---
title: "Collect OpenTelemetry data | Grafana Agent documentation"
description: "Learn how to collect OpenTelemetry data"
---

# Collect OpenTelemetry data

Grafana Agent Flow can be configured to collect [OpenTelemetry](https://opentelemetry.io)-compatible data and forward it to any OpenTelemetry-compatible endpoint.

This topic describes how to:

- Configure OpenTelemetry data delivery.
- Configure batching.
- Receive OpenTelemetry data over OTLP.

## Components used in this topic

- [otelcol.auth.basic](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/reference/components/otelcol.auth.basic/)
- [otelcol.exporter.otlp](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/reference/components/otelcol.exporter.otlp/)
- [otelcol.exporter.otlphttp](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/reference/components/otelcol.exporter.otlphttp/)
- [otelcol.processor.batch](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/reference/components/otelcol.processor.batch/)
- [otelcol.receiver.otlp](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/reference/components/otelcol.receiver.otlp/)

## Before you begin

- Ensure that you have basic familiarity with instrumenting applications with OpenTelemetry.
- Have a set of OpenTelemetry applications ready to push telemetry data to Grafana Agent Flow.
- Identify where Grafana Agent Flow writes received telemetry data.
- Be familiar with the concept of [Components](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/concepts/components/) in Grafana Agent Flow.

## Configure an OpenTelemetry Protocol exporter

Before components can receive OpenTelemetry data, you must have a component responsible for exporting the OpenTelemetry data. An OpenTelemetry *exporter component* is responsible for writing (exporting) OpenTelemetry data to an external system.

In this task, you will use the [otelcol.exporter.otlp](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/reference/components/otelcol.exporter.otlp/) component to send OpenTelemetry data to a server using the OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP). After an exporter component is defined, you can use other Grafana Agent Flow components to forward data to it.

> Refer to the list of available [Components](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/concepts/components/) for the full list of `otelcol.exporter` components that you can use to export OpenTelemetry data.

To configure an `otelcol.exporter.otlp` component for exporting OpenTelemetry data using OTLP, complete the following steps:

1. Add the following `otelcol.exporter.otlp` component to your configuration file:
   
   Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```alloy
   otelcol.exporter.otlp "<EXPORTER_LABEL>" {
     client {
       url = "<HOST>:<PORT>"
     }
   }
   ```
   
   Replace the following:
   
   - *`<EXPORTER_LABEL>`* : The label for the component, such as `default`. The label you use must be unique across all `otelcol.exporter.otlp` components in the same configuration file.
   
   <!--THE END-->
   
   - *`<HOST>`* : The hostname or IP address of the server to send OTLP requests to.
   
   <!--THE END-->
   
   - *`<PORT>`* : The port of the server to send OTLP requests to.
2. If your server requires basic authentication, complete the following:
   
   1. Add the following `otelcol.auth.basic` component to your configuration file:
      
      Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
      
      ```alloy
      otelcol.auth.basic "<BASIC_AUTH_LABEL>" {
        username = "<USERNAME>"
        password = "<PASSWORD>"
      }
      ```
      
      Replace the following:
      
      - *`<BASIC_AUTH_LABEL>`* : The label for the component, such as `default`. The label you use must be unique across all `otelcol.auth.basic` components in the same configuration file.
      - *`<USERNAME>`* : The basic authentication username.
      - *`<PASSWORD>`* : The basic authentication password or API key.
   2. Add the following line inside of the `client` block of your `otelcol.exporter.otlp` component:
      
      Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
      
      ```alloy
      auth = otelcol.auth.basic.<BASIC_AUTH_LABEL>.handler
      ```
      
      Replace the following:
      
      - *`<BASIC_AUTH_LABEL>`* : The label for the `otelcol.auth.basic` component.
3. If you have more than one server to export metrics to, create a new `otelcol.exporter.otlp` component for each additional server.

> `otelcol.exporter.otlp` sends data using OTLP over gRPC (HTTP/2). To send to a server using HTTP/1.1, follow the preceding steps, but use the [otelcol.exporter.otlphttp component](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/reference/components/otelcol.exporter.otlphttp/) instead.

The following example demonstrates configuring `otelcol.exporter.otlp` with authentication and a component that forwards data to it:

Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```alloy
otelcol.exporter.otlp "default" {
  client {
    endpoint = "my-otlp-grpc-server:4317"
    auth     = otelcol.auth.basic.credentials.handler
  }
}

otelcol.auth.basic "credentials" {
  // Retrieve credentials using environment variables.

  username = env("BASIC_AUTH_USER")
  password = env("API_KEY")
}

otelcol.receiver.otlp "example" {
  grpc {
    endpoint = "127.0.0.1:4317"
  }

  http {
    endpoint = "127.0.0.1:4318"
  }

  output {
    metrics = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input]
    logs    = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input]
    traces  = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input]
  }
}
```

For more information on writing OpenTelemetry data using the OpenTelemetry Protocol, refer to [otelcol.exporter.otlp](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/reference/components/otelcol.exporter.otlp/).

## Configure batching

Production-ready Grafana Agent Flow configurations shouldn’t send OpenTelemetry data directly to an exporter for delivery. Instead, data is usually sent to one or more *processor components* that perform various transformations on the data.

Ensuring data is batched is a production-readiness step to improve data compression and reduce the number of outgoing network requests to external systems.

In this task, you will configure an [otelcol.processor.batch](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/reference/components/otelcol.processor.batch/) component to batch data before sending it to the exporter.

