends that data to Splunk Observability Cloud. Learn more at Data forwarding (gateway) mode.

To configure your Splunk Add-on for OpenTelemetry Collector as a gateway:

  1. Edit your inputs.conf file to update the variable Splunk_config with your gateway configuration file name. You can find this file in your directory at /otelcol/config/. The default file name for the gateway file is ta-gateway-config.yaml. If you are using a custom configuration file, provide that file name.

  2. Set the splunk_listen_interface value to 0.0.0.0 or to the specific IP address that sends data to this gateway in local/inputs.conf.

Caution

You must also configure one or more Collector instances as agents that send data to your new gateway.

Configure Splunk Add-on for OpenTelemetry Collector as an agent that sends data to a gateway 🔗

You can set up one or more Collector instances as agents that send data to another instance that is set up as a gateway. See more at Send data from an agent Collector to a gateway Collector.

To do this configure an instance that works as a gateway, and then one or more instances that operate as agents:

  1. Create your gateway, if you have not already done so. See Deploy the Splunk Add-on for the OpenTelemetry Collector as a gateway for more information.

  2. Edit your inputs.conf file to update the variable Splunk_config to reflect your gateway configuration file name. You can find the default configuration file in your directory at /otelcol/config/. The default file name for this configuration file is ta-agent-to-gateway-config.yaml. If you are using a custom configuration file, provide that file name.

  3. In the README directory, open inputs.conf.spec and copy the attribute for the splunk_gateway_url.

  4. Paste this value into ta-agent-to-gateway-config.yaml and then update the value for this setting with the gateway IP address.

This page was last updated on Nov 07, 2024.