General SDK Configuration

OTEL_SERVICE_NAME

Sets the value of the service.name resource attribute.

Default value: "unknown_service"

If service.name is also provided in OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES, then OTEL_SERVICE_NAME takes precedence.

Example:

export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME="your-service-name"

OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES

Key-value pairs to be used as resource attributes. See Resource SDK for more details.

Default value: Empty.

See Resource semantic conventions for semantic conventions to follow for common resource types.

Example:

export OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES="key1=value1,key2=value2"

OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER

Specifies the Sampler used to sample traces by the SDK.

Default value: "parentbased_always_on"

Example:

export OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER="traceidratio"

Accepted values for OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER are:

• "always_on": AlwaysOnSampler
• "always_off": AlwaysOffSampler
• "traceidratio": TraceIdRatioBased
• "parentbased_always_on": ParentBased(root=AlwaysOnSampler)
• "parentbased_always_off": ParentBased(root=AlwaysOffSampler)
• "parentbased_traceidratio": ParentBased(root=TraceIdRatioBased)
• "parentbased_jaeger_remote": ParentBased(root=JaegerRemoteSampler)
• "jaeger_remote": JaegerRemoteSampler
• "xray": AWS X-Ray Centralized Sampling (third party)

OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG

Specifies arguments, if applicable, to the sampler defined in by OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER. The specified value will only be used if OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER is set. Each Sampler type defines its own expected input, if any. Invalid or unrecognized input is logged as an error.

Default value: Empty.

Example:

export OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER="traceidratio"
export OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG="0.5"

Depending on the value of OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER, OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG may be set as follows:

• For traceidratio and parentbased_traceidratio samplers: Sampling probability, a number in the [0..1] range, e.g. “0.25”. Default is 1.0 if unset.
• For jaeger_remote and parentbased_jaeger_remote: The value is a comma separated list:
  • Example: "endpoint=http://localhost:14250,pollingIntervalMs=5000,initialSamplingRate=0.25"
  • endpoint: the endpoint in form of scheme://host:port of gRPC server that serves the sampling strategy for the service (sampling.proto).
  • pollingIntervalMs: in milliseconds indicating how often the sampler will poll the backend for updates to sampling strategy.
  • initialSamplingRate: in the [0..1] range, which is used as the sampling probability when the backend cannot be reached to retrieve a sampling strategy. This value stops having an effect once a sampling strategy is retrieved successfully, as the remote strategy will be used until a new update is retrieved.

OTEL_PROPAGATORS

Specifies Propagators to be used in a comma-separated list.

Default value: "tracecontext,baggage"

Example:

export OTEL_PROPAGATORS="b3"

Accepted values for OTEL_PROPAGATORS are:

• "tracecontext": W3C Trace Context
• "baggage": W3C Baggage
• "b3": B3 Single
• "b3multi": B3 Multi
• "jaeger": Jaeger
• "xray": AWS X-Ray (third party)
• "ottrace": OT Trace (third party)
• "none": No automatically configured propagator.

OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER

Specifies which exporter is used for traces. Depending on the implementation it may be a comma-separated list.

Default value: "otlp"

Example:

export OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER="jaeger"

Accepted values for are:

• "otlp": OTLP
• "jaeger": export in Jaeger data model
• "zipkin": Zipkin
• "console": Standard Output
• "none": No automatically configured exporter for traces.

OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER

Specifies which exporter is used for metrics. Depending on the implementation it may be a comma-separated list.

Default value: "otlp"

Example:

export OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER="prometheus"

Accepted values for OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER are:

• "otlp": OTLP
• "prometheus": Prometheus
• "console": Standard Output
• "none": No automatically configured exporter for metrics.

OTEL_LOGS_EXPORTER

Specifies which exporter is used for logs. Depending on the implementation it may be a comma-separated list.

Default value: "otlp"

Example:

export OTEL_LOGS_EXPORTER="otlp"

Accepted values for OTEL_LOGS_EXPORTER are:

• "otlp": OTLP
• "console": Standard Output
• "none": No automatically configured exporter for logs.