OpenTelemetry Transformation to non-OTLP Formats

Status: Stable

All OpenTelemetry concepts and span data recorded using OpenTelemetry API can be directly and precisely represented using corresponding messages and fields of OTLP format. However, for other formats this is not always the case. Sometimes a format will not have a native way to represent a particular OpenTelemetry concept or a field of a concept.

This document defines the transformation between OpenTelemetry and formats other than OTLP, for OpenTelemetry fields and concepts that have no direct semantic equivalent in those other formats.

Note: when a format has a direct semantic equivalent for a particular field or concept then the recommendation in this document MUST be ignored.

See also additional specific transformation rules for Jaeger and Zipkin. The specific rules for Jaeger and Zipkin take precedence over the generic rules defined in this document.

Mappings

InstrumentationLibrary

OpenTelemetry InstrumentationLibrary’s fields MUST be reported as key-value pairs associated with the Span using the following mapping:

OpenTelemetry InstrumentationLibrary Field	non-OTLP Key
InstrumentationLibrary.name	otel.library.name
InstrumentationLibrary.version	otel.library.version

Span Status

Span Status MUST be reported as key-value pairs associated with the Span, unless the Status is UNSET. In the latter case it MUST NOT be reported.

The following table defines the OpenTelemetry Status’s mapping to Span’s key-value pairs:

OpenTelemetry Status Field	non-OTLP Key	non-OTLP Value
Code	otel.status_code	Name of the code, either OK or ERROR. MUST NOT be set if the code is UNSET.
Description	otel.status_description	Description of the Status if it has a value otherwise not set.

Dropped Attributes Count

OpenTelemetry Span’s dropped attributes count MUST be reported as a key-value pair associated with the Span. Similarly, Span Event’s dropped attributes count MUST be reported as a key-value pair associated with the Span Event and Span Link’s dropped attributes count MUST be reported as a key-value pair associated with the Span Link. In all cases the key name MUST be otel.dropped_attributes_count.

This key-value pair should only be recorded when it contains a non-zero value.

Dropped Events Count

OpenTelemetry Span’s dropped events count MUST be reported as a key-value pair associated with the Span. The key name MUST be otel.dropped_events_count.

This key-value pair should only be recorded when it contains a non-zero value.

Dropped Links Count

OpenTelemetry Span’s dropped links count MUST be reported as a key-value pair associated with the Span. The key name MUST be otel.dropped_links_count.

This key-value pair should only be recorded when it contains a non-zero value.