otel-collector

Best Practices

• Always include memory_limiter processor to prevent OOM (check_interval: 1s, limit_mib: 512)
• Use batch processor for efficient data export (timeout: 5s, send_batch_size: 1024)
• Enable health_check extension for liveness probes
• Configure OTLP receiver on both gRPC (4317) and HTTP (4318) protocols
• Use resource processor to add environment and service metadata
• Set appropriate retry_on_failure and sending_queue for exporters
• Separate traces, metrics, and logs into distinct pipelines
• Use filter processor to drop low-value telemetry and reduce costs
• Configure TLS for production deployments
• Use the contrib distribution for additional receivers/exporters
• Set reasonable queue sizes to handle traffic spikes without data loss
• Include zpages extension for debugging in development

Documentation Sources