{"id":21966,"date":"2023-05-25T07:13:29","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T00:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huongdanjava.com\/?p=21966"},"modified":"2025-10-03T13:47:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T06:47:48","slug":"integrate-opentelemetry-with-java-applications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huongdanjava.com\/integrate-opentelemetry-with-java-applications.html","title":{"rendered":"Integrate OpenTelemetry with Java applications"},"content":{"rendered":"

OpenTelemetry<\/a> is a set of tools, APIs, and SDKs that make it possible to generate, collect, and export information about running applications including metrics, logs, and traces. This information can then be imported into other tools to visualize, helping us to promptly grasp the problems our application is facing. In this tutorial, I will show you how to integrate OpenTelemetry with Java applications, specifically Spring Boot applications, to understand how to configure and how OpenTelemetry works!<\/p>\n

First, I will create a new Spring Boot project with a Web dependency to expose an API as follows:<\/p>\n

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The content of this API is as simple as this:<\/p>\n

package com.huongdanjava.opentelemetry;\r\n\r\nimport org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;\r\nimport org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;\r\n\r\n@RestController\r\npublic class HelloController {\r\n \r\n  @GetMapping(\"\/hello\")\r\n  public String hello() {\r\n    return \"Hello\";\r\n  }\r\n \r\n}<\/pre>\n
Run this application, then request to the address http:\/\/localhost:8080\/hello<\/a>, you will see the following results:<\/p>\n
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Before talking about OpenTelemtry, I would like to mention a little about the concepts of metrics, logs, or traces first. In short, metrics are parameters, used to measure a certain task of the application. Logs are log messages that are printed when we use the application. Traces are tracking metrics about the application’s request and response. Using OpenTelemetry makes it possible to collect this information of the application.<\/p>\n
To use OpenTelemetry, by default, you do not need to modify any code. The first thing you need to do is download an agent file of OpenTelemetry, then configure the -javaagent parameter to point to this agent file when running the application.<\/strong><\/p>\n
You download the latest version of the opentelemetry-javaagent.jar file here: https:\/\/github.com\/open-telemetry\/opentelemetry-java-instrumentation\/releases<\/a><\/p>\n
If you want to run OpenTelemetry with the Spring Boot application in the IDE, you can configure it as follows:<\/p>\n
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If running with .jar file, the command to run is “java -javaagent:\/Users\/khanh\/Downloads\/opentelemetry-javaagent.jar -jar <spring-boot>.jar”, guys!<\/p>\n
Another configuration that you need to do is configure the Exporter<\/strong>. After OpenTelemetry collects information, it will export this information using these Exporters. OpenTelemetry supports many different types of Exporters, including:<\/p>\n