> Refer to the list of available [Components](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/concepts/components/) for the full list of `otelcol.processor` components that you can use to process OpenTelemetry data. You can chain processors by having one processor send data to another processor.

To configure an `otelcol.processor.batch` component, complete the following steps:

1. Follow [Configure an OpenTelemetry Protocol exporter](#configure-an-opentelemetry-protocol-exporter) to ensure received data can be written to an external system.
2. Add the following `otelcol.processor.batch` component into your configuration file:
   
   Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```alloy
   otelcol.processor.batch "<PROCESSOR_LABEL>" {
     output {
       metrics = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.<EXPORTER_LABEL>.input]
       logs    = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.<EXPORTER_LABEL>.input]
       traces  = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.>EXPORTER_LABEL>.input]
     }
   }
   ```
   
   Replace the following:
   
   - *`<PROCESSOR_LABEL>`* : The label for the component, such as `default`. The label you use must be unique across all `otelcol.processor.batch` components in the same configuration file.
   - *`<EXPORTER_LABEL>`* : The label for your existing `otelcol.exporter.otlp` component.
   
   <!--THE END-->
   
   1. To disable one of the telemetry types, set the relevant type in the `output` block to the empty list, such as `metrics = []`.
   2. To send batched data to another processor, replace the components in the `output` list with the processor components to use.

The following example demonstrates configuring a sequence of `otelcol.processor` components before being exported.

Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```alloy
otelcol.processor.memory_limiter "default" {
  check_interval = "1s"
  limit          = "1GiB"

  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 = "my-otlp-grpc-server:4317"
  }
}
```

For more information on configuring OpenTelemetry data batching, refer to [otelcol.processor.batch](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/reference/components/otelcol.processor.batch/).

## Configure an OpenTelemetry Protocol receiver

You can configure Grafana Agent Flow to receive OpenTelemetry metrics, logs, and traces. An OpenTelemetry *receiver* component is responsible for receiving OpenTelemetry data from an external system.

In this task, you will use the [otelcol.receiver.otlp](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/reference/components/otelcol.receiver.otlp/) component to receive OpenTelemetry data over the network using the OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP). You can configure a receiver component to forward received data to other Grafana Agent Flow components.

> Refer to the list of available [Components](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/concepts/components/) for the full list of `otelcol.receiver` components that you can use to receive OpenTelemetry-compatible data.

To configure an `otelcol.receiver.otlp` component for receiving OTLP data, complete the following steps:

1. Follow [Configure an OpenTelemetry Protocol exporter](#configure-an-opentelemetry-protocol-exporter) to ensure received data can be written to an external system.
2. Optional: Follow [Configure batching](#configure-batching) to improve compression and reduce the total amount of network requests.
3. Add the following `otelcol.receiver.otlp` component to your configuration file.
   
   Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```alloy
   otelcol.receiver.otlp "<LABEL>" {
     output {
       metrics = [<COMPONENT_INPUT_LIST>]
       logs    = [<COMPONENT_INPUT_LIST>]
       traces  = [<COMPONENT_INPUT_LIST>]
     }
   }
   ```
   
   Replace the following:
   
   - *`<LABEL>`* : The label for the component, such as `default`. The label you use must be unique across all `otelcol.receiver.otlp` components in the same configuration file.
   - *`<COMPONENT_INPUT_LIST>`* : A comma-delimited list of component inputs to forward received data to. For example, to send data to an existing batch processor component, use `otelcol.processor.batch.PROCESSOR_LABEL.input`. To send data directly to an existing exporter component, use `otelcol.exporter.otlp.EXPORTER_LABEL.input`.
   
   <!--THE END-->
   
   1. To allow applications to send OTLP data over gRPC on port `4317`, add the following to your `otelcol.receiver.otlp` component.
      
      Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
      
      ```alloy
      grpc {
        endpoint = "<HOST>:4317"
      }
      ```
      
      Replace the following:
      
      - *`<HOST>`* : A host to listen to traffic on. Use a narrowly scoped listen address whenever possible. To listen on all network interfaces, replace *`<HOST>`* with `0.0.0.0`.
   2. To allow applications to send OTLP data over HTTP/1.1 on port `4318`, add the following to your `otelcol.receiver.otlp` component.
      
      Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
      
      ```alloy
      http {
        endpoint = "<HOST>:4318"
      }
      ```
      
      Replace the following:
      
      - *`<HOST>`* : The host to listen to traffic on. Use a narrowly scoped listen address whenever possible. To listen on all network interfaces, replace *`<HOST>`* with `0.0.0.0`.
   3. To disable one of the telemetry types, set the relevant type in the `output` block to the empty list, such as `metrics = []`.

The following example demonstrates configuring `otelcol.receiver.otlp` and sending it to an exporter:

Alloy ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```alloy
otelcol.receiver.otlp "example" {
  grpc {
    endpoint = "127.0.0.1:4317"
  }

  http {
    endpoint = "127.0.0.1:4318"
  }

  output {
    metrics = [otelcol.processor.batch.example.input]
    logs    = [otelcol.processor.batch.example.input]
    traces  = [otelcol.processor.batch.example.input]
  }
}

otelcol.processor.batch "example" {
  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 = "my-otlp-grpc-server:4317"
  }
}
```

For more information on receiving OpenTelemetry data using the OpenTelemetry Protocol, refer to [otelcol.receiver.otlp](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/reference/components/otelcol.receiver.otlp/).