Opentelemetry Collector For Api Discovery

This document describes the set up details for the OpenTelemetry Collector For Api Discovery based on different datasource types.

Pre-req: Ensure one of the below datasource type is available on your system to collect traces through the opentelemetry collector

Example configurations for both Istio and nginx are provided here

1. Istio installation details - Istio-Readme.md
2. nginx Conguration details - nginx-Readme.md

Pre-req: Ensure helm is installed

See here for details
https://helm.sh/docs/intro/install/

Use the Helm chart to deploy the collector.

In the helm directory, update the values.yaml file based on your apiconnect provider org, authentication and istio set up

The following parameters require updates:

• discovery.apic_host_domain - Domain name of the ApiConnect instance where discovered APIs will be sent.
    Example : us-east-a.apiconnect.automation.ibm.com
• discovery.provider_org - The provider org name of the apiconnect manager
• discovery.apikey - An API Key can be obtained from the api-manager for the user who has permission to create an API.
    Get the API key from the APIC Manager using a link of the following structure - http://{api-host}/manager/auth/manager/sign-in/?from=TOOLKIT (typically used with an OIDC user registry like IBM Verify). The apikey will be added to a kubernetes secret as part of the deployment and then mounted on the collector deployment pod.
• namespace: The namespace where istio oer nginx has been deployed on your cluster. As required by istio's telemetry integration the collector pod will be deployed here.
• images.api_discovery_collector: As new versions of the collectors are released updating this property will enable the upgrade of the collector deployment. Note: collectors will require updates to ensure they remain compatible with the discovery service. Details of these updates will be available in this repository.
• logging.log_level: Default log_level is info. For debug purposes the log level can be increased to debug if needed.

Istio specific parameters

• discovery.datasource_type - Optional field to set the datasource type (instrumentation installed) to decide the telemetry need. If the datasource type is istio, the required telemetry will be installed or helm ignore the creation.
• discovery.datasource_name - Optional field to set the datasource name for all APIs discovered by the collector through istio. If datasource name is empty, the namespace of the collected API will be used. Once you have made the required updates to the values.yaml file you can deploy the collector.
• telemetry_namespace: This is where the istio Telemetry CR will be deployed. By default the values file sets this to istio-system as the root configuration namespace to provide mesh level collection configuration. This can be customized as you wish based on your collection requirements regarding the deployed applications you want to be discovered. See here for further details https://istio.io/latest/docs/reference/config/telemetry/. Not needed for nginx configuration.

Run the following command to deploy the collector

helm template . | kubectl apply -f -

Output should be as follows which indicate that the required Kubernetes Reources have been deployed where telemetry creation is only for Istio

helm template . | kubectl apply -f -
secret/api-discovery-secret created
service/management-api-discovery-otel-collector created
deployment.apps/management-api-discovery-otel-collector created
telemetry.telemetry.istio.io/api-discovery-otel created

Once the collector has been deployed any istio or nginx instructmented pods which have traffic running through envoy will begin to be discovered and sent to the apiconnect discovery service.

Uninstalling the collector

The collector can be uninstalled using the following comman.

helm template . | kubectl delete -f -