News
What happened
If you're running an OpenTelemetry pipeline, you can now gain visibility into east-west traffic between your services using Linkerd's proxy. This integration allows you to capture network-level metrics without modifying your application code.
The latest integration between Linkerd and OpenTelemetry enables you to monitor east-west traffic in your homelab without needing to instrument your application. By using Linkerd's sidecar proxy, you can automatically collect golden metrics for every request, enhancing your observability stack. This blog post details how to set up the integration, what metrics you can expect, and how to wire them into your existing OpenTelemetry Collector pipeline for a comprehensive view of your service interactions.
Release at a glance
Key facts from the announcement.
Version
Linkerd 2.19+
Tested on
edge-26.5.5
K3s Version
v1.34.6
OTel Collector
contrib 0.118.0
PRIVACY STACK
Extend Privacy Beyond DNS
Controlling your DNS queries is one layer of network privacy. Your email metadata — who you talk to, when, how often — is equally exposed with standard providers. Proton Mail applies end-to-end encryption to the layer most people ignore.
Try Proton Mail →This is an affiliate link. If you purchase, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Changes at a glance
What's new
The integration allows you to capture east-west traffic metrics without modifying your application code. Linkerd's proxy provides metrics such as request counts and response latencies, which are automatically available once your workloads are meshed.
You can visualize these metrics alongside your existing OpenTelemetry data, enhancing your observability capabilities and providing a clearer picture of service interactions across your infrastructure.
Breaking changes
No breaking changes were reported in the source material.
Analysis
In detail
To leverage this integration, ensure you are using K3s v1.34.6 and Linkerd 2.19+ (tested on edge-26.5.5). The OpenTelemetry Demo (Astronomy Shop) serves as the meshed workload, with the OTel Collector contrib 0.118.0 deployed as a DaemonSet. You can download the working Collector configuration and Grafana dashboard from the blog post to get started quickly.
Linkerd's proxy automatically emits metrics for inbound and outbound requests once a workload is meshed. You simply need to annotate your namespace with 'linkerd.io/inject=enabled' and roll your deployments. This process does not require any changes to your application code, allowing you to focus on monitoring without the overhead of instrumentation.
The metrics exposed by Linkerd include request counts, response latencies, and TCP-level gauges, all of which provide insights into the performance and reliability of your services. These metrics can be integrated into your existing OpenTelemetry Collector pipeline, allowing you to visualize both application-layer and network-layer metrics in a unified backend.
Key takeaways
The most important facts from this update.
Why it matters
This integration enhances your observability by allowing you to see traffic patterns and performance metrics at the network level. By capturing these metrics without code changes, you can focus on optimizing your services without the overhead of additional instrumentation.
Homelab impact
Integrating Linkerd with OpenTelemetry in your homelab will provide you with a more comprehensive view of your service interactions. You'll be able to monitor both application-layer metrics and network-layer metrics seamlessly, improving your ability to troubleshoot and optimize performance.
As you upgrade your stack, ensure that you are using compatible versions of K3s and Linkerd to take full advantage of these new capabilities. This will streamline your observability efforts and enhance the overall reliability of your self-hosted infrastructure.
What to do next
Practical steps for operators running self-hosted stacks.
This brief covers what you need from CNCF Blog's reporting. Visit the original post for release notes, changelogs, and full technical documentation.