Send telemetry using the OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib project

If you need to use the upstream Collector due to technical or practical reasons, you can still send traces and metrics to Splunk Observability Cloud. On the other hand, the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector enhances the upstream OpenTelemetry Collector and is fully compatible with Splunk instrumentation.

The OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib project, referred to officially as the upstream Collector, is the upstream source of all OpenTelemetry Collector distributions, including the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector. The upstream Collector contains vendor-specific components, such as receivers and exporters for several observability back ends, including Splunk Observability Cloud.

The Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector, on the other hand, is configured for Splunk Observability Cloud and can be deployed automatically by a variety of configuration management tools or using the installer scripts. The distribution adds additional functionality to the Collector while preserving all the features from the OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib project. See Get started with the Splunk Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector.

If you need to use the upstream Collector due to technical or practical reasons, you can still send traces and metrics to Splunk Observability Cloud. Read on to learn about the differences between the upstream Collector and the Splunk OTel Collector, how to configure the upstream Collector for Splunk Observability Cloud, and how to migrate from the upstream Collector to the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector.

Note: Splunk participates in the OpenTelemetry project and is committed to its growth. Features developed for the Splunk distribution are regularly added to the upstream Collector for the benefit of the entire community. The goal is for all Splunk distributions to eventually become snapshots of the OpenTelemetry Contrib Collector project.

Feature comparison

The following table compares the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector with the Collector from the OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib project.


Feature	Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector	OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib project
Splunk support	Full support	Best effort
Installer scripts for Linux and Windows	Yes, for Windows and Linux	No
Configured for Splunk Observability Cloud	Yes, for host monitoring (agent) and data forwarding (gateway) modes	No
Automatic discovery and configuration	Yes	No
Recipes for configuration management tools	Yes, for Ansible, Chef, Puppet, and Salt	No
Receivers for IMM already included	Yes	No
AlwaysOn Profiling	Yes, CPU and memory	No
Related content	Yes	Yes, when using Splunk exporters

Prerequisites

To send data to Splunk Observability Cloud you can use the Collector from the OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib project. See https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib on GitHub for more information.

Note: Make sure that the version number of OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib is the same as the latest Splunk distribution before configuring the Collector. To check the version of the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector, see the Releases page on GitHub.

Sample configuration for Splunk Observability Cloud

The following example shows how to configure the upstream Collector to send metrics and traces to Splunk Observability Cloud:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/signalfx/splunk-otel-collector/main/cmd/otelcol/config/collector/upstream_agent_config.yaml

Migrate to the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector

Migrating from existing upstream Collectors to the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector requires fewer steps than migrating from other proprietary agents, because the Splunk distribution is based on the OpenTelemetry Collector.

To migrate from the Collector Contrib to the Splunk OTel Collector, follow these steps:

Save a copy of your current upstream Collector configuration.
Stop the Collector Contrib service using sudo systemctl stop otelcol on Linux or net stop otelcol on Windows. If you’re running the Collector Contrib in a Terminal session, interrupt it by selecting Ctrl+C.
Remove the OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib binary and configuration files, including system service configuration files, or use the package manager in your system to remove the upstream Collector.
Install the Splunk OTel Collector. See Get started: Understand and use the Collector. If you’ve deployed the Collector in Kubernetes use the Helm chart. See Install the Collector for Kubernetes using Helm for more information.
Configure the Splunk OTel Collector taking into account the settings you saved before removing the Collector Contrib project, as well as the components available in the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector. See Sample configuration for Splunk Observability Cloud and Collector components.

Troubleshooting

If you are a Splunk Observability Cloud customer and are not able to see your data in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can get help in the following ways.

Available to Splunk Observability Cloud customers

Submit a case in the Splunk Support Portal.
Contact Splunk Support.

Available to prospective customers and free trial users

Ask a question and get answers through community support at Splunk Answers.
Join the Splunk #observability user group Slack channel to communicate with customers, partners, and Splunk employees worldwide. To join, see Chat groups.

Documentation