#Exporter Configuration

Exporters define how telemetry data is sent from instrumented applications to observability backends. The Instrumentation custom resource allows you to configure exporter settings that control the destination and format of telemetry data.

#Basic Exporter Configuration

The exporter configuration in the Instrumentation CR specifies the endpoint where telemetry data should be sent:

apiVersion: opentelemetry.io/v1alpha1
kind: Instrumentation
metadata:
  name: my-instrumentation
spec:
  exporter:
    endpoint: http://otel-collector:4317

This configuration directs all telemetry data (traces, metrics, and logs) to the specified endpoint using the OTLP protocol.

#OTLP Protocol

The OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) is the native protocol for transmitting telemetry data. It supports both gRPC and HTTP transports:

• gRPC - Default port 4317, binary protocol with efficient serialization
• HTTP - Default port 4318, HTTP/1.1 or HTTP/2 with protobuf or JSON encoding

You can specify the protocol using environment variables:

spec:
  exporter:
    endpoint: http://otel-collector:4318
  env:
    - name: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL
      value: http/protobuf

#Signal-specific Endpoints

You can configure different endpoints for different telemetry signals:

spec:
  env:
    - name: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_ENDPOINT
      value: http://traces-collector:4318/v1/traces
    - name: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_ENDPOINT
      value: http://metrics-collector:4318/v1/metrics
    - name: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_ENDPOINT
      value: http://logs-collector:4318/v1/logs

This allows you to route different types of telemetry data to specialized backends.

#Exporter Headers

You can add custom headers to exporter requests for authentication or routing purposes:

spec:
  env:
    - name: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS
      value: "api-key=your-api-key,tenant-id=production"

Headers are specified as comma-separated key-value pairs.

#Timeout Configuration

Configure export timeout to control how long the SDK waits for export operations:

spec:
  env:
    - name: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TIMEOUT
      value: "10000"

The timeout value is specified in milliseconds.

#Compression

Enable compression to reduce network bandwidth usage:

spec:
  env:
    - name: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_COMPRESSION
      value: gzip

Supported compression algorithms include gzip and none.

#Example Configuration

Here's a complete example of exporter configuration:

apiVersion: opentelemetry.io/v1alpha1
kind: Instrumentation
metadata:
  name: production-instrumentation
  namespace: production
spec:
  exporter:
    endpoint: http://otel-collector.observability.svc:4318
  env:
    - name: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL
      value: http/protobuf
    - name: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TIMEOUT
      value: "10000"
    - name: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_COMPRESSION
      value: gzip

#Verifying Exporter Configuration

After configuring the exporter, verify that telemetry data is being sent correctly by:

1. Checking application logs for export errors
2. Monitoring the backend system for incoming telemetry data
3. Using the OpenTelemetry Collector's debug exporter to inspect data flow