Observe

The Observe destination exports metrics, logs, and traces from a Bindplane pipeline to Observe. Telemetry is sent to your account's customer-specific OTLP/HTTP ingest endpoint (https://<customer_id>.collect.observeinc.com/v2/otel) using a Datastream token for authentication.

Supported Telemetry Types

Metrics	Logs	Traces
✓	✓	✓

Prerequisites

You need an Observe tenant, its OTLP/HTTP ingest endpoint, and a Datastream ingest token:

• Observe tenant — an active Observe account. Your Customer ID is the 12-digit number that identifies your account and appears in the URL you use to log into Observe.
• Ingest endpoint — Observe exposes a customer-specific ingest host at https://<customer_id>.collect.observeinc.com. This destination posts OTLP/HTTP to the /v2/otel path. The endpoint is derived automatically from your Customer ID, so no endpoint field is exposed.
• Ingest token — a token with write-access to a Datastream in your Observe account. Create the token from the Observe UI and supply it in the destination's Token field. The token is sent as a Bearer credential in the Authorization header.

By default the Observe platform does not surface metrics and logs. Enable them by opening Applications, choosing Manage on the OpenTelemetry application, and toggling support for metrics and logs.

See Observe's Endpoints documentation for details on the Customer ID, ingest token creation, and authentication.

Configuration

Connection

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Customer ID	String	Yes	(empty)	A 12-digit number that identifies your account and is displayed in the URL you use to log into Observe.
Token	string (sensitive)	Yes	(empty)	A token with write-access to a Datastream in your Observe account. Sent as a Bearer credential in the Authorization header.

Advanced

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Drop Raw Copy	Boolean	No	true	When enabled, the raw copy of the log stored in log.record.original is dropped. Applies to logs only.
Enable Retry on Failure	Boolean	No	true	Attempt to resend telemetry data that has failed to be transmitted to the destination.
Initial interval	Integer	No	5	Time (in seconds) to wait after the first failure before retrying. Applies when Retry on Failure is enabled.
Max interval	Integer	No	30	The upper bound (in seconds) on backoff. Applies when Retry on Failure is enabled.
Max elapsed time	Integer	No	300	The maximum amount of time (in seconds) spent trying to send a batch, used to avoid a never-ending retry loop. Applies when Retry on Failure is enabled.
Enable Sending Queue	Boolean	No	true	Buffer telemetry data temporarily before sending to help ensure telemetry data is not lost in case of a temporary network outage.
Number of Consumers	Integer	No	10	Number of consumers that dequeue batches. Applies when the Sending Queue is enabled.
Queue Size	Integer	No	5000	Maximum number of batches kept in memory before dropping. Applies when the Sending Queue is enabled.
Enable Persistent Queuing	Boolean	No	true	Buffer telemetry data to disk before sending to help ensure telemetry data is not lost in case of network outages or collector restarts. Applies when the Sending Queue is enabled.
Persistent Queue Storage	extension	Yes	file_storage_persistent_queue	The storage extension to use for the persistent queue. Applies when the Sending Queue and Persistent Queuing are enabled.

Compression is set to gzip for all signals.

NOTE

The Observe platform relies on the "Timestamp" field for indexing logs. You can use the Parse Timestamp processor to parse your application's timestamps if they are not already parsed by your configured sources. Most Bindplane sources will handle timestamps correctly without additional configuration.

Examples

Forward metrics, traces, and logs to the account 165866210346 using a Datastream token created in the Observe web interface. Retry, sending queue, and persistent queue use their defaults.

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Destination
metadata:
  name: observe
spec:
  type: observeinc
  parameters:
    - name: customer_id
      value: '165866210346'
    - name: token
      value: (sensitive)

Configuration Tips

• The ingest endpoint is built from the Customer ID, so confirm the 12-digit value matches the one in your Observe login URL. A wrong Customer ID resolves to a different (or non-existent) tenant host.
• Leave persistent queuing enabled for production. It buffers telemetry to disk so data survives collector restarts and longer network outages, not just brief ones.
• Keep Drop Raw Copy enabled unless you specifically need the unparsed log in log.record.original. Dropping it reduces ingest volume in Observe.

Troubleshooting

Symptom: Exports are rejected with a 401 or 403 authentication error. Solution: Verify the Token has write-access to a Datastream and that it is current. The token is sent as Authorization: Bearer <token>; a revoked or mistyped token fails authentication.

Symptom: Data is not arriving and the collector logs DNS or connection-refused errors for *.collect.observeinc.com. Solution: Confirm the Customer ID is the correct 12-digit value from your Observe login URL. The endpoint host is derived from it, so an incorrect ID points the exporter at the wrong tenant.

Symptom: Telemetry is dropped during network outages or collector restarts. Solution: Enable the Sending Queue and Persistent Queuing. The persistent queue buffers batches to disk via the configured storage extension so they are retried after connectivity is restored.

Standalone Destination

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Destination
metadata:
  name: observe
spec:
  type: observeinc
  parameters:
    - name: customer_id
      value: '165866210346'
    - name: token
      value: (sensitive)

Related Resources

• OTLP/HTTP Exporter — the upstream OpenTelemetry exporter used to send telemetry to Observe.
• Observe Endpoints documentation — Customer ID, ingest token creation, and authentication.