trace-filtering

Filtering out spans

This recipe demonstrates how to configure the OpenTelemetry Collector to filter out spans.

This recipe is based on applying a Collector config that includes the filter processor. It provides an OpenTelemetryCollector object that, when created, instructs the Operator to create a new instance of the Collector with that config. If overwriting an existing OpenTelemetryCollector object (i.e., you already have a running Collector through the Operator such as the one from the main README), the Operator will update that existing Collector with the new config.

Prerequisites

• A running Kubernetes cluster
• The OpenTelemetry Operator installed in your cluster
• A Collector deployed with the Operator (recommended)
• One of the sample apps from this repo installed in the cluster

Note that the OpenTelemetryCollector object needs to be in the same namespace as your sample app, or the Collector endpoint needs to be updated to point to the correct service address.

Running

Deploying the Recipe

Apply the OpenTelemetryCollector object from this recipe:

kubectl apply -f collector-config.yaml

(This will overwrite any existing collector config, or create a new one if none exists.)

Checking the filtered Spans

To stream logs from the otel-collector, run:

kubectl logs deployment/otel-collector -f

You should see only client spans, where service.name is <sample>-app. You should not see any spans from the server, where service.name is <sample>-service, as those are filtered out.

Learn More

The filter processor can filter on more than just service name! For a complete description of its capabilities, see the upstream README.