● Covered by 1 source · 1 reportLow impact1 neutral
Configuring OpenTelemetry Logs in Rails for Direct Export to Grafana Cloud
Key points
- OpenTelemetry Ruby SDK configured for direct log export to Grafana Cloud.
- Bypassed OpenTelemetry Collector for simpler infrastructure.
- Utilized OTLP for vendor-agnostic log format.
- Requires specific OpenTelemetry gems for logging support.
Direct Export Approach
A team implemented OpenTelemetry for observability in a Rails project, opting for direct log export to Grafana Cloud using the OpenTelemetry Ruby SDK. This method avoids running a separate OpenTelemetry Collector process, which is typically used to batch and forward telemetry data.
The decision to bypass the Collector was made to simplify infrastructure, as the project's log volume is small enough for the SDK's built-in batching to suffice. The OpenTelemetry Collector remains a better choice for applications requiring buffering, sampling, or scrubbing outside the application.
OpenTelemetry and Vendor Agnosticism
OpenTelemetry generates logs, metrics, and traces in a standard, vendor-agnostic format called OTLP (OpenTelemetry Protocol). This standardization allows for future switching between backend vendors like Datadog, New Relic, or Grafana Cloud without requiring application code changes.
The modular nature of OpenTelemetry means each telemetry signal (logs, metrics, traces) can be adopted independently.
Ruby SDK Setup for Logs
To enable OpenTelemetry logs in a Rails application, specific gems must be added to the Gemfile. These include "opentelemetry-sdk" for the core framework, "opentelemetry-logs-sdk" for logging support, "opentelemetry-exporter-otlp" and "opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-logs" for OTLP export, and "opentelemetry-instrumentation-all" and "opentelemetry-instrumentation-logger" for instrumentation and hooking into RubyLogger.
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Primary sources
GitHub scoutapp/scout_apm_ruby_logging GitHub open-telemetry/opentelemetry-ruby GitHub reidmorrison/rails_semantic_loggerReporting from
A team configured OpenTelemetry Ruby SDK to export logs directly to Grafana Cloud from a Rails project, bypassing the OpenTelemetry Collector. This approach simplifies infrastructure for low log volumes by using the SDK's built-in batching and OTLP format.