apm-infra-correlation.md

Enable APM-Infra Correlation

The APM Service Dashboards include charts that indicate the health of the underlying infrastructure. The default configuration of Splunk OpenTelemetry Collector automatically configures this for you, but when specifying a custom configuration it is important to keep the following in mind.

Configuration to enable APM-Infra Correlation from a standalone VM (Agent)

To view your infrastructure data in the APM Service Dashboards, you need to enable the following in the opentelemetry collector:

• hostmetrics receiver

  • cpu, memory, filesystem and network enabled

  This will allow the collection of cpu, mem, disk and network metrics.

• signalfx exporter

  The signalfx exporter will aggregate the metrics from the hostmetrics receiver and send in metrics such as cpu.utilization, which are referenced in the relevant APM service charts.

  • correlation flag (enabled by default)

  • signalfx exporter must be enabled for metrics AND traces pipeline (example below)

  The correlation flag of the signalfx exporter will allow the collector to make relevant API calls to correlate your spans with the infrastructure metrics, but to do this, the signalfx exporter must be placed in the traces pipeline. This flag is enabled by default, so there is no specific configuration needed. You can, however, adjust the correlation option further (if needed). See here for more information on adjusting the correlation option.

• resourcedetection processor

  • cloud provider/env variable to set host.name
  • override enabled

  This processor will enable a unique host.name value to be set for metrics and traces. The host.name is determined by either the ec2 host name, or the system host name.

• resource/add_environment processor (optional)

  This processor inserts a deployment.environment span tag to all spans. The APM charts require the environment span tag to be set correctly. You should configure this span tag in the instrumentation, but if that is not an option, you can use this processor to insert the required deployment.environment span tag value.

Here are the relevant snippets from each section:

...
receivers:
  hostmetrics:
    collection_interval: 10s
    scrapers:
      cpu:
      disk:
      filesystem:
      memory:
      network:
...
processors:
  resourcedetection:
    detectors: [system,env,gcp,ec2]
    override: true
  resource/add_environment:
    attributes:
      - action: insert
        value: staging
        key: deployment.environment
...
exporters:
  # Traces
  sapm:
    access_token: "${SPLUNK_ACCESS_TOKEN}"
    endpoint: "${SPLUNK_TRACE_URL}"
  # Metrics + Events + APM correlation calls
  signalfx:
    access_token: "${SPLUNK_ACCESS_TOKEN}"
    api_url: "${SPLUNK_API_URL}"
    ingest_url: "${SPLUNK_INGEST_URL}"
...
service:
  extensions: [health_check, http_forwarder, zpages]
  pipelines:
    traces:
      receivers: [jaeger, zipkin]
      processors: [memory_limiter, batch, resourcedetection, resource/add_environment]
      exporters: [sapm, signalfx]
    metrics:
      receivers: [hostmetrics]
      processors: [memory_limiter, batch, resourcedetection]
      exporters: [signalfx]

Configuration to enable APM-Infra Correlation from an Agent -> Gateway

If you need to run the Opentelemetry Collector in both Agent and Gateway mode, refer to the following sections.

Agent

Follow the same steps as mentioned for a standalone VM and also include the following changes.

• http_forwarder extension

  • egress endpoint

  The http_forwarder listens on port 6060 and sends all the REST API calls directly to the Splunk Observability Cloud. If your Agent does not have access to talk to the Splunk SaaS backend directly, this should be changed to the URL of the Gateway.

• signalfx exporter

  • api_url endpoint

  The api_url endpoint should be set to the URL of the Gateway, and you MUST specify the ingress port of the http_forwarder of the Gateway (6060 by default).

  • ingest_url endpoint

  The ingest_url endpoint should be set to the URL of the Gateway, and just like the api_url, you must specify the ingress port of the signalfx receiver of the Gateway (9943 by default).

  You can choose to send all your metrics via the otlp exporter to the gateway, but you must send the REST API calls, required for trace correlation, via the signalfx exporter in the traces pipeline. If you want, you can also use the signalfx exporter for metrics.

• All pipelines

  • Metrics, Traces and Logs pipeline should be sent to the appropriate receivers on the Gateway.

