Resource Detection

Detects resource information from the host or a cloud provider and attaches it as resource attributes on your telemetry. Pick one or more detectors (for example system, ec2, gcp, consul, k8s_api); each contributes the attributes it knows how to discover. When detectors share an attribute, the order in the Detectors list decides precedence: the first detector to set an attribute wins unless Override Resource Attributes is enabled.

Supported Telemetry Types

Logs	Metrics	Traces
✓	✓	✓

The same configuration applies to all three signals. One processor instance enriches logs, metrics, and traces alike; there is no per-signal selector.

Configuration

Basic Configuration

Detectors

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Detectors	Ordered List: aks, azure, consul, dynatrace, ec2, eks, env, gcp, k8s_api, k8snode, openshift, system	Yes	system	Which detectors to use for resource detection. Order matters when multiple detectors set the same attribute. The k8snode detector is deprecated in favor of k8s_api.

System

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Hostname Source	Ordered List: os, dns, cname, lookup	Yes	os	Source used to detect the system hostname. Order matters when sources set the same attribute. Applies when system is selected.

EC2

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
EC2 Tags	Strings	No	(empty)	List of regular expressions matched against EC2 instance tag keys; matching tags are added as resource attributes. Applies when ec2 is selected.

Consul

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Consul Address	String	No	(empty)	Address of the Consul server. If unset, the CONSUL_HTTP_ADDR environment variable is used when present. Applies when consul is selected.
Consul Authentication	Enum: None, Token, Token File	No	None	Authentication type for Consul. One of Token or Token File is required if Consul's ACL system is enabled. Applies when consul is selected.
Consul Token	String	No	(empty)	Per-request ACL token that overrides the agent's default token. If unset, CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN is used when present. Applies when Consul Authentication is Token. Stored as a sensitive value.
Consul Token File	String	No	(empty)	File containing the token to use for this client, read once at startup. If unset, CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN_FILE is used when present. Applies when Consul Authentication is Token File.

K8s Node

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
K8s Node Environment Variable	String	No	KUBE_NODE_NAME	Environment variable holding the node name to retrieve metadata for. Applies when the deprecated k8snode detector is selected.

K8s API

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
K8s API Node Environment Variable	String	No	KUBE_NODE_NAME	Environment variable holding the node name to retrieve metadata for. Applies when k8s_api is selected.

Advanced

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Override Resource Attributes	Boolean	Yes	false	Whether detected resource attributes should overwrite existing ones. When false, an attribute already set on the telemetry is kept.
Timeout	Duration	Yes	2s	Time after which a resource detector request times out.
Consul Datacenter	String	No	(empty)	Optional Consul datacenter to use. If not provided, the default agent datacenter is used. Applies when consul is selected.
Consul Namespace	String	No	(empty)	Optional namespace attached to each Consul request. If unset, CONSUL_NAMESPACE is used when present. Applies when consul is selected.
Consul Metadata Labels	Map	No	(empty)	Allowlist of Consul metadata keys to use as resource attributes. Applies when consul is selected.

Supported detectors

Detector	Detects
system	Host name, OS, and architecture from the local machine.
ec2	Amazon EC2 instance metadata.
eks	Amazon EKS cluster metadata.
gcp	Google Cloud metadata, including GCE and GKE.
aks	Azure Kubernetes Service metadata.
azure	Azure virtual machine metadata.
consul	Node metadata from a HashiCorp Consul agent.
dynatrace	Dynatrace host metadata.
env	Attributes from the OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES environment variable.
k8s_api	Kubernetes node metadata via the Kubernetes API server.
k8snode	Kubernetes node metadata (deprecated; use k8s_api).
openshift	OpenShift cluster metadata.

Examples

Detect EC2 instance attributes

Select the ec2 detector to attach Amazon EC2 instance metadata (instance ID, type, region, availability zone) as resource attributes on every signal flowing through the pipeline. Leave Override Resource Attributes off so any attributes you already set upstream are preserved. To also bring in instance tags, add regular expressions under EC2 Tags that match the tag keys you want, for example ^env$ and ^team$.

Detect the GCP environment

The env detector reads resource attributes from the OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES environment variable on the collector host, with no additional configuration. The expected format is a comma-separated list of key=value pairs, for example:

OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=service.name=cart,service.namespace=shop

Override detected attributes with a tighter timeout

This example exercises the advanced parameters. With Override Resource Attributes set to true, the system detector's values replace any host attributes already present on the telemetry instead of yielding to them. Timeout is lowered to 5s so a slow or unreachable metadata endpoint fails fast rather than stalling the pipeline.

Configuration Tips

• Detector order is precedence order. When two detectors set the same attribute, the one listed first wins unless Override Resource Attributes is enabled.
• Keep Override Resource Attributes off if upstream stages (or other processors) already set authoritative resource attributes you want to protect.
• Use k8s_api rather than the deprecated k8snode detector for Kubernetes node metadata.

Troubleshooting

No resource attributes are added

Symptoms: telemetry passes through unchanged and the expected resource attributes are missing.

Solutions:

1. Confirm the chosen detector can reach its metadata source from the collector host (for example, the EC2 metadata endpoint, the Consul agent, or the Kubernetes API server).
2. If attributes are present but not the detected ones, enable Override Resource Attributes so detection overwrites the existing values.

Detector requests time out

Symptoms: startup is slow or logs report a resource detector timing out.

Solutions:

1. Verify network access to the detector's metadata endpoint.
2. Raise Timeout if the endpoint is reachable but slow; lower it if you would rather fail fast and continue without the attributes.

Standalone Processor

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Processor
metadata:
  name: resource-detection
spec:
  type: resource_detection_v2
  parameters:
    - name: detectors
      value:
        - system
    - name: system_hostname_source
      value:
        - os
    - name: override
      value: true
    - name: timeout
      value: 5s

Related Resources

• Resource Detection Processor — supported detectors
• Consul ACL tokens

Bindplane Resources

• Add Fields
• Delete Fields
• Rename Fields