3. Start Demo

Start Demo

Enter Required Information

During the next step you will be prompted for some details.

Enter the relevant details in the GitHub form.

Click this button to launch the demo in a new tab.

Provide the tenant URL and API token via the form. These will be encrypted and stored in GitHub. They will also automatically be set as environment variables in the codespace.

Understand Demo Environment

The Dynatrace OpenTelemetry Collector (./dynatrace-otel-collector) is automatically downloaded at startup. The collector is the syslog server. This collector distribution is officially supported by Dynatrace.

Data will be sent to the collector (from a device) and the collector will forward that data to Dynatrace.

The collector requires a configuration file. This is also already present (config.yaml).

To generate syslog data, we need a "fake" device to generate the data and send it to the syslog server (ie. the collector). For this, we use a Python script (syslog_generator.py).

The Python script:

• Reads sample_log_lines.log
• Uses these logs lines as a seed to generate random syslog entries
  • The host, tag, level and pid are randomised for each log line
• Sends the syslog entry via UDP to the collector

Understand Collector Configuration

Understanding the configuration of the collector is key to understanding how the data gets from your devices into Dynatrace.

Note: You do not need to modify config.yaml file.

Receivers

receivers:
  syslog:
    udp:
      listen_address: "127.0.0.1:54526"
    protocol: rfc3164

The receivers block describes how data is received by the collector.

In this case, the syslog receiver is listening for incoming UDP connections on port 54526 and expecting incoming messages to by formatted in RFC3164 format.

Exporters

exporters:
  debug:
    verbosity: detailed
  otlphttp:
    endpoint: "${env:DT_ENDPOINT_SYSLOG}/api/v2/otlp"
    headers:
      Authorization: "Api-Token ${env:DT_API_TOKEN_SYSLOG}"

The exporters block defines what happens to the data at the point it leaves the collector.

2 exporters are defined: debug and otlphttp. The debug exporter sends output to the collector console. It is included here as a training aid for the demo so you can see what's happening.

The otlphttp exporter sends data to an endpoint in OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) format via HTTPS. Dynatrace natively understands the OTLP format.

Notice that two environment variables are referenced: DT_ENDPOINT_SYSLOG and DT_API_TOKEN_SYSLOG you may recall these from the form you completed when the codespace started.

These environment variables are already set for you, so you don't need to do anything else.

Pipelines

service:
  pipelines:
    logs:
      receivers: [syslog]
      exporters: [debug, otlphttp]

The pipelines block defines how the collector components are connected in an end-to-end pipeline.

In this case, 1 pipeline (dealing with log data) is defined. This pipeline will receive data using the syslog receiver and export it to both the debug and otlphttp exporters simultaneously.

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