Introduction

What is Observability?

In the ever-evolving landscape of distributed system operations, ensuring the reliability, performance, and scalability of complex applications has become increasingly more difficult. System Observability has emerged as a critical practice that empowers IT organizations to effectively monitor and gain deep insights into the inner workings of their software systems. By systematically collecting and analyzing data about applications, infrastructure, and user interactions, observability enables teams to proactively identify, diagnose, and resolve issues, ultimately leading to enhanced user experiences and operational efficiency.

What is OpenTelemetry?

OpenTelemetry is an open-source project that standardizes the collection of telemetry data from software systems, making it easier for organizations to gain holistic visibility into their environments. By seamlessly integrating with various programming languages, frameworks, and cloud platforms, OpenTelemetry simplifies the instrumentation of applications, allowing developers and operators to collect rich, actionable data about their systems' behavior.  The adoption of OpenTelemetry by software vendors and Application Performance Monitoring (APM) tools represents a significant shift in the observability landscape. OpenTelemetry has gained substantial traction across the industry due to its open-source, vendor-neutral approach and its ability to standardize telemetry data collection.

Many software vendors have started incorporating OpenTelemetry into their frameworks and libraries. Major cloud service providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud have also embraced OpenTelemetry. In addition, many APM tools have integrated OpenTelemetry into their offerings. This integration allows users of these APM solutions to easily collect and visualize telemetry data from their applications instrumented with OpenTelemetry. It enhances the compatibility and flexibility of APM tools, making them more versatile in heterogeneous technology stacks.

Solution Architecture (Component Description)

Key Features (Controller, OMS, Agent, Extensions)

How to Get Started

Prerequisites

Configuration

Open Source Setup

Set up Prometheus

Setup up Jaeger

Set up a Grafana dashboard

Universal Controller 

link to uc.properties open telemetry properties.

Universal Agent

Links to OMS and UAG open telemetry options.

APM Tool Setup

Document References

Summary and Benefits