Enabling API ML Observability in zowe.yaml

Review how to enable and configure the OpenTelemetry (OTel) integration within the Zowe API Mediation Layer (API ML) single-service deployment. Configure these parameters in zowe.yaml to enable API ML to export metrics, traces, and logs to an OpenTelemetry Collector.

Configuration Overview

The observability configuration is located under the API Mediation Layer component section of the zowe.yaml, under which there are three observability properties:

• enabled
  Activates the OTel SDK. Set to true to initialize the OpenTelemetry SDK.

• exporter
  Defines where the data is sent. Sub-properties of exporter include the following:

  • exporter.otlp.protocol
    The URL of your OTLP-compatible collector (e.g., z-Iris or Jaeger)

  • exporter.otlp.protocol
    The protocol is either grpc or http/protobuf. Default: grcp

• resource
  Defines the identity of the producer (Attributes).

  • resource.attributes
    A collection of key-value pairs used to identify the telemetry source. See the following sub-properties of resource.attributes:

    • service.name
      Logical name of the service. Must be the same for all instances within the same HA deployment. Expected to be globally unique if namespace is not defined.

    • service.namespace
      The assigned value should help distinguish a group of services, such as the LPAR, or owner team. service.name is expected to be unique within the same namespace.

    • deployment.environment.name
      Specifies the name of the deployment environment (Example: dev, test, staging, or production). Configuration Source: zowe.yaml

To enable observability, configure the OpenTelemetry exporter and resource attributes within your zowe.yaml file with the following structure:

zowe:
  observability:
    enabled: true
    exporter:
      otlp:
        endpoint: "http://otel-collector.your.domain:4317"
        protocol: "grpc"
        timeout: 10000
    resource:
      attributes:
        service.name: "zowe-apiml"
        service.namespace: "finance-production"
        deployment.environment.name: "production"

How the Export Works

When enabled: true is set, the API ML single-service starts a background telemetry engine. This engine gathers all signals and bundles these signals with all Resource Attributes. These bundles are then pushed by means of the OTLP Exporter to your specified endpoint.