Grafana OpenTelemetry Distribution for Java

About

Grafana Distribution of OpenTelemetry Instrumentation for Java - optimized for Grafana Cloud Application Observability.

This project provides a Java agent JAR that can be attached to any Java 8+ application and dynamically injects bytecode to capture telemetry from a number of popular libraries and frameworks.

Why use this distribution instead of OpenTelemetry Instrumentation for Java (upstream) directly?

• Easy to get started: This distribution is optimized for Grafana Cloud Application Observability - you can get started with just a few environment variables.
• Fully Compatible: This distribution is fully compatible with upstream - you can use all configuration options of upstream.
• Optimized for Application Observability and Alloy: No need to tweak any configuration settings if you use the latest version of Alloy.
• Fast Bug Fixes: We can fix bugs faster without waiting for the next release of upstream.
• Cost Optimized: You can save costs by sending only the metrics that are actually used by the dashboards in Grafana Cloud Application Observability (opt-in).

Open Source Friendly:

• You can use OpenTelemetry Instrumentation for Java directly for Grafana Cloud Application Observability - this distribution is just a convenience wrapper. You can find more information how to send telemetry data to Grafana Cloud Databases here.
• You can use this distribution for any OpenTelemetry use case, not just Grafana Cloud.
• You can migrate from this distribution to OpenTelemetry Instrumentation for Java as explained below.

Documentation

The documentation can be found in Grafana Cloud / Application Observability / Instrument / Java.

Compatibility

• Java 8+
• Spring Boot 2.7+
  • Older Spring Boot versions also mostly work, but this is not tested explicitly
• We regularly update to the latest version of OpenTelemetry Instrumentation for Java - you can find the current version here

Migrating to OpenTelemetry Instrumentation for Java

Follow these steps if you want to migrate from this distribution to the upstream project OpenTelemetry Instrumentation for Java:

• If you use Data Saver, you can filter the metrics in the OpenTelemetry Collector instead (docs).
• Add the environment variables below for the best experience with Application Observability:

export OTEL_INSTRUMENTATION_MICROMETER_BASE_TIME_UNIT=s
export OTEL_INSTRUMENTATION_LOG4J_APPENDER_EXPERIMENTAL_LOG_ATTRIBUTES=true
export OTEL_INSTRUMENTATION_LOGBACK_APPENDER_EXPERIMENTAL_LOG_ATTRIBUTES=true 

Community

To engage with the Grafana Cloud Application Observability community:

• Chat with us on our community Slack channel. To invite yourself to the Grafana Slack, visit https://slack.grafana.com/ and join the #application-observability channel.
• Ask questions on the Discussions page.
• File an issue for bugs, enhancements, and feature suggestions.