Overview

Datadog’s OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) logs intake API endpoint allows you to send logs directly to Datadog. With this feature, you don’t need to run the Datadog Agent or OpenTelemetry Collector + Datadog Exporter.

Choose this option for a straightforward setup to send logs directly to Datadog without using the Datadog Agent or OpenTelemetry Collector.

Configuration

To send OTLP data to the Datadog OTLP logs intake endpoint, you must configure the OTLP HTTP Protobuf exporter. The process differs depending on whether you are using automatic or manual instrumentation for OpenTelemetry.

Automatic instrumentation

If you are using OpenTelemetry automatic instrumentation, set the following environment variables:

export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_PROTOCOL="http/protobuf"
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_ENDPOINT=""
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_HEADERS="dd-protocol=otlp,dd-api-key=${DD_API_KEY}"

Manual instrumentation

If you are using manual instrumentation with OpenTelemetry SDKs, configure the OTLP HTTP Protobuf exporter programmatically using the following examples.

import io.opentelemetry.exporter.otlp.http.logs.OtlpHttpLogRecordExporter;

OtlpHttpLogRecordExporter exporter = OtlpHttpLogRecordExporter.builder()
    .setEndpoint("${YOUR_ENDPOINT}") // Replace this with the correct endpoint
    .addHeader("dd-protocol", "otlp")
    .addHeader("dd-api-key", System.getenv("DD_API_KEY"))
    .build();

import "go.opentelemetry.io/otel/exporters/otlp/otlplog/otlploghttp"

logExporter, err := otlploghttp.New(
    ctx,
    otlploghttp.WithEndpointURL("${YOUR_ENDPOINT}"), // Replace this with the correct endpoint, minus the URL path
    otlploghttp.WithURLPath("/api/v2/logs"),
    otlploghttp.WithHeaders(
        map[string]string{
            "dd-protocol": "otlp",
            "dd-api-key": os.Getenv("DD_API_KEY"),
        }),
)

OpenTelemetry Collector

If you are using the OpenTelemetry Collector and don’t want to use the Datadog Exporter, you can configure otlphttpexporter to export logs to the Datadog OTLP logs intake endpoint.

Configure your config.yaml like this:

exporters:
  otlphttp:
    logs_endpoint: 
    headers:
      dd-protocol: "otlp"
      dd-api-key: ${env:DD_API_KEY}

service:
  pipelines:
    logs:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [batch]
      exporters: [otlphttp]

Troubleshooting

Error: 403 Forbidden

If you receive a 403 Forbidden error when sending logs to the Datadog OTLP logs intake endpoint, it indicates one of the following issues:

• The API key belongs to an organization that is not allowed to access the Datadog OTLP logs intake endpoint.
  Solution: Verify that you are using a valid API key with appropriate permissions.

• The endpoint URL is incorrect for your organization.
  Solution: Use the correct endpoint URL for your organization. Your site is , so you need to use the endpoint.

Further reading

Additional helpful documentation, links, and articles:

General OpenTelemetry SDK ConfigurationEXTERNAL SITE OpenTelemetry Environment Variable SpecEXTERNAL SITE OpenTelemetry Protocol ExporterEXTERNAL SITE