Send Java application data to Observe

Compatibility

Java 8+

Get the Observe Agent

Install the Observe agent in your environment.

Add the OpenTelemetry zero-code instrumentation for Java

The instrumentation is packaged as a JAR file which dynamically injects bytecode to capture telemetry from your Java applications:

curl -L -O https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java-instrumentation/releases/latest/download/opentelemetry-javaagent.jar

Configure the instrumentation

Set the following environment variables:

Environment variable	Value
OTEL_SERVICE_NAME	your service name
JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS	-javaagent:path/to/opentelemetry-javaagent.jar

Run your instrumented app

java -jar /path/to/myapp.jar

Next steps

Navigate to Traces in your Observe tenant to view traces from your application.

• Search for traces in your environment

• View your services and their dependencies

• Troubleshoot service endpoints

• Set up deployment tracking

• Correlate traces with logs

• See all data collected by APM

Troubleshooting

My application data is not reaching Observe

If your data is not showing up in Observe, first verify that Observe Agent is receiving data from your application. See Troubleshooting the Observe Agent.

Common reasons why the Observe agent is not receiving traces from your application:

Default exporter settings override

By default, OpenTelemetry instrumentation exports data using standard OTLP settings, which are automatically compatible with the Observe Agent’s default receiver configuration.

This means that data from your application might not be reaching the Observe Agent if you have overridden the following environment variables with non-default settings:

• OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT

• OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_ENDPOINT

• OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_ENDPOINT

• OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_ENDPOINT

Ensure these variables are unset or set to the correct endpoint (e.g., http://localhost:4317 for gRPC or http://localhost:4318 for HTTP).

Ports blocked by firewall

Ensure that any firewalls within the same network as your app and collector are configured to allow traffic on ports 4317 and 4318. The application instrumentation uses these ports to communicate with the Observe agent.

I am getting duplicate spans in Observe

If you’re seeing multiple spans with the same span_id in the Trace Explorer, the cause may be the following:

• Multiple layers of OTel instrumentation for the same spans

• Multiple exporters configured (either in your Agent, OTel collector, or application code) that point to Observe

• Some other pathway in your environment is duplicating data (e.g., proxy or load balancer)