Telemetry Generator

The Telemetry Generator source produces synthetic telemetry for testing Bindplane pipelines. It is useful for validating processor and destination configurations and for generating load without depending on a real telemetry source. The generator can emit synthetic logs, host metrics, replayed OTLP payloads (logs, metrics, or traces), or sample Windows Event Log records.

Supported Telemetry Types

Platform	Metrics	Logs	Traces
Linux	✓	✓	✓
Windows	✓	✓	✓
macOS	✓	✓	✓
AIX	✓	✓	✓

The telemetry types actually emitted depend on the selected Generator Type. Logs and Windows Events produce logs, Host Metrics produces metrics, and OTLP produces whichever type is selected for the replay payload.

Prerequisites

• A collector running a build of the Bindplane OpenTelemetry collector that includes the telemetrygeneratorreceiver. The Host Metrics and Windows Events generators require collector version v1.47.0 or later.

Configuration

General

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
Generator Type	Enum	Logs	The kind of telemetry to generate. One of Host Metrics, OTLP, Logs, or Windows Events.
Payloads per second	Integer	1	The number of payloads to generate per second. Required.

Logs Generator

These parameters apply when generator_type is Logs.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
Body	String		The body of the generated log message. Required when the generator type is Logs.
Severity Level	Enum	info	The severity level to use for generated logs. One of trace, debug, info, warn, error, or fatal. Applies when the generator type is Logs.
Resource Attributes	Map	{}	Resource attributes (key-value pairs) that describe and identify the source of the generated logs. Applies when the generator type is Logs.
Attributes	Map	{}	Attributes (key-value pairs) that label and provide context to the generated logs. Applies when the generator type is Logs.

OTLP Replay Generator

These parameters apply when generator_type is OTLP. The OTLP generator replays JSON-formatted OTLP telemetry, adjusting timestamps relative to the current time so that the most recent record is moved to now and earlier records keep the same relative offset.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
Telemetry Type	Enum	logs	The type of telemetry to replay. One of logs, metrics, or traces. Applies when the generator type is OTLP.
OTLP JSON	YAML		The JSON-formatted OTLP payload to replay, such as output from plog.JSONMarshaler, pmetric.JSONMarshaler, or ptrace.JSONMarshaler. Applies when the generator type is OTLP.

Host Metrics Generator

These parameters apply when generator_type is Host Metrics. The Host Metrics generator emits synthetic host metrics from a predefined set.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
Resource Attributes	Map	{}	Resource attributes (key-value pairs) that describe and identify the source of the generated metrics. Applies when the generator type is Host Metrics.

Windows Events Generator

When generator_type is Windows Events, the source replays a sample of recorded Windows Event Log data. It has no additional configuration parameters beyond payloads.

Example Configuration

Standalone Source

This example generates one synthetic log payload per second with an info severity, a static body, and a resource attribute.

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Source
metadata:
  id: telemetrygenerator
  name: telemetrygenerator
spec:
  type: telemetrygenerator
  parameters:
    - name: generator_type
      value: 'Logs'
    - name: payloads
      value: '1'
    - name: severity_level
      value: 'info'
    - name: body
      value: 'This is a generated test log message.'
    - name: logs_resource_attributes
      value:
        service.name: 'test-service'
    - name: attributes
      value:
        environment: 'test'

To generate host metrics instead, set generator_type to Host Metrics:

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Source
metadata:
  id: telemetrygenerator
  name: telemetrygenerator
spec:
  type: telemetrygenerator
  parameters:
    - name: generator_type
      value: 'Host Metrics'
    - name: payloads
      value: '1'
    - name: metrics_resource_attributes
      value:
        host.name: 'test-host'

Configuration Tips

Choosing a generator type

• Use the Logs generator for a steady stream of simple log records when validating log pipelines, processors, or destinations.
• Use the Host Metrics generator to exercise metric pipelines without running a real host metrics receiver.
• Use the OTLP generator to replay a captured payload of real telemetry. Paste JSON-formatted OTLP into otlp_json, and the generator adjusts the timestamps relative to the current time.
• Use the Windows Events generator to replay sample Windows Event Log data into a log pipeline.

Controlling load

• Raise payloads to increase throughput when load-testing a pipeline. The receiver generates that many payloads every second, so scale the value carefully against the capacity of your downstream destinations.

Troubleshooting

Symptom: No telemetry appears downstream even though the source is configured. Solution: Confirm the Generator Type matches the pipeline you are testing. A Logs or Windows Events generator only feeds logs pipelines, Host Metrics only feeds metrics pipelines, and OTLP feeds whichever type is set in otlp_type.

Symptom: The OTLP generator produces no records. Solution: Verify that otlp_json contains valid JSON-formatted OTLP telemetry and that otlp_type matches the telemetry type contained in the payload (logs, metrics, or traces).

Symptom: Generated logs have no body or unexpected severity. Solution: The body parameter is required for the Logs generator. Set it explicitly, and set severity_level to the desired level (info by default).

Related Resources

• OTLP/JSON encoding reference
• Bindplane sources documentation