{"dataset":{"id":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000062","slug":"opentelemetry-best-practices","name":"OpenTelemetry best practices","description":"Source-linked guidance on OpenTelemetry fundamentals: traces and spans, metrics, logs, collectors, and instrumentation. Scoped to current OpenTelemetry docs.","visibility":"public","version":1,"documentCount":5,"publisher":"Koskamo editorial","license":"Original summaries; linked sources retain their own terms.","reviewedAt":"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z","readOnly":true,"createdAt":"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z"},"total":5,"documents":[{"title":"Instrumentation","sourceUrl":"https://opentelemetry.io/docs/concepts/instrumentation/","text":"For a system to be observable it must be instrumented: its code must emit signals such as traces, metrics, and logs. OpenTelemetry offers two primary ways: code-based solutions via official APIs and SDKs, giving deeper insight from the application itself, and zero-code solutions for getting started or when you cannot modify the application, with rich telemetry from libraries and the environment it runs in. You can use both simultaneously; code-based telemetry acts as an essential complement to zero-code telemetry. Libraries can leverage the OpenTelemetry API as a dependency with no impact on applications unless the SDK is imported. Built-in context propagation correlates signals regardless of where they are generated, and Resources and Instrumentation Scopes group signals by entities like the host or K8s cluster. Scope: OpenTelemetry. Reviewed October 4, 2026.","id":"opentelemetry-best-practices:Instrumentation","version":1,"createdAt":"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z"},{"title":"Collector","sourceUrl":"https://opentelemetry.io/docs/collector/","text":"The OpenTelemetry Collector offers a vendor-agnostic implementation of how to receive, process, and export telemetry data, removing the need to run, operate, and maintain multiple agents or collectors with improved scalability. Sending data directly to a backend is a great way to get value quickly; however, in general use a collector alongside your service, since it lets the service offload data quickly while the collector handles retries, batching, encryption, or sensitive data filtering. The default OTLP exporters in each language assume a local collector endpoint, so a launched collector automatically starts receiving telemetry. Follow best practices to keep collectors hosted and configured securely. Collector status is mixed: components differ in maturity, with stability documented in each README.md. Scope: OpenTelemetry. Reviewed October 4, 2026.","id":"opentelemetry-best-practices:Collector","version":1,"createdAt":"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z"},{"title":"Logs","sourceUrl":"https://opentelemetry.io/docs/concepts/signals/logs/","text":"A log is a timestamped text record, either structured (recommended) or unstructured; OpenTelemetry accepts any log format, but structured logs are preferred in production because their stable schema makes them straightforward to validate, parse, and analyze at scale. OpenTelemetry provides a Logs API and SDK plus logging bridges to integrate with existing logging frameworks. Adopting OpenTelemetry frequently starts by deploying a Collector as a general-purposes logging agent: its filelogreceiver parses logs from any file and the transformprocessor flattens nested structures and updates values. Adding autoinstrumentation or activating an SDK automatically correlates existing logs with any active trace and span. Application developers configure their logging library with a log appender or bridge emitting into an OpenTelemetry LogRecordExporter. Scope: OpenTelemetry. Reviewed October 4, 2026.","id":"opentelemetry-best-practices:Logs","version":1,"createdAt":"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z"},{"title":"Metrics","sourceUrl":"https://opentelemetry.io/docs/concepts/signals/metrics/","text":"Initialize the Meter Provider once, matching the application lifecycle; it is a factory for Meters and includes Resource and Exporter initialization. Meters create metric instruments capturing measurements at runtime, and each metric event consists of the measurement, the time it was captured, and associated metadata. An instrument is defined by Name, Kind, and optional Unit and Description. Use a Counter for values that only ever go up, a Gauge for a current value at the time it is read, or Asynchronous variants collected once for each export when you lack continuous access. Metric Exporters send data to standard output, the Collector, or a vendor backend. Collected data can alert of an outage or trigger scaling up a deployment upon high demand. Scope: OpenTelemetry. Reviewed October 4, 2026.","id":"opentelemetry-best-practices:Metrics","version":1,"createdAt":"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z"},{"title":"Traces and spans","sourceUrl":"https://opentelemetry.io/docs/concepts/signals/traces/","text":"Trace the request path through applications using Traces, which provide the big picture of operations across monoliths or service meshes. Instrument code by initializing a Tracer Provider, which serves as a factory for Tracers and handles Resource and Exporter setup; this lifecycle typically matches the application. Tracers create Spans, the building blocks representing units of work, containing a Name, Parent span ID, Start and End Timestamps, Span Context, Attributes, Events, Links, and Status. Structure these with key attributes like http.route or http.method to capture details such as net.peer.ip. Enable Distributed Tracing via Context Propagation, allowing Spans to be correlated and assembled into a single Trace regardless of where Spans are generated, which allows tracing to represent an end-to-end view of any system. Scope: OpenTelemetry. Reviewed October 4, 2026.","id":"opentelemetry-best-practices:Traces and spans","version":1,"createdAt":"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z"}]}