NodeJS auto instrumentation does not generate metrics (docs/languages/js/automatic)

[aabmass]

What needs to be changed?

The page should mention that metrics will not be generated when using --require @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node/register

https://opentelemetry.io/docs/languages/js/automatic/#configuring-the-module tells the user they can configure export OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER="otlp", but this doesn't produce any metrics. Digging into this a bit, @opentelemetry/sdk-node does not support configuring a MeterProvider from just environment variables (you need code).

This seems more like a bug in the Node SDK (possibly open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js#3871).

What is the name + path of the page that needs changed?

https://opentelemetry.io/docs/languages/js/automatic/#configuring-the-module

[cartermp]

@open-telemetry/javascript-approvers what's your preferred resolution here? Remove the section about configuring metrics with env vars and making a notice about lacking support?

[pichlermarc]

This seems more like a bug in the Node SDK (possibly open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js#3871).

Yep, that's a missing feature.

@open-telemetry/javascript-approvers what's your preferred resolution here? Remove the section about configuring metrics with env vars and making a notice about lacking support?

Yes I think that would be the best solution.

Note: if anyone's stumbling upon this issue, we're looking for contributors to pick up the following two issues (I just split them from open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js#3871 to make them easier to find):

• [sdk-node] automatically configure metrics exporter based on enviornment variables opentelemetry-js#4551
• [sdk-node] automatically configure logs exporter based on enviornment variables opentelemetry-js#4552

[cartermp]

Thanks @pichlermarc and @aabmass! This should address it in the interim: #4181

[garysassano]

I was quite puzzled as to why my Lambda function was emitting traces but not metrics.

Here are the environment variables I had configured:

AWS_LAMBDA_EXEC_WRAPPER: "/opt/otel-handler",
OTEL_SERVICE_NAME: "sqs-lambda",
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL: "http/protobuf",
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT: "https://api.honeycomb.io:443",
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS: "x-honeycomb-team=$HONEYCOMB_API_KEY",

[svrnm]

@garysassano can you raise a new issue with your comment/question, otherwise it gets losed since this is an already closed issue