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This lesson dives into exporters in the OpenTelemetry Collector — the components that send processed telemetry (traces, metrics, logs) from the Collector to one or more external destinations (APMs, metrics stores, log storage, or other systems). All telemetry flows into the Collector from applications, services, and systems. Exporters are responsible for delivering that telemetry to its final destination while preserving correct formatting and compatibility with the backend. Exporters can also fan out the same telemetry to multiple backends in parallel. Key exporter responsibilities:
  • Efficient delivery of telemetry.
  • Correct formatting and backend compatibility.
  • Integration with processors and pipelines to support resilience and observability.
Table: Exporter role and examples
When an exporter name contains special characters (for example, a slash /), wrap the name in quotes in YAML (for example: "otlp/primary") to avoid YAML parsing issues.

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Example configuration

Below is a concise, syntactically correct Collector configuration that demonstrates:
  • an OTLP receiver,
  • two exporters (an OTLP backend and a logging exporter), and
  • a traces pipeline that fans out to both exporters.
How this configuration works
  • receivers accepts telemetry; here the otlp receiver accepts traces, metrics, and logs via gRPC and HTTP.
  • exporters defines endpoints and exporter-specific settings (TLS, headers, compression).
  • service.pipelines.traces connects receivers -> processors -> exporters. Listing multiple exporters enables fan-out: the same trace data will be delivered to "otlp/primary" and logging.

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Resilience and delivery guarantees

Exporters focus on delivering data; end-to-end resilience is typically implemented with processors placed in the pipeline before exporters. Common processors and patterns: The batch processor in the example reduces overhead and increases throughput. For stronger guarantees (queueing, retries, backpressure protection), add appropriate processors prior to exporters.
Keep exporter endpoints and credentials secure. Many exporters support TLS, authentication headers, and other security settings—configure them to avoid leaking sensitive telemetry or credentials.

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Practical considerations and best practices

  • Multiple exporters: Define exporters for different destinations (cloud APMs, logging systems, metrics backends) and reference combinations of them from pipelines to enable fan-out.
  • Observability: Monitor exporter performance (latencies, errors). Use logging exporter or a debug-level exporter during troubleshooting to inspect payloads.
  • Security: Store and reference credentials securely (secrets management). Enable TLS and validate certificates for production backends.
  • Performance: Tune processors like batch and queued_retry to match backend throughput and network characteristics.
  • Compatibility: Confirm exporter configuration matches backend expectations (protocols, versions, and attribute mappings).

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Component responsibilities (quick reference)

Exporters are a core piece of Collector configuration. They define where your telemetry ends up and, together with processors, determine how reliably and efficiently it gets there.

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