OpenTelemetry Collector

OpenTelemetry Collector

Installs an official OpenTelemetry Collector distribution and runs it as an s6-overlay longrun service. The Feature requires a Debian/Ubuntu image with s6-overlay 3 and supports amd64 and arm64.

The Collector runs as the selected devcontainer user. Automatic selection prefers the remote user, container user, vscode, then root. The s6 supervisor remains root-controlled, so a user with sudo access can restart the Collector:

sudo /command/s6-svc -r /run/service/opentelemetry-collector

Distributions

The core distribution is installed by default. Select contrib when the configuration needs components that are not included in core.

{
  "image": "ghcr.io/wyrd-company/devcontainers/base:noble",
  "overrideCommand": false,
  "features": {
    "ghcr.io/wyrd-company/devcontainers/opentelemetry-collector:1": {
      "distribution": "contrib"
    }
  }
}

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
version	string	latest	Release version, with or without the upstream v prefix.
distribution	string	core	Official distribution to install: core or contrib.
serviceUser	string	automatic	User that runs the Collector.

For latest, the installer follows the GitHub release-page redirect and checks for the selected distribution and architecture archive. It uses the releases API only when that archive returns HTTP 404, then searches stable releases until it finds a matching archive. Different distributions can resolve to different versions when an upstream release omits an artifact. Other lookup or archive-check errors stop installation. Archive downloads still require the adjacent upstream SHA256 checksum.

Configuration

The Feature installs a starter configuration at /etc/opentelemetry-collector/config.yaml. It accepts traces, metrics, and logs over OTLP gRPC on 127.0.0.1:4317 and OTLP HTTP on 127.0.0.1:4318, then writes received telemetry through the debug exporter. Its health endpoint listens on 127.0.0.1:13133.

Replace the starter configuration with a read-only bind mount for project-specific pipelines:

{
  "mounts": [
    "source=${localWorkspaceFolder}/.devcontainer/opentelemetry-collector.yaml,target=/etc/opentelemetry-collector/config.yaml,type=bind,readonly"
  ]
}

The Feature does not expose Collector endpoints outside the container. Bind them to another interface in the mounted configuration when access from the host or another container is required.

Secret file

The service loads NAME=value lines from /run/openbao/secrets/opentelemetry-collector.env into the Collector environment when that file exists. Reference the values with the Collector’s ${env:NAME} syntax so that the configuration file holds no credential:

exporters:
  otlphttp/central:
    endpoint: https://telemetry.example.test/api/default
    headers:
      Authorization: ${env:OTLP_AUTHORIZATION}

When the OpenBao Agent Feature is present and its configuration has a template with that destination, the Collector does not start until the file is rendered. The matching template builds the complete header value:

template {
  destination = "/run/openbao/secrets/opentelemetry-collector.env"
  perms       = "0640"
  contents    = <<-EOT
    {{ with secret "secret/data/telemetry" -}}
    OTLP_AUTHORIZATION=Basic {{ printf "%s:%s" .Data.data.username .Data.data.token | base64Encode }}
    {{- end }}
  EOT
}

Values are literal text, so a value can contain spaces. A variable that the container environment already sets keeps its container value. The Collector reads the file once, at start; restart the service after a secret changes. Without the OpenBao Agent Feature, any other source can supply the file, such as a bind mount.

Installed commands

The selected upstream command is installed as otelcol or otelcol-contrib. The stable opentelemetry-collector command points to the selected binary.

Release archives are downloaded from the official open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-releases repository and verified against the adjacent upstream SHA256 file.

Ansible

When the Ansible Feature is installed, the Collector starts only after the ansible-setup s6-rc oneshot finishes. If the oneshot fails, the Collector does not start. This Feature declares installsAfter for the Ansible Feature, so that the ansible-setup service definition exists when this installer runs. The installer adds the dependency only when that definition exists. Without Ansible, startup does not change.

Trademarks

This feature is not affiliated with or endorsed by The Linux Foundation. OpenTelemetry and its logo are trademarks of The Linux Foundation. All trademarks and copyrights belong to their holders. The logo is used only to identify the software that this feature installs.

Logo: the OpenTelemetry icon from opentelemetry-icon-color.svg.