OpenTelemetry Node.js Configuration

Ship traces from Node.js to OpenSearch with OpenTelemetry

Use OpenTelemetry to easily send Node.js traces to your Logit.io stack.

This sample app was created and tested with

Node Package Manager 9.6.7

Install Integration

Please click on the Install Integration button to configure your stack for this source.

Install

Create a new folder for the project called opentelemetry_nodejs_example and then open the command prompt or terminal window and navigate to the folder. Paste in the following command:

npm init -y

This will create a package.json file with default settings.

This guide uses the Express framework to simplify handling HTTP requests. Next we need to paste the following command into the command prompt or terminal window:

npm install express

You will now have a node_modules folder in addition to the package.json and a package-lock.json file.

We now need to install the necessary OpenTelemetry packages using npm (node package manager), the packages that we will be using are as follows:

opentelemetry-api: Core API for OpenTelemetry
opentelemetry-sdk: SDK implementation
opentelemetry-exporter-trace-otlp-grpc: Exporter to send data to the OpenTelemetry Collector or other OTLP-compatible backends using grpc
opentelemetry-exporter-trace-otlp-http: Exporter to send data to the OpenTelemetry Collector or other OTLP-compatible backends using https
opentelemetry-instrumentation-node: Automatically instrument your node applications for tracing with OpenTelemetry

We install them with the following command.

npm install @opentelemetry/api @opentelemetry/sdk-node @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node @opentelemetry/sdk-trace-base @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-http @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-grpc

Create three new files and name them app.js, tracing.js and config.js.

Open the tracing.js file with your choice of text editor, copy and paste the following code into the file and then save.

tracing.js

const config = require('./config');
 
const { NodeSDK } = require('@opentelemetry/sdk-node');
const { getNodeAutoInstrumentations } = require('@opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node');
const { Resource } = require('@opentelemetry/resources');
const { SemanticResourceAttributes } = require('@opentelemetry/semantic-conventions');
const { OTLPTraceExporter } = require(`@opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-${config.protocol}`);
let sdk = new NodeSDK();
let channelCredentials = null;
let traceExporter = new OTLPTraceExporter();
 
// Define the service name
const serviceName = 'LogitNodeJSTestApp';
 
// Encode the username and password for Basic Authentication
const auth = Buffer.from(`${config.username}:${config.password}`).toString('base64');
 
if (config.protocol === "grpc") {    
  const OTLP_ENDPOINT = `grpc://${config.endpoint}:${config.port}`;
  const grpc = require('@grpc/grpc-js');
  const { credentials } = grpc;
  const metadata = new grpc.Metadata();
  metadata.set('authorization', `Basic ${auth}`);
  
  // Create gRPC credentials with Basic Auth
  channelCredentials = credentials.combineChannelCredentials(
    credentials.createSsl(), // Use SSL credentials if your endpoint requires it
    credentials.createFromMetadataGenerator((_params, callback) => {
    callback(null, metadata);
    })
  );
  
  // Configure the OTLP trace exporter with gRPC and Basic Auth
  traceExporter = new OTLPTraceExporter({
    url: OTLP_ENDPOINT,
    credentials: channelCredentials,
  });
  
  // Create a new Node SDK instance with automatic instrumentation
  sdk = new NodeSDK({
    traceExporter,
    instrumentations: [getNodeAutoInstrumentations()],
    resource: new Resource({
    [SemanticResourceAttributes.SERVICE_NAME]: serviceName,
    }),
  });    
} else {    
  const OTLP_ENDPOINT = `https://${config.endpoint}:${config.port}/v1/traces`;
  
  // Create HTTPS credentials with Basic Auth
  traceExporter = new OTLPTraceExporter({
  url: OTLP_ENDPOINT,
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Basic ${auth}`
    }
  });
  
  // Create a new Node SDK instance with automatic instrumentation
  sdk = new NodeSDK({
  traceExporter,
  instrumentations: [getNodeAutoInstrumentations()],
  resource: new Resource({
    [SemanticResourceAttributes.SERVICE_NAME]: serviceName,
    }),
  });
}
 
// Initialize the SDK and start the tracing
sdk.start();

Next open the app.js file with your text editor, copy and paste the following code into the file and then save.

app.js

// Import and initialize OpenTelemetry
require('./tracing');
 
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
 
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.send('Hello, World!');
});
 
const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3000;
app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`Server is running on http://localhost:${PORT}`);
});

Configuring the App

Open the config.js file using your text editor, copy and paste the following into the file and then save. Use the tab to choose between sending via HTTPS or gRPC.

// config.js
module.exports = {
  endpoint: "@opentelemetry.endpointAddress",
  port: "@port",
  protocol: "@protocol",
  username: '@opentelemetry.username',
  password: '@opentelemetry.password',
};

Run the NodeJs App

Run the NodeJS app with the following command in Terminal or the Command Prompt window.

node app.js

You will see feedback from the app so that you know that is running, the message should say "Server is running on http://localhost:3000 (opens in a new tab)".

The action of launching the NodeJS app will have sent traces to your stack which can now be viewed in Jaeger.

Launch Logit.io to view your traces

Launch APM

If you open your browser and enter http://localhost:3000 (opens in a new tab) you will see that action of browsing to the page served by the NodeJS app will send further traces to your stack.

How to diagnose no data in stack

If you don't see data appearing in your Stack after following the steps, visit the Help Centre guide for steps to diagnose no data appearing in your Stack or Chat to support now.

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