Elixir Opentelemetry Instrumentation

This document contains OpenTelemetry instrumentation instructions for Elixir Phoenix + Ecto framework.

Send Traces to SigNoz Cloud

Based on your application environment, you can choose the setup below to send traces to SigNoz Cloud.

From VMs, there are two ways to send data to SigNoz Cloud.

Send traces directly to SigNoz Cloud

Step 1. Add dependencies

Install dependencies related to OpenTelemetry by adding them to mix.exs file

    {:opentelemetry_exporter, "~> 1.6"},
    {:opentelemetry_api, "~> 1.2"},
    {:opentelemetry, "~> 1.3"},
    {:opentelemetry_semantic_conventions, "~> 0.2"},
    {:opentelemetry_cowboy, "~> 0.2.1"},
    {:opentelemetry_phoenix, "~> 1.1"},
    {:opentelemetry_ecto, "~> 1.1"}

In your application start, usually the application.ex file, setup the telemetry handlers

    :opentelemetry_cowboy.setup()
    OpentelemetryPhoenix.setup(adapter: :cowboy2)
    OpentelemetryEcto.setup([:YOUR_APP_NAME, :repo])

YOUR_APP_NAME - Name of your application or service.

As an example, this is how you can setup the handlers in your application.ex file for an application called demo :

# application.ex
@impl true
def start(_type, _args) do
  :opentelemetry_cowboy.setup()
  OpentelemetryPhoenix.setup(adapter: :cowboy2)
  OpentelemetryEcto.setup([:demo, :repo])

end

Step 2. Configure Application

You need to configure your application to send telemtry data by adding the follwing config to your runtime.exs file:

config :opentelemetry, :resource, service: %{name: "<service_name>"}

config :opentelemetry, :processors,
  otel_batch_processor: %{
    exporter: {
      :opentelemetry_exporter,
      %{
        endpoints: ["https://ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443"],
        headers: [
          {"signoz-ingestion-key", <your-ingestion-key>}
        ]
      }
    }
  }
  • Set the <region> to match your SigNoz Cloud region
  • Replace <your-ingestion-key> with your SigNoz ingestion key.
  • <service_name> is name of your service

Send traces via OTel Collector binary

Step 1. Install OTel Collector binary

OTel Collector binary helps to collect logs, hostmetrics, resource and infra attributes.

You can find instructions to install OTel Collector binary here in your VM.

Step 2. Add dependencies

Install dependencies related to OpenTelemetry by adding them to mix.exs file

    {:opentelemetry_exporter, "~> 1.6"},
    {:opentelemetry_api, "~> 1.2"},
    {:opentelemetry, "~> 1.3"},
    {:opentelemetry_semantic_conventions, "~> 0.2"},
    {:opentelemetry_cowboy, "~> 0.2.1"},
    {:opentelemetry_phoenix, "~> 1.1"},
    {:opentelemetry_ecto, "~> 1.1"}

In your application start, usually the application.ex file, setup the telemetry handlers

    :opentelemetry_cowboy.setup()
    OpentelemetryPhoenix.setup(adapter: :cowboy2)
    OpentelemetryEcto.setup([:YOUR_APP_NAME, :repo])

As an example, this is how you can setup the handlers in your application.ex file for an application called demo :

# application.ex
@impl true
def start(_type, _args) do
  :opentelemetry_cowboy.setup()
  OpentelemetryPhoenix.setup(adapter: :cowboy2)
  OpentelemetryEcto.setup([:demo, :repo])

end

Step 3. Configure Application

You need to configure your application to send telemtry data by adding the follwing config to your runtime.exs file:

config :opentelemetry, :resource, service: %{name: "YOUR_APP_NAME"}

config :opentelemetry, :processors,
    otel_batch_processor: %{
      exporter: 
      {:opentelemetry_exporter, 
      %{endpoints: ["http://localhost:4318"]}
      }
  }

YOUR_APP_NAME: Your application or service name.

Sample Examples

Here's a tutorial with step by step guide on how to install SigNoz and start monitoring a sample Elixir app.

Thanks to our community member Ricardo for creating this guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. How to find what to use in IP of SigNoz if I have installed SigNoz in Kubernetes cluster?

    Based on where you have installed your application and where you have installed SigNoz, you need to find the right value for this. Please use this grid to find the value you should use for IP of SigNoz

  2. I am sending data from my application to SigNoz, but I don't see any events or graphs in the SigNoz dashboard. What should I do?

    This could be because of one of the following reasons:

    1. Your application is generating telemetry data, but not able to connect with SigNoz installation

      Please use this troubleshooting guide to find if your application is able to access SigNoz installation and send data to it.

    2. Your application is not actually generating telemetry data

      Please check if the application is generating telemetry data first. You can use Console Exporter to just print your telemetry data in console first. Join our Slack Community if you need help on how to export your telemetry data in console

    3. Your SigNoz installation is not running or behind a firewall

      Please double check if the pods in SigNoz installation are running fine. docker ps or kubectl get pods -n platform are your friends for this.

What Cloud Endpoint Should I Use?

The primary method for sending data to SigNoz Cloud is through OTLP exporters. You can either send the data directly from your application using the exporters available in SDKs/language agents or send the data to a collector agent, which batches/enriches telemetry and sends it to the Cloud.

My Collector Sends Data to SigNoz Cloud

Using gRPC Exporter

The endpoint should be ingest.{region}.signoz.cloud:443, where {region} should be replaced with in, us, or eu. Note that the exporter endpoint doesn't require a scheme for the gRPC exporter in the collector.

# Sample config with `us` region
exporters:
    otlp:
        endpoint: "ingest.us.signoz.cloud:443"
        tls:
            insecure: false
        headers:
            "signoz-ingestion-key": "<SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY>"

Using HTTP Exporter

The endpoint should be https://ingest.{region}.signoz.cloud:443, where {region} should be replaced with in, us, or eu. Note that the endpoint includes the scheme https for the HTTP exporter in the collector.

# Sample config with `us` region
exporters:
    otlphttp:
        endpoint: "https://ingest.us.signoz.cloud:443"
        tls:
            insecure: false
        headers:
            "signoz-ingestion-key": "<SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY>"

My Application Sends Data to SigNoz Cloud

The endpoint should be configured either with environment variables or in the SDK setup code.

Using Environment Variables

Using gRPC Exporter

Examples with us region

  • OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=grpc OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://ingest.us.signoz.cloud:443 OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS=signoz-ingestion-key=<SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY>
Using HTTP Exporter
  • OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=http/protobuf OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://ingest.us.signoz.cloud:443 OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS=signoz-ingestion-key=<SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY>

Configuring Endpoint in Code

Please refer to the agent documentation.

Sending Data from a Third-Party Service

The endpoint configuration here depends on the export protocol supported by the third-party service. They may support either gRPC, HTTP, or both. Generally, you will need to adjust the host and port. The host address should be ingest.{region}.signoz.cloud:443, where {region} should be replaced with in, us, or eu, and port 443 should be used.

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