Migrate to EDOT Python from the Elastic APM Python agent

Elastic Stack Serverless Observability

Learn the differences between the Elastic APM Python agent and the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry Python (EDOT Python).

Follow the steps to migrate your instrumentation and settings. For step-by-step instructions on setting up EDOT Python refer to Setup.

Follow these steps to migrate:

1. Remove any configuration and setup code needed by Elastic APM Python Agent from your application source code.
2. Migrate any usage of Elastic APM Python Agent API to manual instrumentation with OpenTelemetry API in the application source code.
3. Follow the setup documentation on to install and configure EDOT Python.

The following are Elastic APM Python agent settings that you can migrate to EDOT Python.

The Elastic api_key option corresponds to the OpenTelemetry OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS option.

For example: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS="Authorization=ApiKey an_api_key".

The Elastic enabled option corresponds to the OpenTelemetry OTEL_SDK_DISABLED option.

The Elastic environment option corresponds to setting the deployment.environment.name key in OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES.

For example: OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=deployment.environment.name=testing.

The Elastic global_labels option corresponds to adding key=value comma separated pairs in OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES.

For example: OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=alice=first,bob=second. Such labels will result in labels.key=value attributes on the server, e.g. labels.alice=first

The Elastic metrics_interval corresponds to the OpenTelemetry OTEL_METRIC_EXPORT_INTERVAL option.

For example: OTEL_METRIC_EXPORT_INTERVAL=30000.

The Elastic secret_token option corresponds to the OpenTelemetry OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS option.

For example: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS="Authorization=ApiKey an_apm_secret_token".

The Elastic server_url option corresponds to the OpenTelemetry OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT option.

The Elastic service_name option corresponds to the OpenTelemetry OTEL_SERVICE_NAME option.

You can also set the service name using OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES.

For example: OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=service.name=myservice. If OTEL_SERVICE_NAME is set, it takes precedence over the resource attribute.

The Elastic service_version option corresponds to setting the service.version key in OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES.

For example: OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=service.version=1.2.3.

Evaluate the differences in performance overhead between EDOT Python and Elastic APM Python agent.

The following limitations apply when migrating to EDOT Python.

EDOT Python lacks an equivalent to the central configuration feature that the Elastic APM Python agent supports. When using EDOT Python, all of the configurations are static and you should provide them to the application through other means, such as environment variables.

A custom lambda layer for the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry Python is not currently available. Refer to the upstream Lambda Auto-Instrumentation.

The following libraries are currently missing an OpenTelemetry equivalent:

• Azure storage and Azure queue
• aiobotocore
• aiomysql
• aiopg
• aioredis
• Graphene
• httplib2
• pylibmc
• pyodbc
• Sanic
• zlib

EDOT Python lacks a structlog integration at the moment.

EDOT Python does not implement span compression.

EDOT Python is not sending metrics that power the Breakdown metrics.