What problem does it solve?
OpenTelemetry setup removes the guesswork in production by giving you standardized distributed tracing, metrics, and logging so you can diagnose performance issues and understand request flows across services.
Core Features & Use Cases
- Unified observability setup: Configure traces, metrics, and logs through a single OpenTelemetry registration and export them using OTLP for any compatible backend.
- Distributed tracing with ActivitySource: Produce spans with consistent names and attributes for end-to-end diagnostics across async code paths.
- Low-overhead custom metrics with IMeterFactory: Create counters, histograms, gauges, and up/down counters safely via IMeterFactory to prevent leaks and ensure correct lifetimes.
- Practical operations controls: Use OTEL_* environment variables for endpoint routing and service naming without redeploying code.
- Use cases: Service-to-service tracing, custom business metrics (orders created/duration/queue depth), and local debugging with Aspire Dashboard before pointing to a production collector.
Quick Start
Configure OpenTelemetry in your .NET 10 application with traces, metrics, and logging exported via OTLP to your collector by setting OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT and enabling the appropriate OpenTelemetry integrations.