AWS Open Source Blog

AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry adds Lambda layers for more languages and Collector

The latest release of the AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry (ADOT) now provides AWS-managed Lambda layers for Java, NodeJS, and Python for an easier getting-started experience for customers sending traces from their applications to AWS X-Ray. ADOT 0.9.0 also now provides a Lambda layer for the OpenTelemetry Collector for customers to collect trace data from their AWS Lambda functions. Furthermore, ADOT now supports lifecycle management features using the AWS Systems Manager agent to give customers the ability to easily update, manage, and configure an ADOT Collector on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), on an “on-premises” server, and on a virtual machine (VM). Release notes for 0.9.0 can be found on GitHub.

Configure your application with an AWS-managed Lambda layer in Java, Python, or JavaScript

In December 2020, we added Python support for instrumenting Lambda functions using OpenTelemetry. As an event-driven, serverless compute service, AWS Lambda lets developers run code without provisioning or managing servers. To use OpenTelemetry with Lambda functions, you can use a Lambda layer, which includes the OpenTelemetry Python SDK and OpenTelemetry Collector. The OpenTelemetry Collector uses the Extensions API to make tapping directly into the Lambda execution environment easier. Major benefits to Lambda users include better monitoring and management of Lambda resources. Another benefit is compatibility with other management and control infrastructure using the OpenTelemetry Collector and SDKs. You can now also use the AWS Lambda layer with your serverless functions in Java and JavaScript/NodeJS.

We invite contributors interested in expanding Lambda support for more languages in OpenTelemetry to reach out and get involved in the ongoing Lambda development projects and discussions. The Getting Started guide provides a useful reference, and you can review the code on GitHub and join the OpenTelemetry Lambda workgroup weekly discussions.

Diagram: Batching Telemetry data flow in the OpenTelemetry Lambda extension

Diagram: Batching Telemetry data flow in the OpenTelemetry Lambda extension

AWS Systems Manager integration

You can use AWS Systems Manager agent to update, configure, and manage the ADOT Collector when using an Amazon EC2 instance, an on-premises server, or a VM.

Collect data from Zipkin and Jaeger

This release also bundles Collector-based Zipkin and Jaeger receivers to help customers collect trace data.

Use a Logz.io exporter

ADOT now also comes with a Logz.io exporter for collecting traces and sending this data to a Logz.io end-point.

Download

Learn more about AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry on the AWS Open Source Blog, where we announced the distribution’s availability for public preview in October 2020, followed by a re:Invent release announcement in December 2020 (AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry adds Prometheus and Lambda support and other cool features).

Configure and deploy the latest version of ADOT for container services including Amazon ECS, and Amazon EC2 using AWS CloudFormation templates, the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), or kubectl commands. Extensive technical documentation is available on the ADOT developer site, and you can download the distribution from GitHub.

If you have any questions about the distribution or features and components, please file an issue. We also welcome you to participate in the OpenTelemetry project.

Alolita Sharma

Alolita Sharma

Alolita is a senior manager at AWS where she leads open source observability engineering and collaboration for OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Cortex, Grafana. Alolita is co-chair of the CNCF Technical Advisory Group for Observability, member of the OpenTelemetry Governance Committee and a board director of the Unicode Consortium. She contributes to open standards at OpenTelemetry, Unicode and W3C. She has served on the boards of the OSI and SFLC.in. Alolita has led engineering teams at Wikipedia, Twitter, PayPal and IBM. Two decades of doing open source continue to inspire her. You can find her on Twitter @alolita.

Nizar Tyrewalla

Nizar Tyrewalla

Nizar Tyrewalla is a Principal Product Manager in AWS focused on monitoring distributed applications built using microservices architecture. Currently, he is leading the distributed tracing service with AWS X-Ray and ingestion of Observability data using open source tools and frameworks like OpenTelemetry.