OpenTelemetry
OpenTelemetry is an open, vendor-neutral observability standard and framework for instrumenting software and generating, collecting, and exporting telemetry such as traces, metrics, and logs.
Logs and Telemetry
OpenTelemetry is an open standard and observability framework for generating, collecting, and exporting telemetry such as traces, metrics, and logs.
- How it is used
- Unifies logs, metrics, and traces so Fluent Bit can receive, transform, correlate, and route telemetry across observability systems.
- How deep it goes
- Defines the three signals, trace spans, OTLP transport, and Fluent Bit input/output configuration without implementing application instrumentation.
- Examples
- Demonstrates separate Fluent Bit inputs for OTel logs, raw traces, and metrics, then prints received events to stdout.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure it through Fluent Bit by receiving OTLP signals, applying labels and URIs, and exporting standardized telemetry.
Cloud Observability in Action
OpenTelemetry is an open-source framework and set of APIs, SDKs, and tools for generating, collecting, and exporting telemetry.
- How it is used
- Standardizes application and infrastructure telemetry while routing signals independently of storage, querying, or observability vendors.
- How deep it goes
- Explains APIs, SDKs, instrumentation, collector pipelines, metadata, and routing, but defers detailed collector internals and configuration.
- Examples
- Uses Kubernetes signal sources, service auto-instrumentation, collector pipelines, HTTP telemetry, and resource attributes for cluster and service identity.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via language SDKs, auto-instrumentation, and the collector to emit, correlate, process, and route telemetry.
Read how Cloud Observability in Action explains OpenTelemetry →
Secure APIs
OpenTelemetry is an open-source, vendor-neutral observability framework that defines APIs, SDKs, and conventions for generating, collecting, and exporting telemetry.
- How it is used
- Supports API security observability by generating telemetry that explains system behavior and exposes anomalies or threats.
- How deep it goes
- Defines OTel, distinguishes its signals, and demonstrates autoinstrumentation and custom metrics without descending into SDK internals.
- Examples
- Uses a FastAPI service, a GET /books counter, trace logs, and endpoint-abuse detection as concrete examples.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via OTel instrumentation to collect signals, correlate requests, measure endpoint use, and investigate suspicious activity.
Quarkus in Action
OpenTelemetry is a vendor-neutral, language-agnostic collection of APIs, tools, and protocols for generating, collecting, and exporting application telemetry.
- How it is used
- Uses distributed tracing to follow requests across cloud-native services and investigate performance or failures.
- How deep it goes
- Defines traces, spans, propagation, and export topologies, but does not specify instrumentation code or exporter configuration.
- Examples
- Illustrates spans with a database SELECT and INSERT, and contrasts collector-mediated export with direct export to Jaeger.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via Quarkus and Jaeger to visualize cross-service traces and identify slow operations.
Spring AI in Action
OpenTelemetry is an open-source observability framework for generating, collecting, and exporting telemetry such as traces, metrics, and logs.
- How it is used
- Supports tracing AI operations in a Spring Boot application and inspecting them through Jaeger.
- How deep it goes
- Explains dependencies, exporter configuration, endpoint properties, sampling, and trace inspection, without covering broader telemetry types.
- Examples
- Demonstrates Board Game Buddy request traces, Qdrant query spans, Jaeger screens, and configurable OTLP deployment.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure Jaeger tracing for a Spring Boot application and inspect request and vector-store spans.
gRPC Microservices in Go
OpenTelemetry is an open-source observability framework for instrumenting applications and collecting, processing, and exporting traces, metrics, and logs.
- How it is used
- Uses OpenTelemetry to collect and export observability data from interacting gRPC microservices.
- How deep it goes
- Works through Go tracing-provider configuration and a gRPC server interceptor, without detailing implementation of log collection.
- Examples
- Shows an Order-service gRPC interceptor and an Order-to-Payment trace, with Jaeger queries for request flow and latency.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure it in a Go gRPC service to export traces to a Jaeger collector and inspect cross-service request flow.
Troubleshooting Java, Second Edition
OpenTelemetry is an open-source observability framework and standard for collecting, generating, and exporting telemetry such as traces, metrics, and logs.
- How it is used
- Uses distributed tracing to debug failures, monitor system health, analyze performance, and understand request flow across complex architectures.
- How deep it goes
- Explains manual and automatic instrumentation, export, and backend roles, but stops short of detailed configuration or code examples.
- Examples
- Uses a missing-order investigation and a service-to-backend architecture diagram as concrete tracing examples.
- What you can do after
- Diagnose distributed-service failures by generating spans and exploring exported traces in Jaeger or Zipkin.
Read how Troubleshooting Java, Second Edition explains OpenTelemetry →
Related concepts
- trajectoryused by · A trajectory is an ordered sequence of states, actions, events, or operations that records or describes progression through successive steps or over time.
- telemetryproduces · Telemetry is automatically generated or collected operational data describing a system’s activity, state, behavior, or performance.
- observabilityimplements · Observability is the ability to infer a system’s internal state and behavior from its externally available outputs, such as logs, metrics, and traces.
- instrumentationused by · Instrumentation is the addition or activation of mechanisms in software or systems to observe, measure, or record their behavior during execution.
- Jaegerused by · Jaeger is an open-source distributed tracing system for collecting, storing, querying, and visualizing trace data to monitor and troubleshoot distributed applications.
- OTLPhas part · OTLP, the OpenTelemetry Protocol, is a vendor-neutral protocol that defines how OpenTelemetry telemetry data is encoded and transmitted between sources, collectors, and destinations.
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