opentelemetry setup

OpenTelemetry Setup

You will learn how to enable, configure, and disable OpenTelemetry export in update-ipsets.

Enabling export

Set either of these to enable export:

export UPDATE_IPSETS_OTEL=1

or set an OTLP endpoint directly:

export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4317

The daemon detects the endpoint variable and enables export automatically.

Disabling export

export UPDATE_IPSETS_OTEL=0

This disables export even when OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT is set. Local structured logs continue writing to stderr regardless of this setting.

Choosing the protocol

The default protocol is http/protobuf (OTLP over HTTP).

To use gRPC:

export UPDATE_IPSETS_OTEL_PROTOCOL=grpc

Or:

export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=grpc

For gRPC, the endpoint value requires an explicit scheme:

# Correct
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://127.0.0.1:4317

# Incorrect — gRPC exporters reject bare host:port
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=127.0.0.1:4317

Suppressing individual signals

Disable traces when you only want metrics and logs:

export OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER=none

Or use the daemon-specific variables:

export UPDATE_IPSETS_OTEL_TRACES=none
export UPDATE_IPSETS_OTEL_METRICS=none
export UPDATE_IPSETS_OTEL_LOGS=none

Each variable disables one signal independently.

Metric export interval

Control how often the daemon pushes metrics:

# Push every 10 seconds (value is milliseconds)
export UPDATE_IPSETS_OTEL_METRIC_INTERVAL=10000

Or use the standard variable:

export OTEL_METRIC_EXPORT_INTERVAL=10000

Shorter intervals give finer resolution but consume more network and collector resources. The installed default is 10 seconds, matching Netdata's OTel chart interval.

Example: minimal HTTP export

UPDATE_IPSETS_OTEL=1 \
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://otel-collector:4318 \
update-ipsets daemon --config /opt/update-ipsets/etc/config

Example: full gRPC export with traces suppressed

UPDATE_IPSETS_OTEL=1 \
UPDATE_IPSETS_OTEL_PROTOCOL=grpc \
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://127.0.0.1:4317 \
OTEL_METRIC_EXPORT_INTERVAL=10000 \
OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER=none \
update-ipsets daemon --config /opt/update-ipsets/etc/config