  • otlp exporter (optional)

  The otlp exporter uses the grpc protocol, so the endpoint must be defined as the IP address of the gateway. Using the otlp exporter is optional, but recommended for the majority of your traffic from the Agent to the gateway (see NOTE below)

  NOTE:

  • If you are using the otlp exporter for metrics, the hostmetrics aggregation must be done at the Gateway (example below)

  • Apart from the requirement of using the signalfx exporter [for making REST API calls in the traces pipeline], the rest of the data between the Agent to the Gateway should ideally be sent via the otlp exporter. Since otlp is the internal format that all data gets converted to upon receival, it is the most efficient way to send data to the Gateway (example below)

Here are the relevant snippets from each section:

...
receivers:
  hostmetrics:
    collection_interval: 10s
    scrapers:
      cpu:
      disk:
      filesystem:
      memory:
      network:
...
processors:
  resourcedetection:
    detectors: [system,env,gcp,ec2]
    override: true
  resource/add_environment:
    attributes:
      - action: insert
        value: staging
        key: deployment.environment
...
exporters:
  # Traces
  otlp:
    endpoint: "${SPLUNK_GATEWAY_URL}:4317"
    tls:
      insecure: true
  # Metrics + Events + APM correlation calls
  signalfx:
    access_token: "${SPLUNK_ACCESS_TOKEN}"
    api_url: "http://${SPLUNK_GATEWAY_URL}:6060"
    ingest_url: "http://${SPLUNK_GATEWAY_URL}:9943"
...
service:
  extensions: [health_check, http_forwarder, zpages]
  pipelines:
    traces:
      receivers: [jaeger, zipkin]
      processors: [memory_limiter, batch, resourcedetection, resource/add_environment]
      exporters: [otlp, signalfx]
    metrics:
      receivers: [hostmetrics]
      processors: [memory_limiter, batch, resourcedetection]
      exporters: [otlp]

Gateway

In Gateway mode, the relevant receivers to match the exporters from the Agent. In addition, you need to make the following changes.

• http_forwarder extension

  • egress endpoint

  The http_forwarder listens on port 6060 and sends all the REST API calls directly to Splunk Observability Cloud. In Gateway mode, this should be changed to the Splunk Observability Cloud SaaS endpoint.

• signalfx exporter

  • translation_rules and exclude_metrics flag

  Both flags should be set to their default value, and thus can be commented out or simply removed. This will ensure that the hostmetrics aggregations that are normally performed by the signalfx exporter on the Agent, are performed by the signalfx exporter on the Gateway instead.

Here are the relevant snippets from each section:

...
extensions:
  http_forwarder:
    egress:
      endpoint: "https://api.${SPLUNK_REALM}.signalfx.com"
...
receivers:
  otlp:
    protocols:
      grpc:
      http:
  signalfx:
...
exporters:
  # Traces
  sapm:
    access_token: "${SPLUNK_ACCESS_TOKEN}"
    endpoint: "https://ingest.${SPLUNK_REALM}.signalfx.com/v2/trace"
  # Metrics + Events
  signalfx:
    access_token: "${SPLUNK_ACCESS_TOKEN}"
    realm: "${SPLUNK_REALM}"

...
service:
  extensions: [http_forwarder]
  pipelines:
    traces:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors:
      - memory_limiter
      - batch
      exporters: [sapm]
    metrics:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [memory_limiter, batch]
      exporters: [signalfx]

Alternatively, if you want to use the signalfx exporter for metrics on both Agent and Gateway, you need to disable the aggregation at the Gateway. To do so, you must set the translation_rules and exclude_metrics to empty lists (example below).

The Gateway's configuration can be modified as follows.

...
exporters:
  # Traces
  sapm:
    access_token: "${SPLUNK_ACCESS_TOKEN}"
    endpoint: "https://ingest.${SPLUNK_REALM}.signalfx.com/v2/trace"
  # Metrics + Events
  signalfx:
    access_token: "${SPLUNK_ACCESS_TOKEN}"
    realm: "${SPLUNK_REALM}"
    translation_rules: []
    exclude_metrics: []
...
service:
  extensions: [http_forwarder]
  pipelines:
    traces:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors:
      - memory_limiter
      - batch
      exporters: [sapm]
    metrics:
      receivers: [signalfx]
      processors: [memory_limiter, batch]
      exporters: [signalfx]