@opentelemetry/instrumentation-grpc

What is @opentelemetry/instrumentation-grpc?

@opentelemetry/instrumentation-grpc is an npm package that provides automatic instrumentation for gRPC services and clients using OpenTelemetry. This allows you to collect and export telemetry data such as traces and metrics from your gRPC-based applications, which can be used for monitoring and observability purposes.

What are @opentelemetry/instrumentation-grpc's main functionalities?

Automatic gRPC Server Instrumentation

This code sets up automatic instrumentation for a gRPC server. It initializes the OpenTelemetry tracer provider, adds a span processor to export spans to the console, and registers the gRPC instrumentation.

const { NodeTracerProvider } = require('@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-node');
const { SimpleSpanProcessor } = require('@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-base');
const { ConsoleSpanExporter } = require('@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-base');
const { GrpcInstrumentation } = require('@opentelemetry/instrumentation-grpc');

const provider = new NodeTracerProvider();
provider.addSpanProcessor(new SimpleSpanProcessor(new ConsoleSpanExporter()));
provider.register();

const grpcInstrumentation = new GrpcInstrumentation();
grpcInstrumentation.setTracerProvider(provider);

Automatic gRPC Client Instrumentation

This code sets up automatic instrumentation for a gRPC client. Similar to the server instrumentation, it initializes the OpenTelemetry tracer provider, adds a span processor to export spans to the console, and registers the gRPC instrumentation.

const { NodeTracerProvider } = require('@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-node');
const { SimpleSpanProcessor } = require('@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-base');
const { ConsoleSpanExporter } = require('@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-base');
const { GrpcInstrumentation } = require('@opentelemetry/instrumentation-grpc');

const provider = new NodeTracerProvider();
provider.addSpanProcessor(new SimpleSpanProcessor(new ConsoleSpanExporter()));
provider.register();

const grpcInstrumentation = new GrpcInstrumentation();
grpcInstrumentation.setTracerProvider(provider);

Other packages similar to @opentelemetry/instrumentation-grpc

@opentelemetry/instrumentation-http

@opentelemetry/instrumentation-http provides automatic instrumentation for HTTP and HTTPS modules in Node.js. It is similar to @opentelemetry/instrumentation-grpc but focuses on HTTP-based communication instead of gRPC.

@opentelemetry/instrumentation-express

@opentelemetry/instrumentation-express provides automatic instrumentation for Express.js applications. It is similar to @opentelemetry/instrumentation-grpc but is specifically designed for the Express.js framework.

@opentelemetry/instrumentation-mongodb

@opentelemetry/instrumentation-mongodb provides automatic instrumentation for MongoDB operations. It is similar to @opentelemetry/instrumentation-grpc but focuses on MongoDB database interactions.

README

OpenTelemetry gRPC Instrumentation for Node.js

Note: This is an experimental package under active development. New releases may include breaking changes.

This module provides automatic instrumentation for @grpc/grpc-js. Currently, version 1.x of @grpc/grpc-js is supported.

For automatic instrumentation see the @opentelemetry/sdk-trace-node package.

Installation

npm install --save @opentelemetry/instrumentation-grpc

Supported Versions

• @grpc/grpc-js versions ^1.0.0

Usage

OpenTelemetry gRPC Instrumentation allows the user to automatically collect trace data and export them to the backend of choice, to give observability to distributed systems when working with (grpc-js).

To load a specific instrumentation (gRPC in this case), specify it in the Node Tracer's configuration.

const { NodeTracerProvider } = require('@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-node');
const { GrpcInstrumentation } = require('@opentelemetry/instrumentation-grpc');
const { registerInstrumentations } = require('@opentelemetry/instrumentation');

const provider = new NodeTracerProvider({
  spanProcessors: [new SimpleSpanProcessor(new ConsoleSpanExporter())]
});

provider.register();

registerInstrumentations({
  instrumentations: [new GrpcInstrumentation()]
});

See examples/grpc-js for examples.

gRPC Instrumentation Options

gRPC instrumentation accepts the following configuration:

Options	Type	Description
ignoreGrpcMethods	IgnoreMatcher[]	gRPC instrumentation will not trace any methods that match anything in this list. You may pass a string (case-insensitive match), a RegExp object, or a filter function.
metadataToSpanAttributes	object	List of case insensitive metadata to convert to span attributes. Client and server (outgoing requests, incoming responses) metadata attributes will be converted to span attributes in the form of rpc.{request\response}.metadata.metadata_key, e.g. rpc.response.metadata.date

Semantic Conventions

Up to and including v0.200.0, instrumentation-grpc generates telemetry using Semantic Conventions v1.7.0.

HTTP semantic conventions (semconv) were stabilized in v1.23.0, and a migration process was defined. instrumentation-grpc versions 0.201.0 and later include support for migrating to stable HTTP semantic conventions, as described below. The intent is to provide an approximate 6 month time window for users of this instrumentation to migrate to the new HTTP semconv, after which a new minor version will use the new semconv by default and drop support for the old semconv. See the HTTP semconv migration plan for OpenTelemetry JS instrumentations.

To select which semconv version(s) is emitted from this instrumentation, use the OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN environment variable.

• http: emit the new (stable) v1.23.0 semantics
• http/dup: emit both the old v1.7.0 and the new (stable) v1.23.0 semantics
• By default, if OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN includes neither of the above tokens, the old v1.7.0 semconv is used.

Attributes collected

v1.7.0 semconv	v1.23.0 semconv	Short Description
net.peer.name	server.address	Server domain name if available without reverse DNS lookup
net.peer.port	server.port	Server port number

Attribute	Short Description
rpc.method	The name of the (logical) method being called, must be equal to the $method part in the span name.
rpc.service	The full (logical) name of the service being called, including its package name, if applicable.
rpc.system	A string identifying the remoting system.

Upgrading Semantic Conventions

When upgrading to the new semantic conventions, it is recommended to do so in the following order:

• Upgrade @opentelemetry/instrumentation-grpc to the latest version
• Set OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN=http/dup to emit both old and new semantic conventions
• Modify alerts, dashboards, metrics, and other processes to expect the new semantic conventions
• Set OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN=http to emit only the new semantic conventions

This will cause both the old and new semantic conventions to be emitted during the transition period.

Useful links

• For more information on OpenTelemetry, visit: https://opentelemetry.io/
• For more about OpenTelemetry JavaScript: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js
• For help or feedback on this project, join us in GitHub Discussions

License

Apache 2.0 - See LICENSE for more information.