Caution
Grafana Alloy is the new name for our distribution of the OTel collector. Grafana Agent has been deprecated and is in Long-Term Support (LTS) through October 31, 2025. Grafana Agent will reach an End-of-Life (EOL) on November 1, 2025. Read more about why we recommend migrating to Grafana Alloy.
Important: This documentation is about an older version. It's relevant only to the release noted, many of the features and functions have been updated or replaced. Please view the current version.
otelcol.receiver.otlp
otelcol.receiver.otlp
accepts OTLP-formatted data over the network and
forwards it to other otelcol.*
components.
NOTE:
otelcol.receiver.otlp
is a wrapper over the upstream OpenTelemetry Collectorotlp
receiver. Bug reports or feature requests will be redirected to the upstream repository, if necessary.
Multiple otelcol.receiver.otlp
components can be specified by giving them
different labels.
Usage
otelcol.receiver.otlp "LABEL" {
grpc { ... }
http { ... }
output {
metrics = [...]
logs = [...]
traces = [...]
}
}
Arguments
otelcol.receiver.otlp
doesn’t support any arguments and is configured fully
through inner blocks.
Blocks
The following blocks are supported inside the definition of
otelcol.receiver.otlp
:
Hierarchy | Block | Description | Required |
---|---|---|---|
grpc | grpc | Configures the gRPC server to receive telemetry data. | no |
grpc > tls | tls | Configures TLS for the gRPC server. | no |
grpc > keepalive | keepalive | Configures keepalive settings for the configured server. | no |
grpc > keepalive > server_parameters | server_parameters | Server parameters used to configure keepalive settings. | no |
grpc > keepalive > enforcement_policy | enforcement_policy | Enforcement policy for keepalive settings. | no |
http | http | Configures the HTTP server to receive telemetry data. | no |
http > tls | tls | Configures TLS for the HTTP server. | no |
http > cors | cors | Configures CORS for the HTTP server. | no |
debug_metrics | debug_metrics | Configures the metrics that this component generates to monitor its state. | no |
output | output | Configures where to send received telemetry data. | yes |
The >
symbol indicates deeper levels of nesting. For example, grpc > tls
refers to a tls
block defined inside a grpc
block.
grpc block
The grpc
block configures the gRPC server used by the component. If the
grpc
block isn’t provided, a gRPC server isn’t started.
The following arguments are supported:
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
endpoint | string | host:port to listen for traffic on. | "0.0.0.0:4317" | no |
transport | string | Transport to use for the gRPC server. | "tcp" | no |
max_recv_msg_size | string | Maximum size of messages the server will accept. 0 disables a limit. | no | |
max_concurrent_streams | number | Limit the number of concurrent streaming RPC calls. | no | |
read_buffer_size | string | Size of the read buffer the gRPC server will use for reading from clients. | "512KiB" | no |
write_buffer_size | string | Size of the write buffer the gRPC server will use for writing to clients. | no | |
include_metadata | boolean | Propagate incoming connection metadata to downstream consumers. | no |
tls block
The tls
block configures TLS settings used for a server. If the tls
block
isn’t provided, TLS won’t be used for connections to the server.
The following arguments are supported:
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
ca_file | string | Path to the CA file. | no | |
ca_pem | string | CA PEM-encoded text to validate the server with. | no | |
cert_file | string | Path to the TLS certificate. | no | |
cert_pem | string | Certificate PEM-encoded text for client authentication. | no | |
insecure_skip_verify | boolean | Ignores insecure server TLS certificates. | no | |
include_system_ca_certs_pool | boolean | Whether to load the system certificate authorities pool alongside the certificate authority. | false | no |
insecure | boolean | Disables TLS when connecting to the configured server. | no | |
key_file | string | Path to the TLS certificate key. | no | |
key_pem | secret | Key PEM-encoded text for client authentication. | no | |
max_version | string | Maximum acceptable TLS version for connections. | "TLS 1.3" | no |
min_version | string | Minimum acceptable TLS version for connections. | "TLS 1.2" | no |
cipher_suites | list(string) | A list of TLS cipher suites that the TLS transport can use. | [] | no |
reload_interval | duration | The duration after which the certificate is reloaded. | "0s" | no |
server_name | string | Verifies the hostname of server certificates when set. | no |
If the server doesn’t support TLS, you must set the insecure
argument to true
.
To disable tls
for connections to the server, set the insecure
argument to true
.
If reload_interval
is set to "0s"
, the certificate never reloaded.
The following pairs of arguments are mutually exclusive and can’t both be set simultaneously:
ca_pem
andca_file
cert_pem
andcert_file
key_pem
andkey_file
If cipher_suites
is left blank, a safe default list is used.
See the Go TLS documentation for a list of supported cipher suites.
keepalive block
The keepalive
block configures keepalive settings for connections to a gRPC
server.
keepalive
doesn’t support any arguments and is configured fully through inner
blocks.
server_parameters block
The server_parameters
block controls keepalive and maximum age settings for gRPC
servers.
