Introduction: Understanding AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry (ADOT) and Laravel Tracing
Tracing is an invaluable tool for monitoring and debugging modern web applications. AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry (ADOT) provides a powerful and flexible solution for collecting, processing, and exporting traces to AWS X-Ray. For Laravel developers, integrating tracing into their applications can significantly improve visibility into their performance and behavior. In this guide, we’ll set up Laravel tracing with ADOT, ensuring your traces are sent to AWS X-Ray for seamless monitoring.
Setting Up Your Laravel Project: Installing Composer and Creating a Laravel Application
To get started, you must have Composer installed on your machine. Composer is a dependency manager for PHP, which is essential for setting up a Laravel project. If you still need to install Composer, you can do so by following the official Composer installation guide.
Once Composer is installed, create a new Laravel project by running the following command in your terminal:
composer create-project –prefer-dist laravel/laravel laravel-opentelemetry
This will create a new Laravel project in a directory named laravel-opentelemetry. Navigate into this directory to continue setting up your project.
Exploring Automatic Instrumentation: Utilizing OpenTelemetry’s Automatic Instrumentation for PHP
OpenTelemetry provides automatic instrumentation for PHP, which simplifies the process of capturing traces. Automatic instrumentation enables you to trace HTTP requests, database queries, and other critical operations without manually modifying your code.
To use OpenTelemetry’s automatic instrumentation, you’ll first need to install the OpenTelemetry PHP SDK. This can be done using Composer:
composer require open-telemetry/sdk
Next, you’ll need to install the OpenTelemetry PHP extension. This extension provides the necessary hooks for automatic instrumentation:
pecl install opentelemetry
Once installed, enable the extension in your php.ini file:
extension=opentelemetry.so
Resolving Installation Errors: Troubleshooting the OpenTelemetry PHP Extension Module Installation
During the installation of the OpenTelemetry PHP extension, you may encounter errors. Common issues include missing dependencies or incompatible PHP versions. To resolve these:
- Check PHP Version: Ensure your PHP version is compatible with the OpenTelemetry extension. You can check your PHP version with php -v.
- Install Missing Dependencies: The OpenTelemetry extension may require additional libraries. Use your package manager to install any missing dependencies. For example, on Ubuntu, you can run:
sudo apt-get install -y php-dev autoconf - Rebuild the Extension: If you’re still encountering issues, try rebuilding the extension from source:
sudo pecl uninstall opentelemetry
sudo pecl install opentelemetry
Manual Instrumentation with OpenTelemetry: Configuring Traces Manually in Laravel
While automatic instrumentation covers many common scenarios, there may be cases where you must manually instrument specific parts of your Laravel application. To do this, you can leverage the OpenTelemetry SDK.
Start by adding the following code in your Laravel application’s bootstrap/app.php file to set up the OpenTelemetry tracer:
use OpenTelemetry\API\Trace\TracerProvider;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Trace\TracerProviderFactory;
$app->singleton(‘tracer’, function () {
$tracerProvider = TracerProviderFactory::create();
return $tracerProvider->getTracer(‘laravel-app’);
});
You can then start a new trace in your controllers or services:
$tracer = app(‘tracer’);
$span = $tracer->spanBuilder(‘my-span’)->startSpan();
// Your logic here
$span->end();
Containerizing with Docker Compose: Building a Docker Environment for Laravel and OpenTelemetry
To ensure your Laravel application and the OpenTelemetry Collector are portable and easy to manage, we’ll use Docker Compose to containerize them. Create a docker-compose.yml file in your project root with the following content:
version: ‘3.8’
services:
laravel:
build:
context: .
dockerfile: Dockerfile
volumes:
– .:/var/www/html
ports:
– 8000:8000
environment:
– APP_ENV=local
– APP_DEBUG=true
– APP_KEY=base64:YOUR_APP_KEY_HERE
opentelemetry-collector:
image: otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib
ports:
– “4317:4317”
– “55680:55680”
volumes:
– ./otel-config.yaml:/otel-local-config.yaml
command: [“–config=/otel-local-config.yaml”]
This Docker Compose setup defines two services: laravel and opentelemetry-collector. The otel-config.yaml file should be configured to send traces to AWS X-Ray.
Starting the Containers: Running the Dockerized Laravel Application and OpenTelemetry Collector
To start the services, run the following command:
docker-compose up -d
This will build and start both the Laravel application and the OpenTelemetry Collector. You can now access your Laravel application at http://localhost:8000.
Verifying Trace Data in AWS X-Ray: Confirming Successful Transmission of Traces
After your application has processed some requests, head to the AWS X-Ray console to verify that traces are being received. Navigate to the X-Ray service and look for traces associated with your application. You should see detailed traces, including the spans generated by automatic and manual instrumentation.
Conclusion: Reflecting on the Laravel Tracing Process and Production Considerations
Tracing with AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry and Laravel provides deep insights into your application’s performance and behavior. Following this guide, you’ve set up a Laravel application with automatic and manual instrumentation, containerized it with Docker, and sent traces to AWS X-Ray. As you move towards production, consider scaling your setup, monitoring resource usage, and ensuring that your tracing configuration aligns with your observability goals.
References
AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry and AWS X-Ray
AWS X-Ray launches support for tracing PHP applications via OpenTelemetry in public preview