Setting up EDOT Python

Install

Install the distribution

Install EDOT Python:

pip install elastic-opentelemetry

Install the available instrumentation

EDOT Python does not install any instrumentation package by default, instead it relies on the edot-bootstrap command to scan the installed packages and install the available instrumentation. The following command will install all the instrumentations available for libraries found installed in your environment:

edot-bootstrap --action=install

[!NOTE] Add this command every time you deploy an updated version of your application (in other words, add it to your container image build process).

Send data to Elastic

After installing EDOT Python, configure and initialize it to start sending data to Elastic.

Configure EDOT Python

Refer to Observability quickstart documentation on how to setup your environment.

To configure EDOT Python you need to set a few OTLP_* environment variables that will be available when running EDOT Python:

  • OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES: Use this to add a service.name and deployment.environment that will make it easier to recognize your application when reviewing data sent to Elastic.

The following environment variables are not required if you are sending data through a local EDOT Collector but will be provided in the Elastic Observability platform onboarding:

  • OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT: The full URL of the endpoint where data will be sent.
  • OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS: A comma-separated list of key=value pairs that will be added to the headers of every request. This is typically used for authentication information.

Run EDOT Python

Then wrap your service invocation with opentelemetry-instrument, which is the wrapper that provides automatic instrumentation:

opentelemetry-instrument <command to start your service>

For example, a web service running with gunicorn may look like this:

opentelemetry-instrument gunicorn main:app

Confirm that EDOT Python is working

To confirm that EDOT Python has successfully connected to Elastic:

  1. Go to Observability → Applications → Service Inventory
  2. You should see the name of the service to which you just added EDOT Python. It can take several minutes after initializing EDOT Python for the service to show up in this list.
  3. Click on the name in the list to see trace data.

[!NOTE] There may be no trace data to visualize unless you have invoked your application since initializing EDOT Python.

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