Exporters
In order to visualize and analyze your traces and metrics, you will need to export them to a backend.
Console exporter
The console exporter is useful for development and debugging tasks, and is the simplest to set up.
dotnet add package OpenTelemetry.Exporter.Console
dotnet add package OpenTelemetry.Extensions.Hosting --prerelease
If you’re using ASP.NET Core, configure the exporter in your ASP.NET Core services:
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetryTracing(b =>
{
b.AddConsoleExporter()
// The rest of your setup code goes here too
});
Otherwise, configure the exporter when creating a tracer provider:
using var tracerProvider = Sdk.CreateTracerProviderBuilder()
.AddConsoleExporter()
// Other setup code, like setting a resource goes here too
.Build();
OTLP endpoint
To send trace data to an OTLP endpoint (like the collector or Jaeger) you’ll want to configure an OTLP exporter that sends to your endpoint.
dotnet add package OpenTelemetry.Exporter.OpenTelemetryProtocol
dotnet add package OpenTelemetry.Extensions.Hosting --prerelease
If you’re using ASP.NET Core, configure the exporter in your ASP.NET Core services:
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetryTracing(b =>
{
b
.AddOtlpExporter(opt =>
{
opt.Endpoint = new Uri("your-endpoint-here");
opt.Protocol = OtlpExportProtocol.HttpProtobuf;
})
// The rest of your setup code goes here too
});
Otherwise, configure the exporter when creating a tracer provider:
using var tracerProvider = Sdk.CreateTracerProviderBuilder()
.AddOtlpExporter(opt =>
{
opt.Endpoint = new Uri("your-endpoint-here");
opt.Protocol = OtlpExportProtocol.HttpProtobuf;
})
// Other setup code, like setting a resource goes here too
.Build();
Use environment variables to set values like headers and an endpoint URL for production.
Using gRPC
You can also use gRPC to send your OTLP data. To do that, use the following:
OtlpExportProtocol.Grpc
If you’re not using ASP.NET Core gRPC and you are running on .NET Core 3.x, you’ll need to add the following at application startup
AppContext.SetSwitch("System.Net.Http.SocketsHttpHandler.Http2UnencryptedSupport", true);
If you are using .NET 5 or higher, the previous code sample is not required.
Jaeger
To try out the OTLP exporter, you can run Jaeger as an OTLP endpoint and for trace visualization in a docker container:
docker run -d --name jaeger \
-e COLLECTOR_ZIPKIN_HOST_PORT=:9411 \
-e COLLECTOR_OTLP_ENABLED=true \
-p 6831:6831/udp \
-p 6832:6832/udp \
-p 5778:5778 \
-p 16686:16686 \
-p 4317:4317 \
-p 4318:4318 \
-p 14250:14250 \
-p 14268:14268 \
-p 14269:14269 \
-p 9411:9411 \
jaegertracing/all-in-one:latest
Zipkin
If you are using Zipkin to visualize trace data, you’ll need to set it up first. This is how to run it in a docker container:
docker run --rm -d -p 9411:9411 --name zipkin openzipkin/zipkin
Next, install the Zipkin exporter package:
dotnet add package OpenTelemetry.Exporter.Zipkin
dotnet add package OpenTelemetry.Extensions.Hosting --prerelease
If you’re using ASP.NET Core, configure the exporter in your ASP.NET Core services:
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetryTracing(b =>
{
b
.AddZipkinExporter(o =>
{
o.Endpoint = new Uri("your-zipkin-uri-here");
})
// The rest of your setup code goes here too
});
Otherwise, configure the exporter when creating a tracer provider:
using var tracerProvider = Sdk.CreateTracerProviderBuilder()
.AddZipkinExporter(o =>
{
o.Endpoint = new Uri("your-zipkin-uri-here");
})
// Other setup code, like setting a resource goes here too
.Build();
Prometheus
If you’re using Prometheus to visualize metrics data, you’ll need to set it up first. Here’s how to do it using a docker container:
First, you’ll need a prometheus.yml file to configure your Prometheus backend,
such as the following:
global:
scrape_interval: 1s
evaluation_interval: 1s
scrape_configs:
- job_name: "prometheus"
static_configs:
- targets: ["localhost:9090"]
Next, run the following docker command to set up Prometheus:
docker run \
-p 9090:9090 \
-v ${PWD}/prometheus.yml:/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml \
prom/prometheus
Next, install the Prometheus exporter:
dotnet add package OpenTelemetry.Exporter.Prometheus
dotnet add package OpenTelemetry.Extensions.Hosting --prerelease
If you’re using ASP.NET Core, configure the exporter in your ASP.NET Core services:
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetryMetrics(b =>
{
b
.AddPrometheusExporter(options =>
{
options.StartHttpListener = true;
// Use your endpoint and port here
options.HttpListenerPrefixes = new string[] { $"http://localhost:{9090}/" };
options.ScrapeResponseCacheDurationMilliseconds = 0;
})
// The rest of your setup code goes here too
});
Otherwise, configure the exporter when creating a meter provider:
using var tracerProvider = Sdk.CreateMeterProviderBuilder()
.AddPrometheusExporter(options =>
{
options.StartHttpListener = true;
// Use your endpoint and port here
options.HttpListenerPrefixes = new string[] { $"http://localhost:{9090}/" };
options.ScrapeResponseCacheDurationMilliseconds = 0;
})
// Other setup code, like setting a meter goes here
.Build();
Next steps
To ensure you’re getting the most data as easily as possible, install instrumentation libraries to generate observability data.
Additionally, enriching your codebase with manual instrumentation gives you customized observability data.
You can also check the automatic instrumentation for .NET, which is currently in beta.