OpenTelemetry Quick Start

The purpose of this tutorial is to help you get started with OpenTelemetry and Lightstep Observability using the OpenTelemetry Demo to see data in Lightstep quickly.

We will be using a modified version of the OpenTelemetry Demo repo. This repo has been modified to demonstrate how to send data to Lightstep using the OpenTelemetry Collector.

Pre-Requisites

• Docker and Docker Compose
• A Lightstep Observability account: create a free account here.
• A Lightstep access token for the Lightstep Observability project you would like to use.

Running the OpenTelemetry Demo App

1. Clone the repo

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    git clone https://github.com/lightstep/opentelemetry-demo.git
   

2. Edit the OpenTelemetry Collector Config file.

   This file allows you to configure the OpenTelemetry Collector with your own Observability back-end. This case, otelcol-config-extras.yml is already configured to use Lightstep as the back-end. All you need to do is add your Lightstep access token[] to the file, to be able to send traces to Lightstep.

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    cd opentelemetry-demo
   

   Open src/otelcollector/otelcol-config-extras.yml for editing using your favourite editor. The file looks like this:

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    # extra settings to be merged into OpenTelemetry Collector configuration
    # do not delete this file
               
    exporters:
      logging:
        logLevel: debug
      otlp/ls:
        endpoint: ingest.lightstep.com:443
        headers: 
          "lightstep-access-token": "<lightstep_access_token>"
       
    service:
      pipelines:
        traces:
          receivers: [otlp]
          processors: [batch]
          exporters: [logging, otlp/ls]
        metrics:
          receivers: [otlp]
          processors: [batch]
          exporters: [logging, otlp/ls]
   

   Replace <lightstep_access_token> with your own Lightstep access token[], and save the file. The access token tells what Lightstep project to send your telemetry data to.

3. Launch the sample app

   If you’re not already in the repo root:

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    cd opentelemetry-demo/
   

   Run Docker compose. If you’re on an x86-64 machine (i.e. Intel or AMD-based, non-Apple Silicon), run the command below. If you’re running the Demo App for the first time, it will download all of the Docker images first. This may take several minutes.

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    docker compose up --no-build
   

   If you’re on an Apple Silicon machine, you will need to build all images from source using the command below, as the images hosted in the GitHub Container Registry (GHCR) are built and optimized for x86-64 machines. This can take upwards of 20 minutes.

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    docker compose build
    docker compose up
   

   Once the app is up and running, you will see text continuously scrolling down the screen. This is expected. Sample output looks something like this:

   

   The Webstore app can now be accessed here: http://localhost:8080

   

4. See the Traces in Lightstep

   

   To view traces in your Lightstep Observability project, check out Lightstep Observability Notebooks.