Advanced OpenTelemetry Collector

Prerequisites

5 minutes

Before you begin

  1. Pair up with other attendees (optional).

  2. Open Splunk Observability Cloud. Choose one of these options:

    • Sign in to the Observability Workshop organization provided with your Splunk Show instance.
    • Register for a free Splunk Observability Cloud organization and sign in.

    Registration: Register for Splunk Observability Cloud Free

  3. Choose one supported execution path.

    The workshop requires bash, curl, jq, a text editor, outbound HTTPS, and free local ports 2222, 4318, and 13133. The Splunk Show path also requires ssh on your local computer. The scp command is optional and is needed only if you choose to transfer files manually.

    • Splunk Show instance: Open a terminal on your computer and connect to the Splunk Show instance with the supplied SSH command. Keep the supplied SSH command and password handy because you use them in each new terminal. For example, enter:

      bash 
      ssh -p 2222 splunk@127.0.0.1

      At the prompt, enter the provided password.

    • Linux laptop or Apple silicon Mac: Use Terminal locally. Linux systems can use an x86_64/amd64 or arm64/aarch64 processor.

Windows and Intel-based Mac computers

Connect to a Splunk Show instance to participate in this workshop remotely. Contact a facilitator if you need help.
Exercise Set up the workshop
1

Create a folder

bash 
mkdir -p ~/advanced-otel-workshop
cd ~/advanced-otel-workshop

The remaining pages refer to this folder as [WORKSHOP].

2

Get the three workshop files

Select the tab for the computer that runs the Collector.

Keep your SSH details handy

The SSH command and password for your Splunk Show instance are provided by email or by the workshop facilitator. Keep them in a convenient, secure place. You must use the SSH command and password each time you open a new terminal and connect to the instance.

Connect to the Splunk Show instance with the supplied SSH command, then run:

bash 
cd ~/advanced-otel-workshop
curl -fL https://github.com/signalfx/splunk-otel-collector/releases/download/v0.161.0/otelcol_linux_amd64 -o otelcol
curl -fL https://github.com/splunk/observability-workshop/raw/refs/heads/main/workshop/ninja/advanced-otel/loadgen/build/loadgen-linux-amd64 -o loadgen
curl -fL https://github.com/splunk/observability-workshop/raw/refs/heads/main/workshop/ninja/advanced-otel/setup-workshop.sh -o setup-workshop.sh
chmod +x setup-workshop.sh

Keep the supplied SSH details available for each new terminal. The guided workshop does not require scp.

3

Run setup

bash 
./setup-workshop.sh

At the cloud-export prompt, press Enter to send metrics and traces to Splunk Observability Cloud. To keep all workshop data local, enter n. The script then asks for your realm and access token. On a Splunk Show instance, the supplied realm appears as the default, and an access token is already available. Press Enter to use each supplied value, or enter a replacement, such as the realm and access token for your Splunk Observability Cloud Free organization. Token characters are hidden while you type.

Setup creates one Collector configuration:

text 
[WORKSHOP]
├── 1-agent
│   └── agent_config.yaml
├── loadgen
├── otelcol
├── setup-workshop.sh
└── workshop-env.sh

You learn about the components and pipelines in agent_config.yaml in Step 1.6.

Optional: find your realm and access token when using your own organization

Skip this section when you are using a Splunk Show instance.

If you use your own Splunk Observability Cloud organization:

  • Find the realm in the organization URL. For example, a URL containing us1 uses the us1 realm.
  • Go to Settings > Access Tokens. Create a token or use an existing token that has ingest authorization.
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