OpenTelemetry (OTLP)

The OpenTelemetry (OTLP) destination exports logs, metrics, and traces from a Bindplane pipeline to any backend that accepts the OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP). It works with any OTLP receiver, including another OpenTelemetry Collector, an OTLP gateway, or a vendor backend that exposes an OTLP ingest endpoint. Choose between OTLP/gRPC and OTLP/HTTP transport, and configure TLS, compression, batching, retry, and queuing as needed.

Supported Telemetry

Metrics	Logs	Traces
✓	✓	✓

Use Choose Telemetry Type to select which signals this destination exports.

Prerequisites

• A reachable OTLP endpoint. This is the hostname or IP address and port of the OTLP receiver you are sending to. The default port is 4317 for OTLP/gRPC and 4318 for OTLP/HTTP.
• The transport the endpoint accepts: OTLP over gRPC or OTLP over HTTP.
• Any authentication the endpoint requires, supplied as request headers (for example an Authorization or API-key header).
• Any TLS material the endpoint requires: a CA certificate to validate the server, and, for mutual TLS, a client certificate and private key.

This destination is a generic OTLP exporter and does not require a specific vendor account. Consult the documentation for your OTLP backend for the exact endpoint, port, headers, and TLS requirements.

Configuration

Connection

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Choose Telemetry Type	Telemetry Selector	No	Logs, Metrics, Traces	Select which types of telemetry to export.
Hostname	String	Yes	(empty)	Hostname or IP address where the exporter will send OTLP data.
Port	Integer	No	4317	TCP port to which the exporter sends OTLP data. Shown when Protocol is grpc. Valid range 1 to 65535.
Port	Integer	No	4318	TCP port to which the exporter sends OTLP data. Shown when Protocol is http. Valid range 1 to 65535.
Protocol	Enum: grpc, http	No	grpc	The OTLP protocol to use when sending OTLP telemetry.
Path Prefix	String	No	(empty)	Optional path prefix added to the HTTP endpoint.1 Shown when Protocol is http.

1. Telemetry is sent to /v1/metrics, /v1/logs, and /v1/traces by default; a prefix of /myapp sends metrics to /myapp/v1/metrics.

Advanced

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Additional Headers	Map	No	(empty)	Additional headers to attach to each request. Use for authentication tokens or API keys.
Compression	Enum: none, gzip, deflate, snappy, zlib, zstd	No	gzip	Compression algorithm to use when sending data. Shown when Protocol is http.
Compression	Enum: none, gzip, snappy, zstd	No	gzip	Compression algorithm to use when sending data. Ensure the server supports the selected algorithm. Shown when Protocol is grpc.
Timeout	Integer	Yes	30	Timeout, in seconds, for sending batches to the destination.

Advanced — gRPC Load Balancing

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Enable gRPC Load Balancing	Boolean	No	false	Use native gRPC client-side load balancing with DNS name resolution. Shown when Protocol is grpc.
Load Balancing Policy	Enum: round_robin, pick_first	No	round_robin	Load balancing policy to use when sending to multiple OTLP endpoints. Shown when Enable gRPC Load Balancing is on.

Advanced — TLS

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Enable TLS	Boolean	No	false	Whether to use TLS.
Skip TLS Certificate Verification	Boolean	No	false	Skip verification of the server's certificate. Shown when Enable TLS is on.
TLS Certificate Authority File	String	No	(empty)	Optional certificate authority file used to validate the server's certificate. Shown when Enable TLS is on.
Server Name Override	String	No	(empty)	Optional virtual hostname indicating the name of the server requested by the client. Generally not required. Shown when Enable TLS is on.
Mutual TLS	Boolean	No	false	Whether to use client TLS authentication (mTLS). Shown when Enable TLS is on.
TLS Client Certificate File	String	Yes	(empty)	Path to the client certificate used for mutual TLS. Required when Enable TLS and Mutual TLS are both on.
TLS Client Private Key	String	Yes	(empty)	Path to the client private key used for mutual TLS. Required when Enable TLS and Mutual TLS are both on.

Advanced — Processing

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.

Advanced — Batching

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Enable Batching	Boolean	No	true	Batch telemetry data before sending to the destination.
Send Batch Size	Integer	Yes	8192	Number of spans, metric data points, or log records after which a batch is sent regardless of the timeout. Shown when Enable Batching is on.
Send Batch Max Size	Integer	Yes	0	Upper limit of the batch size. 0 means no upper limit. Must be greater than or equal to Send Batch Size. Shown when Enable Batching is on.
Timeout	Duration	Yes	200ms	Time after which a batch is sent regardless of size. Example: 2s. Shown when Enable Batching is on.

Advanced — Retry on Failure

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Enable Retry on Failure	Boolean	No	true	Attempt to resend telemetry that failed to transmit.
Initial interval	Integer	No	5	Time, in seconds, to wait after the first failure before retrying. Shown when Enable Retry on Failure is on.
Max interval	Integer	No	30	Upper bound, in seconds, on backoff. Shown when Enable Retry on Failure is on.
Max elapsed time	Integer	No	300	Maximum time, in seconds, spent trying to send a batch before giving up. Shown when Enable Retry on Failure is on.

