OpenTelemetry using Docker

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Run the OpenTelemetry Collector in a Docker container and send logs and host metrics to Coralogix. Your configuration and log file stay on the host and are mounted into the container, so you can edit them without rebuilding anything.

What you need

• Docker installed.
• A Coralogix Send-Your-Data API key.
• Your Coralogix domain.

Configure the Collector

1.

Create the configuration file

Save this as config.yaml. It tails a log file and scrapes CPU and memory, then exports both to Coralogix.

receivers:
  filelog:
    start_at: beginning
    include:
      - /example.log
    include_file_path: true
    multiline: {line_start_pattern: "\\n"}
  hostmetrics:
    collection_interval: 30s
    scrapers:
      cpu:
      memory:
exporters:
  coralogix:
    domain: "Domain"
    private_key: "Private key"
    application_name: "Application Name"
    subsystem_name: "Subsystem Name"
    timeout: 30s

service:
  pipelines:
    logs:
      receivers: [ filelog ]
      exporters: [ coralogix ]
    metrics:
      receivers: [ hostmetrics ]
      exporters: [ coralogix ]

Value	What to enter
private_key	Your Coralogix Send-Your-Data API key
domain	Your Coralogix domain
application_name	The application name shown in your dashboard. A company called SuperData might use SuperData, or SuperData-Test for a test environment
subsystem_name	The subsystem name shown in your dashboard. Most applications have several (backend servers, middleware, frontend servers) and this is what lets you separate them later

2.

Create a log file to read

Save this as example.log, so there is something for the filelog receiver to pick up.

2023-06-19 05:20:50 ERROR This is a test error message
2023-06-20 12:50:00 DEBUG This is a test debug message
2023-06-21 12:34:56 INFO This is a test info message

3.

Run the container

Mount both files from the working directory into the container. See the Collector Docker guide for the mount paths.

docker pull otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib
docker run -d \
  -v "$(pwd)"/config.yaml:/etc/otelcol-contrib/config.yaml \
  -v "$(pwd)"/example.log:/example.log \
  otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib

Validate the logs

In Coralogix, select LiveTail, then Start. The three test lines arrive as structured records under the application and subsystem names you configured.

Shows the test file's error, debug, and info lines as they arrive.

Validate the metrics

1.

Open Grafana

Go to the hosted Grafana view.

2.

Browse the metrics

In the left-hand panel, select Explore, then Metrics browser, and select a metric. The host metrics receiver produces system_cpu_time_total and system_memory_usage_By.

Shows the CPU and memory series the hostmetrics scrapers emit.

Related resources

OpenTelemetry CollectorRunning OpenTelemetry as a CLI applicationHosted Grafana view