• Introduction to the OpenTelemetry Collector
• Explore automatic instrumentation options
• Configuring OpenTelemetry exporters
• Interpreting trace data

OpenTelemetry is a Cloud Native Computing Foundationsandbox project

The short, short version

• We are creating a new, unified set of libraries and specifications for observability telemetry. It will merge the OpenTracing and OpenCensus projects, and provide a supported migration path.
• The Java reference implementation will be available on April 24th, and cross-language work will begin in earnest on May 8th, 2019. Check out a timeline for the merger here.
• By the September 2019, we plan to reach parity with existing projects for C#, Golang, Java, NodeJS, and Python. There is a lot to do, but we can make it if we parallelize. If you are interested in being part of this project, please sign up and tell us how you would like to contribute.
• When each language reaches parity, the corresponding OpenTracing and OpenCensus project will be sunset. This means that the old projects will be frozen, but the new project will continue to support existing instrumentation for two years, via a backwards compatibility bridge.

Project Overview

We’re merging! The high level goal is to synthesize the OpenTracing and OpenCensus projects into a single, unified project. The core of the new project will be a set of clean and well thought interfaces, and a canonical distribution of libraries implementing those interfaces, referred to as the SDK. Recommended standards for data and wire protocols, along with common pieces of infrastructure, complete the project.

The result will be a complete telemetry system — suitable for monitoring microservices and other types of modern, distributed systems — and will be compatible with most major OSS and commercial backends.

Major Milestones

4/24 The reference candidate is presented for review.

5/8 Teams form, and work begins in all languages.

5/20 Project officially launched at Kubecon Barcelona.

9/6 C#, Golang, Java, NodeJS, and Python reach parity with existing projects.

11/6 OpenTracing and OpenCensus projects are officially sunset.

11/20 Sunset party at Observability Summit, Kubecon San Diego.

Timeline to Convergence

The migration for each language involves building a production-ready SDK, instrumentation for popular libraries, documentation, CI, a backwards compatibility bridge, and closing down the associated OpenCensus and OpenTracing projects (“sunsetting”). We have set an ambitious goal of September 2019 as the target date for parity in C#, Golang, Java, NodeJS, and Python. If a language is not ready by that time, we will push back the sunset date until it is. But we prefer this not to happen.

Goal: Registry v1.0 (due July 6th)

Another critical component is the Registry, an improved version of the OpenTracing Registry.

• Easily find libraries, plugins, installers, and other components.
• Easily add and manage registry components.
• Understand what SDK features are available in each language.

If you’re interested in design, front end, and UX, this is a great project to be a part of.

Goal: Testing and release infrastructure (due Sep 6th)

We have a project wide commitment to building a quality testing and release pipeline, to ensure we continue to ship safe code we can rely on. If you care about testing, benchmarking, and release pipelines, please let us know. We will clearly mark the level of production readiness and the maturity of the testing infrastructure will be a major deciding factor.

Goal: Sunset OpenTracing and OpenCensus (due Nov 6th)

By September 6th, if the new project has reached parity, the existing projects will begin to be shut down. Two months after each language reaches parity, the corresponding OpenTracing and OpenCensus projects will be sunset. This means the following:

• The repositories will be frozen, and no more commits will be made.
• There will be a two year support plan for existing instrumentation.
• Users can upgrade to the new SDK while continuing to use existing instrumentation.
• It will be possible to migrate instrumentation over incrementally.