Overview

Send custom application metrics into Datadog using the OpenTelemetry (OTel) Metrics API with the Datadog SDK (dd-trace-js).

This is an alternative to using DogStatsD and means you can write code against the standard OTel interfaces while benefiting from all the features of the Datadog SDK.

The Datadog SDK provides a native implementation of the OpenTelemetry API. This means you can write code against the standard OTel interfaces without needing the official OpenTelemetry SDK.

Prerequisites

• Datadog SDK: dd-trace version 5.60.0 or later.
• OpenTelemetry API: @opentelemetry/api version 1.0.0 to 1.10.0. (The Datadog SDK provides the implementation for this API).
• An OTLP-compatible destination: You must have a destination ready to receive OTLP data, such as the Datadog Agent or OpenTelemetry Collector.

Setup

Follow these steps to enable OTel Metrics API support in your Node.js application.

1. Install the Datadog SDK:

   npm install dd-trace
   

2. Enable OTel metrics by setting the following environment variable:

   export DD_METRICS_OTEL_ENABLED=true
   

3. Instrument your application:

   // On application start
   require('dd-trace').init();
   

Examples

You can use the standard OpenTelemetry API packages to create custom metrics.

Create a counter

This example uses the OTel Metrics API to create a counter that increments every time an item is processed:

const { metrics } = require('@opentelemetry/api');

const meter = metrics.getMeter('my-service', '1.0.0');

// Counter - monotonically increasing values
const requestCounter = meter.createCounter('http.requests', {
  description: 'Total HTTP requests',
  unit: 'requests'
});
requestCounter.add(1, { method: 'GET', status: 200 });

Create a histogram

This example uses the OTel Metrics API to create a histogram to track request durations:

const { metrics } = require('@opentelemetry/api');

const meter = metrics.getMeter('my-service', '1.0.0');

// Histogram - distribution of values
const durationHistogram = meter.createHistogram('http.duration', {
  description: 'HTTP request duration',
  unit: 'ms'
});
durationHistogram.record(145, { route: '/api/users' });

Supported configuration

To enable this feature, you must set DD_METRICS_OTEL_ENABLED=true.

All OTLP exporter settings (such as endpoints, protocols, and timeouts), resource attributes, and temporality preferences are configured using a shared set of OpenTelemetry environment variables.

For a complete list of all shared OTLP environment variables, see OpenTelemetry Environment Variables Interoperability.

Migrate from other setups

Existing OTel setup

If you are already using the OpenTelemetry SDK with a manual OTLP exporter configuration, follow these steps to migrate:

1. Add the Datadog SDK (dd-trace) to your project and enable its instrumentation.
2. Remove any code that manually configures the OTLPMetricsExporter. The Datadog SDK handles this configuration automatically.
3. Remove the @opentelemetry/sdk-node and @opentelemetry/exporter-otlp packages from your project’s dependencies.
4. Set the DD_METRICS_OTEL_ENABLED=true environment variable.

Existing DogStatsD setup

If you are using the Datadog DogStatsD client and want to migrate to the OpenTelemetry Metrics API, you need to update your instrumentation code. The main difference is that OTel metrics are configured using environment variables rather than code, and you create Instrument objects first.

For more details, see the OpenTelemetry Node.js onboarding docs.

Troubleshooting

• Ensure DD_METRICS_OTEL_ENABLED is set to true.

• Verify that your OTLP destination is configured correctly to receive metrics.

• If you are sending data to the Datadog Agent, ensure OTLP ingestion is enabled. See Enabling OTLP Ingestion on the Datadog Agent for details.

• Verify dd-trace is initialized first. The Datadog SDK must be initialized at the top of your application, before any other modules are imported.

• Verify @opentelemetry/api is installed. The Node.js SDK requires this API package.

Further reading

추가 유용한 문서, 링크 및 기사:

Correlate OpenTelemetry Traces and MetricsDOCUMENTATION