Overview of the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector 🔗
This page provides a list of resources for using the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector.
Note
This project is currently in Beta. See Beta Definition for more information.
Refer to the following topics for an overview of the Collector:
Architecture, which describes how to deploy the Collector.
Components, which describes what the Collector supports.
Monitoring, which describes how to ensure that the Collector is healthy.
Security, which describes how to ensure that the Collector is secure.
Sizing, which describes how to ensure that the collector is properly sized.
Troubleshoot the Splunk OpenTelemetry Collector, which describes how to resolve common issues with the Collector.
Getting started 🔗
You need the following resources to get started using the Collector:
Confirm exposed ports to make sure your environment doesn’t have conflicts and that firewalls are configured properly. Ports can be changed in the configuration.
This distribution is supported on and packaged for a variety of platforms, including:
Linux: installer script (recommended), Ansible, Puppet, Heroku, and manual (including DEB/RPM packages, Docker, and binary).
Windows: installer script (recommended), Ansible, Puppet, and manual (including MSI with GUI and PowerShell).
See examples for additional use cases.
Configuration 🔗
The following is a list of default configuration files. These files contain standard specifications and settings.
signalfx/splunk-otel-collector. full_config_linux.yaml includes comments and links to documentation. agent_config_linux.yaml is the recommended starting configuration for most environments.
Fluentd, which is only applicable to Helm or installer script installations. See the
*.conffiles and theconf.ddirectory. Common sources, including filelog, journald, and Windows Event Viewer are included.
Custom configuration 🔗
Read our docs on how to configure the Collector, including our advanced settings and other configuration sources.
Note
The SignalFx Smart Agent is deprecated and will reach end of support on June 30th, 2023. For details, see the Deprecation Notice. See Migrating from the SignalFx Smart Agent for resources and best practices to start using the Collector, which is the replacement for the Smart Agent.
Upstream OpenTelemetry Collector 🔗
You can use the upstream OpenTelemetry Collector instead of the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector, but the following features are not available:
Packaging, including installer scripts for Linux and Windows
Configuration management using Ansible or Puppet
Configuration sources
Several Smart Agent capabilities
Visualizations and correlations that are prepackaged in the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector
Note
Splunk officially supports the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector. Splunk only provides best-effort support for the upstream OpenTelemetry Collector.
To use the upstream OpenTelemetry Collector, follow these steps:
Get the OpenTelemetry Collector contribution. This contribution includes receivers/exporters and vendor-specific components.
Configure the upstream OpenTelemetry Collector. See upstream_agent_config.yaml for an example configuration for the upstream OpenTelemetry Collector. This configuration includes the recommended settings to ensure infrastructure correlation.
Troubleshooting 🔗
See Troubleshooting to resolve common issues using the OpenTelemetry Collector and the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector.