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The collector is configured entirely via environment variables. All variables follow the standard OpenTelemetry SDK configuration spec where applicable.

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Environment Variables

VariableDefaultDescription
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT(required)OTLP endpoint URL, e.g. http://localhost:4318
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERSAuth headers in key=val,key2=val2 format
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOLgrpcgrpc or http/protobuf
OTEL_SERVICE_NAMEdefaultService name attached to all metrics
OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTESdeployment.environment=defaultResource attributes in key=val,key=val format
OTEL_METRIC_EXPORT_INTERVAL60000Metric polling interval in milliseconds
OTEL_GPU_EBPF_ENABLEDfalseEnable eBPF CUDA kernel tracing (Linux only)

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Common configurations

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Minimal — send to a local OTel Collector

OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4317 \
./opentelemetry-gpu-collector

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Production — with service name, environment, and auth header

OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=gpu-worker \
OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=deployment.environment=production,team=ml \
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://ingest.example.com:4317 \
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS=Authorization=Bearer\ my-token \
OTEL_METRIC_EXPORT_INTERVAL=30000 \
./opentelemetry-gpu-collector

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HTTP/protobuf instead of gRPC

OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=http/protobuf \
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318 \
./opentelemetry-gpu-collector

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Enable eBPF CUDA tracing

Requires CAP_BPF + CAP_PERFMON (or root) and NVIDIA CUDA runtime. 
OTEL_GPU_EBPF_ENABLED=true \
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4317 \
./opentelemetry-gpu-collector

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Notes

  • OTEL_METRIC_EXPORT_INTERVAL is in milliseconds per the OTel spec. For a 30-second interval, set 30000.
  • deployment.environment is extracted from OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES and attached as a resource attribute. Any key-value pairs in OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES are also forwarded to the OTel SDK resource via resource.WithFromEnv().
  • If OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT is not set, the collector starts but no metrics are exported. Check the logs for a warning.