Set up the EDOT Python agent

Install the distribution

Install EDOT Python by running pip:

pip install elastic-opentelemetry

Install the available instrumentation

EDOT Python doesn't install any instrumentation package by default. Instead, it relies on the edot-bootstrap command to scan the installed packages and install the available instrumentation. The following command installs all the instrumentations available for libraries installed in your environment:

edot-bootstrap --action=install

Configure EDOT Python

Refer to Observability quickstart documentation on how to setup your environment.

To configure EDOT Python you need to set a few OTLP_* environment variables that are available when running EDOT Python:

• OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES: Use this to add a service.name and deployment.environment. This makes it easier to recognize your application when reviewing data sent to Elastic.

The following environment variables are not required if you are sending data through a local EDOT Collector but are provided in the Elastic Observability platform onboarding:

• OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT: The full URL of the endpoint where data will be sent.
• OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS: A comma-separated list of key=value pairs that will be added to the headers of every request. This is typically used for authentication information.

Run EDOT Python

Wrap your service invocation with opentelemetry-instrument, which is the wrapper that provides automatic instrumentation. For example, a web service running with gunicorn might look like this:

opentelemetry-instrument gunicorn main:app

Confirm that EDOT Python is working

To confirm that EDOT Python has successfully connected to Elastic:

1. Go to Observability → Applications → Service Inventory
2. Find the name of the service to which you just added EDOT Python. It can take several minutes after initializing EDOT Python for the service to show up in this list.
3. Select the name in the list to see trace data.