Using OpenTelemetry with Dynatrace
- Overview
- 3-min read
This guide provides step-by-step instructions for implementing OpenTelemetry observability with Dynatrace. Whether you're manually instrumenting your applications or using an instrumentation that is provided by OpenTelemetry, you'll find the information you need to get up and running quickly.
About OpenTelemetry instrumentation
Instrumentation is the process of adding telemetry support to your applications.
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Many popular services and components are already instrumented for use with OpenTelemetry, which means you can start collecting telemetry data with minimal effort. Just enable the library and then configure the exporter with Dynatrace endpoints. You can check the OpenTelemetry instrumentation registry to find ready-made instrumentations.
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If you're developing your own applications, you can also instrument your application code yourself. Dynatrace provides guided walkthroughs for all supported languages, as shown in the table below.
- Zero-code instrumentation is available for some of the languages that OpenTelemetry supports.
- Code-based instrumentation is available for all supported languages. It is useful if automatic instrumentation isn't supported or doesn't provide enough insight.
Language
Zero-code instrumentation
Code-based instrumentation
Guided walkthrough
The guided walkthroughs provide language-specific details on how to
- Integrate OpenTelemetry.
- Use different instrumentation methods.
- Record individual telemetry signals.
- Send data to Dynatrace.
For tracing distributed services, pay particular attention to context propagation.
Send data to Dynatrace
To aggregate, analyze, monitor, and store your telemetry data, you need to send it to the Dynatrace backend.
Choose the deployment option that best aligns with your observability strategy:
Method
Best when…
Good for…
Ideal for…
Direct export to Dynatrace API endpoints
You want minimal complexity and infrastructure overhead.
Simple deployments with straightforward telemetry requirements.
If you don't need data processing, enrichment, or transformation capabilities.
Standard OpenTelemetry collector
Your organization has already standardized on OpenTelemetry collectors.
Teams with existing OpenTelemetry expertise and tooling.
Ideal if you need compatibility with existing collector configurations or custom versions.
Dynatrace collector (recommended)
Most Dynatrace deployments requiring data processing capabilities.
Teams who need a fully supported Collector distribution with verified configurations.
When you want automated management through the Dynatrace Operator.
Best practices
Just started with one signal? Don't stop there, maximize your observability by implementing all three telemetry signals for complete visibility into your applications:
- If you already have traces, add metrics and logs for full request visibility.
- If you already have metrics, add traces and logs for actionable performance insights.
- If you already have logs, add traces and metrics to connect events with performance data.
You can use either the standard OpenTelemetry Collector or Dynatrace Collector. Keep in mind that Dynatrace Collector offers easier setup and dedicated support.
Demo app
You can use Astronomy Shop, the OpenTelemetry demo app, to run an example of a distributed system that's instrumented with OpenTelemetry.
Read more about Astronomy Shop at Running OpenTelemetry demo app Astronomy Shop with Dynatrace, and get the code at the opentelemetry-demo GitHub repo.
What's next?
Now that you have already implemented the first steps, read on to explore how to get maximum value out of your telemetry data with Dynatrace:
- Explore advanced analytics: Trace analytics with OpenTelemetry
- Set up data correlation: Link traces with logs
- Detailed ingestion options: Complete guide to all integration methods
- Create custom dashboards: OpenTelemetry Dashboards with Dynatrace