diff --git a/justfile b/justfile
index 668f0d0..9e0cf1c 100644
--- a/justfile
+++ b/justfile
@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@ test-unit:
 # run integration tests
 test-integration: install-crd
   cargo test -- --ignored
+# run telemetry tests
+test-telemetry:
+  OPENTELEMETRY_ENDPOINT_URL=https://0.0.0.0:55680 cargo test --lib --all-features -- get_trace_id_returns_valid_traces --ignored
 
 # compile for musl (for docker image)
 compile features="":
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index 00743de..dd64f5c 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -1,9 +1,7 @@
 #![allow(unused_imports, unused_variables)]
 use actix_web::{get, middleware, web::Data, App, HttpRequest, HttpResponse, HttpServer, Responder};
-pub use controller::{self, Result, State};
+pub use controller::{self, telemetry, Result, State};
 use prometheus::{Encoder, TextEncoder};
-use tracing::{debug, error, info, trace, warn};
-use tracing_subscriber::{prelude::*, EnvFilter, Registry};
 
 #[get("/metrics")]
 async fn metrics(c: Data<State>, _req: HttpRequest) -> impl Responder {
@@ -27,22 +25,7 @@ async fn index(c: Data<State>, _req: HttpRequest) -> impl Responder {
 
 #[tokio::main]
 async fn main() -> Result<()> {
-    // Setup tracing layers
-    #[cfg(feature = "telemetry")]
-    let telemetry = tracing_opentelemetry::layer().with_tracer(controller::telemetry::init_tracer().await);
-    let logger = tracing_subscriber::fmt::layer();
-    let env_filter = EnvFilter::try_from_default_env()
-        .or_else(|_| EnvFilter::try_new("info"))
-        .unwrap();
-
-    // Decide on layers
-    #[cfg(feature = "telemetry")]
-    let collector = Registry::default().with(telemetry).with(logger).with(env_filter);
-    #[cfg(not(feature = "telemetry"))]
-    let collector = Registry::default().with(logger).with(env_filter);
-
-    // Initialize tracing
-    tracing::subscriber::set_global_default(collector).unwrap();
+    telemetry::init().await;
 
     // Initiatilize Kubernetes controller state
     let state = State::default();
diff --git a/src/telemetry.rs b/src/telemetry.rs
index b8e32b6..f100588 100644
--- a/src/telemetry.rs
+++ b/src/telemetry.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 use opentelemetry::trace::TraceId;
+use tracing_subscriber::{prelude::*, EnvFilter, Registry};
 
 ///  Fetch an opentelemetry::trace::TraceId as hex through the full tracing stack
 pub fn get_trace_id() -> TraceId {
@@ -13,7 +14,7 @@ pub fn get_trace_id() -> TraceId {
 }
 
 #[cfg(feature = "telemetry")]
-pub async fn init_tracer() -> opentelemetry::sdk::trace::Tracer {
+async fn init_tracer() -> opentelemetry::sdk::trace::Tracer {
     let otlp_endpoint =
         std::env::var("OPENTELEMETRY_ENDPOINT_URL").expect("Need a otel tracing collector configured");
 
@@ -35,3 +36,41 @@ pub async fn init_tracer() -> opentelemetry::sdk::trace::Tracer {
         .install_batch(opentelemetry::runtime::Tokio)
         .unwrap()
 }
+
+/// Initialize tracing
+pub async fn init() {
+    // Setup tracing layers
+    #[cfg(feature = "telemetry")]
+    let telemetry = tracing_opentelemetry::layer().with_tracer(init_tracer().await);
+    let logger = tracing_subscriber::fmt::layer();
+    let env_filter = EnvFilter::try_from_default_env()
+        .or_else(|_| EnvFilter::try_new("info"))
+        .unwrap();
+
+    // Decide on layers
+    #[cfg(feature = "telemetry")]
+    let collector = Registry::default().with(telemetry).with(logger).with(env_filter);
+    #[cfg(not(feature = "telemetry"))]
+    let collector = Registry::default().with(logger).with(env_filter);
+
+    // Initialize tracing
+    tracing::subscriber::set_global_default(collector).unwrap();
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod test {
+    // This test only works when telemetry is initialized fully
+    // and requires OPENTELEMETRY_ENDPOINT_URL pointing to a valid server
+    #[cfg(feature = "telemetry")]
+    #[tokio::test]
+    #[ignore = "requires a trace exporter"]
+    async fn get_trace_id_returns_valid_traces() {
+        use super::*;
+        super::init().await;
+        #[tracing::instrument(name = "test_span")] // need to be in an instrumented fn
+        fn test_trace_id() -> TraceId {
+            get_trace_id()
+        }
+        assert_ne!(test_trace_id(), TraceId::INVALID, "valid trace");
+    }
+}