The following arguments are supported:
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
max_connection_idle | duration | Maximum age for idle connections. | "infinity" | no |
max_connection_age | duration | Maximum age for non-idle connections. | "infinity" | no |
max_connection_age_grace | duration | Time to wait before forcibly closing connections. | "infinity" | no |
time | duration | How often to ping inactive clients to check for liveness. | "2h" | no |
timeout | duration | Time to wait before closing inactive clients that do not respond to liveness checks. | "20s" | no |
enforcement_policy block
The enforcement_policy
block configures the keepalive enforcement policy for
gRPC servers. The server will close connections from clients that violate the
configured policy.
The following arguments are supported:
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
min_time | duration | Minimum time clients should wait before sending a keepalive ping. | "5m" | no |
permit_without_stream | boolean | Allow clients to send keepalive pings when there are no active streams. | false | no |
http block
The http
block configures the HTTP server used by the component. If the
http
block isn’t specified, an HTTP server isn’t started.
The following arguments are supported:
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
endpoint | string | host:port to listen for traffic on. | "0.0.0.0:4318" | no |
max_request_body_size | string | Maximum request body size the server will allow. | 20MiB | no |
include_metadata | boolean | Propagate incoming connection metadata to downstream consumers. | no | |
traces_url_path | string | The URL path to receive traces on. | "/v1/traces" | no |
metrics_url_path | string | The URL path to receive metrics on. | "/v1/metrics" | no |
logs_url_path | string | The URL path to receive logs on. | "/v1/logs" | no |
To send telemetry signals to otelcol.receiver.otlp
with HTTP/JSON, POST to:
[endpoint][traces_url_path]
for traces.[endpoint][metrics_url_path]
for metrics.[endpoint][logs_url_path]
for logs.
cors block
The cors
block configures CORS settings for an HTTP server.
The following arguments are supported:
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
allowed_origins | list(string) | Allowed values for the Origin header. | no | |
allowed_headers | list(string) | Accepted headers from CORS requests. | ["X-Requested-With"] | no |
max_age | number | Configures the Access-Control-Max-Age response header. | no |
The allowed_headers
argument specifies which headers are acceptable from a
CORS request. The following headers are always implicitly allowed:
Accept
Accept-Language
Content-Type
Content-Language
If allowed_headers
includes "*"
, all headers are permitted.
debug_metrics block
The debug_metrics
block configures the metrics that this component generates to monitor its state.
The following arguments are supported:
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
disable_high_cardinality_metrics | boolean | Whether to disable certain high cardinality metrics. | true | no |
disable_high_cardinality_metrics
is the Grafana Agent equivalent to the telemetry.disableHighCardinalityMetrics
feature gate in the OpenTelemetry Collector.
It removes attributes that could cause high cardinality metrics.
For example, attributes with IP addresses and port numbers in metrics about HTTP and gRPC connections are removed.
output block
The output
block configures a set of components to forward resulting telemetry data to.
The following arguments are supported:
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
logs | list(otelcol.Consumer) | List of consumers to send logs to. | [] | no |
metrics | list(otelcol.Consumer) | List of consumers to send metrics to. | [] | no |
traces | list(otelcol.Consumer) | List of consumers to send traces to. | [] | no |
You must specify the output
block, but all its arguments are optional.
By default, telemetry data is dropped.
Configure the metrics
, logs
, and traces
arguments accordingly to send telemetry data to other components.
Exported fields
otelcol.receiver.otlp
does not export any fields.
Component health
otelcol.receiver.otlp
is only reported as unhealthy if given an invalid
configuration.
Debug information
otelcol.receiver.otlp
does not expose any component-specific debug
information.
Debug metrics
receiver_accepted_spans_ratio_total
(counter): Number of spans successfully pushed into the pipeline.receiver_refused_spans_ratio_total
(counter): Number of spans that could not be pushed into the pipeline.rpc_server_duration_milliseconds
(histogram): Duration of RPC requests from a gRPC server.rpc_server_request_size_bytes
(histogram): Measures size of RPC request messages (uncompressed).rpc_server_requests_per_rpc
(histogram): Measures the number of messages received per RPC. Should be 1 for all non-streaming RPCs.rpc_server_response_size_bytes
(histogram): Measures size of RPC response messages (uncompressed).rpc_server_responses_per_rpc
(histogram): Measures the number of messages received per RPC. Should be 1 for all non-streaming RPCs.
Example
This example forwards received telemetry data through a batch processor before finally sending it to an OTLP-capable endpoint:
otelcol.receiver.otlp "default" {
http {}
grpc {}
output {
metrics = [otelcol.processor.batch.default.input]
logs = [otelcol.processor.batch.default.input]
traces = [otelcol.processor.batch.default.input]
}
}
otelcol.processor.batch "default" {
output {
metrics = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input]
logs = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input]
traces = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input]
}
}
otelcol.exporter.otlp "default" {
client {
endpoint = env("OTLP_ENDPOINT")
}
}
Technical details
otelcol.receiver.otlp
supports gzip for compression.
Compatible components
otelcol.receiver.otlp
can accept arguments from the following components:
- Components that export OpenTelemetry
otelcol.Consumer
Note
Connecting some components may not be sensible or components may require further configuration to make the connection work correctly. Refer to the linked documentation for more details.