Building a collector with ocb¶

The receiver ships as a Go module, not in a Collector distribution. The OpenTelemetry Collector Builder (ocb) compiles a Collector from a list of component modules. You need Go 1.26 or newer.

1. Install the builder¶

Use the builder release that matches the Collector modules you build with, here v0.163.0:

go install go.opentelemetry.io/collector/cmd/builder@v0.163.0

2. Describe the distribution¶

builder-config.yaml

dist:
  name: otelcol-systemd
  description: OpenTelemetry Collector with the systemdreport receiver
  output_path: ./otelcol-systemd
  version: 0.1.0

receivers:
  - gomod: github.com/rossedman/sdmetrics/receiver/systemdreportreceiver v0.1.0 # (1)!
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/receiver/otlpreceiver v0.163.0

exporters:
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/exporter/debugexporter v0.163.0
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/exporter/otlpexporter v0.163.0

providers:
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/confmap/provider/envprovider v1.69.0
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/confmap/provider/fileprovider v1.69.0

The receiver is tagged separately from the libraries, as receiver/systemdreportreceiver/vX.Y.Z. Use the newest tag; it is built against Collector v0.163.0 / v1.69.0, so keep the other components on the same release.

Collector modules come in two version lines: stable modules (component, confmap, pdata, the confmap providers, ...) are v1.69.0, the rest v0.163.0. The builder fails if components disagree.

Building from a checkout

To build against a local clone of sdmetrics, for example to try an unreleased change, point both modules at it:

replaces:
  - github.com/rossedman/sdmetrics => /path/to/sdmetrics
  - github.com/rossedman/sdmetrics/receiver/systemdreportreceiver => /path/to/sdmetrics/receiver/systemdreportreceiver

3. Build¶

builder --config builder-config.yaml
./otelcol-systemd/otelcol-systemd components | grep -A1 systemdreport

CGO_ENABLED=0 works: nothing in the receiver needs cgo.

4. Configure and run¶

config.yaml

receivers:
  systemdreport:
    collection_interval: 30s
    naming: otel

exporters:
  debug:
    verbosity: basic
  otlp:
    endpoint: otel-gateway.internal:4317

service:
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers: [systemdreport]
      exporters: [debug, otlp]

sudo ./otelcol-systemd/otelcol-systemd --config config.yaml

Output (illustrative)

info  MetricsExporter  {"kind": "exporter", "data_type": "metrics", "name": "debug", "resource metrics": 10, "metrics": 212, "data points": 1874}

Ten resource metrics: one per source, plus the self-metrics.

Running it under systemd¶

A Collector that only scrapes report sources can borrow the exporter's hardening. Start from the exporter's unit and change ExecStart=; keep SupplementaryGroups=sdmetrics, the BindReadOnlyPaths= for /run/systemd/report and /run/systemd/io.systemd.Manager, and the default ProtectProc=, so unit identity keeps working. Add whatever paths your other components need.