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Linux

Install and configure the OpenTelemetry Collector on Linux systems.

Whether you're using Debian, Red Hat, or other Linux distributions, you'll learn how to set up telemetry collection for your observability needs.

Overview​

The OpenTelemetry Collector is a vendor-agnostic agent that collects, processes, and exports telemetry data. This guide covers:

  • Installing OpenTelemetry Collector via DEB packages (Ubuntu, Debian)
  • Installing OpenTelemetry Collector via RPM packages (RHEL, CentOS, Fedora)
  • Manual installation for other Linux distributions
  • Post-installation configuration and service management
  • Troubleshooting and logging

System Requirements​

  • Linux operating system (amd64/arm64/i386)
  • systemd for service management
  • Root or sudo access
  • Minimum 512MB RAM
  • 1GB free disk space

Package Availability​

Official OpenTelemetry Collector packages are available in the following formats:

  • DEB packages for Debian-based systems
  • RPM packages for Red Hat-based systems
  • Precompiled binaries for manual installation

Default configuration path: /etc/otelcol/config.yaml

DEB Installation​

To install the OpenTelemetry Collector on Debian-based systems, run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install wget
wget https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-releases/releases/download/v0.119.0/otelcol_0.119.0_linux_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i otelcol_0.119.0_linux_amd64.deb

RPM Installation​

To install the OpenTelemetry Collector on Red Hat-based systems, run the following commands:

sudo yum update
sudo yum -y install wget systemctl
wget https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-releases/releases/download/v0.119.0/otelcol_0.119.0_linux_amd64.rpm
sudo rpm -ivh otelcol_0.119.0_linux_amd64.rpm

Manual Linux Installation​

The OpenTelemetry Collector releases are available for various architectures. You can download the binary and install it manually:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -fOL https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-releases/releases/download/v0.119.0/otelcol_0.119.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz
tar -xvf otelcol_0.119.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz

Configuring the OpenTelemetry Collector Service​

By default, the otelcol systemd service starts with the --config=/etc/otelcol/config.yaml option after installation. This configuration follows the OpenTelemetry Collector Configuration standards.

To customize the collector settings, modify the OTELCOL_OPTIONS variable in the /etc/otelcol/otelcol.conf systemd environment file with appropriate command-line options. Run /usr/bin/otelcol --help to see all available options. Additional environment variables can be passed to the otelcol service by adding them to this file.

After modifying the Collector configuration file or /etc/otelcol/otelcol.conf, restart the otelcol service to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart otelcol

To check the logs from the otelcol service, run:

sudo journalctl -u otelcol

For more information on configuring and using the OpenTelemetry Collector, refer to the official OpenTelemetry documentation.