Azure Monitor OpenTelemetry Distro for Python

1.8.7 · active · verified Mon Apr 06

Microsoft Azure Monitor Opentelemetry Distro Client Library for Python (version 1.8.7) offers a "one-stop-shop" solution for instrumenting Python applications. It captures traces, metrics, and logs via OpenTelemetry instrumentations and reports them to Azure Monitor Application Insights. The library is actively maintained with frequent updates, though many underlying OpenTelemetry instrumentations are still in beta and may introduce breaking changes.

Warnings

breaking Migration from older Application Insights SDKs (2.x) to `azure-monitor-opentelemetry` requires significant code changes, as most 2.x APIs are not supported and need to be updated to OpenTelemetry-based APIs.
Fix: Review the official migration guide on Microsoft Learn to adapt your code to OpenTelemetry-based APIs.
breaking Many OpenTelemetry instrumentations bundled with this distro are currently in a beta state, meaning they are not stable and may introduce breaking changes in future releases.
Fix: Monitor release notes and be prepared for potential breaking changes in minor or patch versions, especially when OpenTelemetry specifications evolve.
gotcha The `configure_azure_monitor()` function must be called early in your application's lifecycle, preferably before importing other instrumented libraries, to ensure all telemetry is captured correctly and avoid potential data loss.
Fix: Place `configure_azure_monitor()` at the very beginning of your application's entry point script.
gotcha Enabling both native logging instrumentation in Azure Functions and `azure-monitor-opentelemetry` logging instrumentation within the distribution can lead to duplicate trace logs in Application Insights.
Fix: Disable one of the logging instrumentations to avoid duplicate telemetry. Refer to troubleshooting guides for specific configurations.
gotcha Dependency telemetry might occasionally be missing the 'operation name' or 'device model', which can adversely affect performance analysis, filtering, and device cohort analysis in Application Insights.
Fix: Check for updates to the library or OpenTelemetry instrumentations. Manually add these attributes if critical for your analysis.

Install

pip install azure-monitor-opentelemetry Install stable version

Imports

configure_azure_monitor

from azure.monitor.opentelemetry import configure_azure_monitor

Quickstart

This quickstart demonstrates how to initialize the Azure Monitor OpenTelemetry Distro. Ensure the `APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING` environment variable is set with your Azure Application Insights connection string. The `configure_azure_monitor()` function automatically sets up the necessary OpenTelemetry components. A simple custom span is created to illustrate basic tracing.

import os
from azure.monitor.opentelemetry import configure_azure_monitor
from opentelemetry import trace

# Set your Application Insights Connection String as an environment variable:
# APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING="InstrumentationKey=YOUR_INSTRUMENTATION_KEY;IngestionEndpoint=https://YOUR_REGION.in.applicationinsights.azure.com/"

# One-line setup - reads connection string from the environment variable
# APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING. Call this early in your application.
configure_azure_monitor()

# Get a tracer from OpenTelemetry
tracer = trace.get_tracer(__name__)

# Create a sample span
with tracer.start_as_current_span("my-example-span"):
    print("Hello from an OpenTelemetry-instrumented application!")
    # Simulate some work
    import time
    time.sleep(0.1)

print("Telemetry sent to Azure Monitor (if connection string is configured).")

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