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Requirements

  • Automatically deploy OpenTelemetry (OTEL) collectors whenever a new EC2 instance is created
  • Track resource utilization metrics (CPU, memory, disk) across all developer instances
  • Provide developers with a consistent OTLP endpoint they can use for custom metrics
  • Maintain the same deployment configuration in both testing and production environments

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Technologies

AWS EC2

Cloud computing platform that provides scalable compute capacity. We’ll use EC2 instances as our deployment targets for running applications and collecting metrics.

OpenTelemetry Collector

A vendor-agnostic way to receive, process and export telemetry data. The collector will be automatically deployed to gather system metrics and provide a standardized endpoint for custom application metrics.

Github Actions

CI/CD platform that will automate our deployment pipeline. It will handle the provisioning of collectors and configuration management across all environments.

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Solution

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1. Getting EC2 Instances into Ctrlplane

Before deploying OpenTelemetry collectors, EC2 instances must be registered as Resources in Ctrlplane. These Resources represent the external state of our EC2 instances and require consistent updates as the state of each instance changes. These are just some of the ways you can get EC2 instances into Ctrlplane.
In this tutorial, we’ll simplify the process by using the Ctrlplane CLI to manage the state of EC2 instances within Ctrlplane. This approach keeps our deployment pipeline straightforward and concentrated on the primary task. However, a limitation is that the pipeline executes every 10 minutes. Consequently, if a new EC2 instance is launched, it won’t trigger a deployment of OTEL until the next 10-minute cycle.

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2. Github Deployment Pipeline

.github/workflows/deploy-otel-agent.yml
name: Deploy OpenTelemetry Agent

on:
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Configure AWS CLI
        run: |
          aws configure set aws_access_key_id ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
          aws configure set aws_secret_access_key ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
          aws configure set region ${{ secrets.AWS_REGION }}

      - name: Fetch EC2 Instance Public IP
        id: get_ec2_ip
        run: |
          INSTANCE_IP=$(aws ec2 describe-instances \
            --filters "Name=tag:Name,Values=${{ inputs.ec2_name }}" "Name=instance-state-name,Values=running" \
            --query "Reservations[0].Instances[0].PublicIpAddress" \
            --output text)

          if [[ "$INSTANCE_IP" == "None" ]]; then
            echo "EC2 instance not found or does not have a public IP"
            exit 1
          fi

          echo "EC2 IP: $INSTANCE_IP"
          echo "ec2_ip=$INSTANCE_IP" >> $GITHUB_ENV

      - name: Set up SSH key
        run: |
          mkdir -p ~/.ssh
          echo "${{ secrets.EC2_SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}" > ~/.ssh/id_rsa
          chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
          ssh-keyscan -H ${{ env.ec2_ip }} >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts

      - name: Deploy OpenTelemetry Agent
        run: |
          ssh ${{ secrets.EC2_USER }}@${{ env.ec2_ip }} << 'EOF'
            set -e

            # Install OpenTelemetry if not installed
            if ! command -v otelcol-contrib &> /dev/null; then
              echo "Installing OpenTelemetry Collector..."
              sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y curl
              curl -L https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-releases/releases/latest/download/otelcol-contrib-linux-amd64 -o /usr/local/bin/otelcol-contrib
              sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/otelcol-contrib
            else
              echo "OpenTelemetry Collector is already installed."
            fi

            # Create systemd service file for OpenTelemetry
            sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/otelcol-contrib.service > /dev/null <<EOT
            [Unit]
            Description=OpenTelemetry Collector
            After=network.target

            [Service]
            ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/otelcol-contrib --config /etc/otelcol-config.yaml
            Restart=always
            User=root
            Group=root

            [Install]
            WantedBy=multi-user.target
            EOT

            # Restart and enable the OpenTelemetry service
            sudo systemctl daemon-reload
            sudo systemctl enable otelcol-contrib
            sudo systemctl restart otelcol-contrib
          EOF

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3. Policy Configuration

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Conclusion

While this example focuses on AWS EC2, the solution can be applied to any resource type. As long as you can create resources representing your deployment target in Ctrlplane, you can automate the deployment of OpenTelemetry collectors and provide standardized monitoring endpoints for your development teams.