Using OpenTelemetry Environment Variables with Datadog SDKs
Datadog SDKs implement the OpenTelemetry Tracing APIs, allowing you to use OpenTelemetry environment variables to configure Datadog tracing for your applications. Replace the OpenTelemetry SDK with the Datadog SDK in your application to receive traces and additional Datadog telemetry with minimal changes to your existing configuration.
This page describes the OpenTelemetry SDK options Datadog supports.
If both Datadog and OpenTelemetry environment variables are set, Datadog takes precedence. Datadog defaults also override OpenTelemetry defaults. See the relevant
SDK Configuration page for default values and more information.
General SDK configuration
Datadog SDKs support the following general OpenTelemetry SDK options. For more information, see the related OpenTelemetry documentation.
OTEL_SERVICE_NAME- Datadog convention:
DD_SERVICE
Sets the service name
Notes: If service.name is also provided in OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES, then OTEL_SERVICE_NAME takes precedence
OTEL_LOG_LEVEL- Datadog convention:
DD_LOG_LEVEL
Log level used by the SDK logger
Notes: A log level of debug also maps to DD_TRACE_DEBUG=true
In the Node.js & PHP SDKs this maps to DD_TRACE_LOG_LEVEL
In the Go SDK only mapped values between OTEL_LOG_LEVEL & DD_TRACE_DEBUG are supported:
info|falsedebug|true
Not Supported In: Python, .NET, Ruby, and Go SDKs
OTEL_PROPAGATORS- Datadog convention:
DD_TRACE_PROPAGATION_STYLE
Propagators to be used as a comma-separated list
Notes: The only supported values for most Datadog SDKs are tracecontext, b3, b3multi, none, datadog. xray is also supported for the Java SDK
Values MUST be deduplicated in order to register a Propagator only once
OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER & OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG- Datadog convention:
DD_TRACE_SAMPLE_RATE
OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER: Sampler to be used for traces & OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG: String value to be used as the sampler argument
Notes: The specified value is only used if OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER is set. Each Sampler type defines its own expected input, if any. Invalid or unrecognized input MUST be logged and MUST be otherwise ignored. In such cases, the implementation MUST behave as if OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG is not set
Mapped values between OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER & DD_TRACE_SAMPLE_RATE:
parentbased_always_on|1.0parentbased_always_off|0.0parentbased_traceidratio|${OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG}always_on|1.0always_off|0.0traceidratio|${OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG}
OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER- Datadog convention:
DD_TRACE_ENABLED=false
Trace exporter to be used
Notes: Only a value of none is accepted
OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER- Datadog convention:
DD_RUNTIME_METRICS_ENABLED=false
Metrics exporter to be used
Notes: only a value of none is accepted
OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES- Datadog convention:
DD_TAGS
Key-value pairs to be used as resource attributes. See Resource semantic conventions for details
Notes: Only the first 10 key-value pairs are used; the subsequent values are dropped
deployment.environment and deployment.environment.name map to the DD_ENV environment variable
service.name maps to the DD_SERVICE environment variable
service.version maps to the DD_VERSION environment variable
OTEL_SDK_DISABLED- Datadog convention:
!DD_TRACE_OTEL_ENABLED
Disable the SDK for all signals
Notes: Mapped values between OTEL_SDK_DISABLED & DD_TRACE_OTEL_ENABLED:
true|falsefalse|true
Ruby & Go SDKs: The OpenTelemetry SDK activates automatically upon import and configuration, so this setting is not applicable.
Java-specific configuration
Datadog SDKs support the following Java-specific OpenTelemetry configuration options. For more information, see the OpenTelemetry documentation on Java agent configuration.
OTEL_INSTRUMENTATION_COMMON_DEFAULT_ENABLED- Datadog convention:
!DD_INTEGRATIONS_ENABLED
Set to false to disable all instrumentation in the agent
Notes: Mapped values between OTEL_INSTRUMENTATION_COMMON_DEFAULT_ENABLED & DD_INTEGRATIONS_ENABLED:
OTEL_INSTRUMENTATION_[NAME]_ENABLED- Description: Enables/disables the named OTel drop-in instrumentation
OTEL_JAVAAGENT_CONFIGURATION_FILE- Datadog convention:
DD_TRACE_CONFIG
Path to valid Java properties file which contains the agent configuration
Notes: When OTEL_JAVAAGENT_CONFIGURATION_FILE and DD_TRACE_CONFIG are both set we apply the configuration from both files. This is an exception to the usual rule where the Datadog setting overrides the OTel one
OTEL_INSTRUMENTATION_HTTP_CLIENT_CAPTURE_REQUEST_HEADERS- Datadog convention:
DD_TRACE_REQUEST_HEADER_TAGS
A comma-separated list of HTTP header names. HTTP client instrumentations capture HTTP request header values for all configured header names
Notes: Header tagging configured using OTel environment variables follows the OTel tag name convention of http.request.header.<header-name> rather than the Datadog convention of http.request.headers.<header-name>
OTEL_INSTRUMENTATION_HTTP_CLIENT_CAPTURE_RESPONSE_HEADERS- Datadog convention:
DD_TRACE_RESPONSE_HEADER_TAGS
A comma-separated list of HTTP header names. HTTP client instrumentations capture HTTP response header values for all configured header names
Notes: Header tagging configured using OTel environment variables follows the OTel tag name convention of http.response.header.<header-name> rather than the Datadog convention of http.response.headers.<header-name>
OTEL_INSTRUMENTATION_HTTP_SERVER_CAPTURE_REQUEST_HEADERS- Datadog convention:
DD_TRACE_REQUEST_HEADER_TAGS
A comma-separated list of HTTP header names. HTTP server instrumentations capture HTTP request header values for all configured header names
Notes: Header tagging configured using OTel environment variables follows the OTel tag name convention of http.request.header.<header-name> rather than the Datadog convention of http.request.headers.<header-name>
OTEL_INSTRUMENTATION_HTTP_SERVER_CAPTURE_RESPONSE_HEADERS- Datadog convention:
DD_TRACE_RESPONSE_HEADER_TAGS
A comma-separated list of HTTP header names. HTTP server instrumentations capture HTTP response header values for all configured header names
Notes: Header tagging configured using OTel environment variables follows the OTel tag name convention of http.response.header.<header-name> rather than the Datadog convention of http.response.headers.<header-name>
OTEL_JAVAAGENT_EXTENSIONS- Datadog convention:
DD_TRACE_EXTENSIONS_PATH
A comma-separated list of paths to extension jar files, or folders containing jar files. If pointing to a folder, every jar file in that folder is treated as a separate, independent extension.
Further Reading
Additional helpful documentation, links, and articles:
