Manually instrument Java applications using the Java agent 1.x (No longer supported)

Version 1.x of the Splunk Java Agent is deprecated. Learn how to migrate to the latest version.

CAUTION:

The Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Java version 1.x has reached End of Support as of June 30, 2025.

New customers should use the latest version of the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Java. Existing customers should consider migrating to version 2.5.0 or higher. To learn how to migrate, see Migration guide for OpenTelemetry Java 2.x metrics.

For instructions on how to manually instrument Java applications, see the Manual instrumentation docs in the OpenTelemetry Java Instrumentation repository at https://opentelemetry.io/docs/java/manual_instrumentation.

Note: Manual OTel instrumentation is fully compatible with Splunk automatic JVM instrumentation and is fully supported by Splunk.

Send custom Java application metrics (1.x)

The Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Java agent detects if the instrumented application is using Micrometer and injects a special MeterRegistry implementation that lets the agent collect user-defined meters.

Follow these steps to activate custom application metrics:

Add the micrometer-core dependency

To export custom metrics through the Java agent, add a dependency on the micrometer-core library with version 1.5 and higher:

Maven
<dependency>
  <groupId>io.micrometer</groupId>
  <artifactId>micrometer-core</artifactId>
  <version>1.7.5</version>
</dependency>
Gradle
implementation("io.micrometer:micrometer-core:1.7.5")

Register each custom meter

You must register each custom meter in the global Metrics.globalRegistry instance provided by the Micrometer library. You can use one of meter factory methods provided by the Metrics class, or use meter builders and reference the Metrics.globalRegistry directly, as in the following example:

class MyClass {
Counter myCounter = Metrics.counter("my_custom_counter");
  Timer myTimer = Timer.builder("my_custom_timer").register(Metrics.globalRegistry);

  int foo() {
    myCounter.increment();
    return myTimer.record(this::fooImpl);
  }

  private int fooImpl() {
     // ...
  }
}

For more information on the Micrometer API, see the Micrometer official documentation.