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¶

Troubleshooting¶

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.