Build a Custom EDOT-like Collector

You can build and configure a custom collector or extend the OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib distribution to collect logs and metrics and send them to Elastic Observability.

For a more seamless experience, use the Elastic Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector. Refer to the configuration docs for more on configuring the EDOT Collector.

Build a custom collector

To build a custom collector to collect your telemetry data and send it to Elastic Observability, you need to:

1. Install the OpenTelemetry Collector builder (ocb).
2. Create a builder configuration file.
3. Build the collector.

Refer to the following sections to complete these steps.

Step 1. Install the OpenTelemetry Collector builder

Install the ocb using the command that aligns with you system from the OpenTelemetry building a custom collector documentation.

Step 2. Create a builder configuration file

Create a builder configuration file,builder-config.yml, to define the custom collector. This file specifies the components (extensions, exporters, processors, receivers, and connectors) included in your custom collector.

The following example builder-config.yml file contains the components needed to send your telemetry data to Elastic Observability. For more information on these components, refer to the components documentation. Keep or remove components from the example configuration file to fit your needs.

dist:
  name: otelcol-dev
  description: Basic OTel Collector distribution for Developers
  output_path: ./otelcol-dev
  otelcol_version: 0.119.0

extensions:
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/extension/storage/filestorage v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/extension/healthcheckextension v0.119.0
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/extension/memorylimiterextension v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/extension/pprofextension v0.119.0

receivers:
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/receiver/filelogreceiver v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/receiver/hostmetricsreceiver v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/receiver/httpcheckreceiver v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/receiver/jaegerreceiver v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/receiver/k8sclusterreceiver v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/receiver/k8sobjectsreceiver v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/receiver/kubeletstatsreceiver v0.119.0
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/receiver/otlpreceiver v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/receiver/prometheusreceiver v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/receiver/zipkinreceiver v0.119.0

exporters:
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/exporter/debugexporter v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/exporter/elasticsearchexporter v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/exporter/fileexporter v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/exporter/loadbalancingexporter v0.119.0
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/exporter/otlpexporter v0.119.0
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/exporter/otlphttpexporter v0.119.0

processors:
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/processor/attributesprocessor v0.119.0
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/processor/batchprocessor v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/elastic/opentelemetry-collector-components/processor/elasticinframetricsprocessor v0.13.0
  - gomod: github.com/elastic/opentelemetry-collector-components/processor/elastictraceprocessor v0.3.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/processor/filterprocessor v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/processor/k8sattributesprocessor v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/elastic/opentelemetry-collector-components/processor/lsmintervalprocessor v0.3.0
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/processor/memorylimiterprocessor v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/processor/resourcedetectionprocessor v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/processor/resourceprocessor v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/processor/transformprocessor v0.119.0

connectors:
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/connector/routingconnector v0.119.0
  - gomod: github.com/elastic/opentelemetry-collector-components/connector/signaltometricsconnector v0.3.0
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/connector/spanmetricsconnector v0.119.0

Step 3. Build the Collector

Build your custom collector using the ocb tool and the configuration file by running the following command:

builder --config builder-config.yml

This command generates a new collector in the specified output path, otelcol-dev. The generated collector includes the components you specified in the configuration file.

For general information on building a custom collector, refer to the OpenTelemetry documentation.