Advanced — Sending Queue

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Enable Sending Queue	Boolean	No	true	Buffer telemetry temporarily before sending to help avoid data loss during a temporary network outage.
Number of Consumers	Integer	No	10	Number of consumers that dequeue batches. Shown when Enable Sending Queue is on.
Queue Size	Integer	No	5000	Maximum number of batches kept in memory before dropping. Shown when Enable Sending Queue is on.
Enable Persistent Queuing	Boolean	No	true	Buffer telemetry to disk before sending to help avoid data loss during network outages or collector restarts. Shown when Enable Sending Queue is on.
Persistent Queue Storage	Extension	Yes	File storage extension	Storage to use for the persistent queue. Shown when Enable Sending Queue and Enable Persistent Queuing are both on.

Examples

Export all signals to an OTLP gateway over gRPC with TLS

This destination sends logs, metrics, and traces to an OTLP receiver at otlp.example.com:4317 over gRPC. TLS is enabled and validated against a CA file, and an authentication token is supplied as a request header.

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Destination
metadata:
  name: opentelemetry-otlp
spec:
  type: otlp_grpc
  parameters:
    - name: telemetry_types
      value:
        - Logs
        - Metrics
        - Traces
    - name: hostname
      value: otlp.example.com
    - name: protocol
      value: grpc
    - name: grpc_port
      value: 4317
    - name: grpc_compression
      value: gzip
    - name: headers
      value:
        Authorization: "Bearer ${OTLP_TOKEN}"
    - name: enable_tls
      value: true
    - name: ca_file
      value: /opt/tls/ca.crt
    - name: timeout
      value: 30

Configuration Tips

• gRPC vs HTTP. OTLP/gRPC (Protocol grpc, default port 4317) is usually the most efficient choice and is the right default when the backend supports it. Choose OTLP/HTTP (Protocol http, default port 4318) when the path to the backend only allows HTTP, for example through a proxy or load balancer that does not pass gRPC, or when the backend exposes only an OTLP/HTTP ingest endpoint. The two protocols use different ports and a different set of compression algorithms, so confirm which transport your endpoint accepts before selecting one.
• HTTP path prefix. With OTLP/HTTP, telemetry is sent to /v1/metrics, /v1/logs, and /v1/traces. If the backend serves OTLP under a different base path, set Path Prefix so the signal paths are prefixed accordingly (for example /myapp yields /myapp/v1/metrics).
• Compression and the receiver. Compression defaults to gzip. The OTLP/gRPC and OTLP/HTTP transports support different algorithm sets, and the receiving server must support the algorithm you pick. Set Compression to none if the backend does not support compression.
• Persistence. Keep the sending queue and persistent queuing enabled so buffered telemetry survives a temporary network outage or a collector restart rather than being dropped.

Troubleshooting

Authentication or permission errors from the backend

Symptoms: the backend rejects requests with an authentication or authorization error.

Solutions:

1. Confirm the required auth header is set under Additional Headers with the exact name and value the backend expects (for example Authorization: Bearer <token>).
2. Verify the token or API key is still valid and has permission to ingest the signals you are exporting.

Connection refused or wrong endpoint

Symptoms: the exporter cannot reach the destination, or requests fail with connection or 404 errors.

Solutions:

1. Confirm Hostname and Port match the OTLP receiver. Use port 4317 for gRPC and 4318 for HTTP unless the backend documents otherwise.
2. Confirm Protocol matches what the endpoint accepts. A gRPC client cannot talk to an HTTP-only endpoint and vice versa.
3. For OTLP/HTTP, verify Path Prefix if the backend serves OTLP under a non-default base path.

TLS handshake failures

Symptoms: the connection fails during the TLS handshake or with a certificate validation error.

Solutions:

1. With Enable TLS on, provide a CA file that can validate the server's certificate, or correct the Server Name Override if the certificate's name differs from the hostname.
2. For mutual TLS, confirm the client certificate and private key paths are correct and readable by the collector.
3. Skip TLS Certificate Verification can confirm a certificate problem during testing, but leave it off in production.

Throttling or dropped data

Symptoms: the backend returns throttling responses, or telemetry is dropped under load.

Solutions:

1. Keep Enable Retry on Failure on so transient failures and throttling responses are retried with backoff.
2. Keep the sending queue and persistent queuing enabled; increase Queue Size if data is dropped during sustained outages.
3. Tune batching (Send Batch Size, Timeout) to match the backend's ingest limits.

Standalone Destination

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Destination
metadata:
  name: opentelemetry-otlp
spec:
  type: otlp_grpc
  parameters:
    - name: telemetry_types
      value:
        - Logs
        - Metrics
        - Traces
    - name: hostname
      value: otlp.example.com
    - name: protocol
      value: grpc
    - name: grpc_port
      value: 4317
    - name: timeout
      value: 30

Related Resources

• OTLP gRPC Exporter (otlpexporter) — OpenTelemetry Collector
• OTLP HTTP Exporter (otlphttpexporter) — OpenTelemetry Collector