# Collect metrics and traces with OpenTelemetry
<a name="CloudWatch-Agent-OpenTelemetry-metrics"></a>

 You can collect metrics and traces from your applications or services using the CloudWatch agent with the OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP), which is a popular open source solution. You can use any OpenTelemetry SDK to send metrics and traces to the CloudWatch agent. For more information about the available OpenTelemetry SDKs, see [ OpenTelemetry Supported Language APIs & SDKs.](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/languages/).

To collect OpenTelemetry metrics and traces, add an `otlp` section to the CloudWatch agent configuration file. The section has the following fields:
+ `grpc_endpoint` – Optional. Specifies the address for the CloudWatch agent to use to listen for OpenTelemetry metrics or traces sent using gRPC Remote Procedure Calls. The format is `ip:port`. This address must match the address set for the gRPC exporter in the OpenTelemetry SDK. If you omit this field, the default of `127.0.0.1:4317` is used.
+ `http_endpoint` – Optional. Specifies the address for the CloudWatch agent to use to listen for OpenTelemetry metrics or traces sent over HTTP. The format is `ip:port`. This address must match the address set for the HTTP exporter in the OpenTelemetry SDK. If you omit this field, the default of `127.0.0.1:4318` is used.
+ `tls` – Optional. Specifies that the server should be configured with TLS.
  + `cert_file` – Path to the TLS certificate to use for TLS required connections.
  + `key_file` – Path to the TLS key to use for TLS required connections.

The `otlp` section can be placed in multiple sections within the CloudWatch agent configuration file depending on how and where you want to send the metrics and traces.

**Important**  
Each `otlp` section requires a unique endpoint and port. For detailed information about splitting the metrics and traces endpoints, see [OTLP Exporter Configuration](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/languages/sdk-configuration/otlp-exporter/) in the OpenTelemetry SDK documentation.

To send metrics to CloudWatch or Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus, add the `otlp` section under `metrics_collected` within the `metrics` section. For more information about sending metrics to different destinations, see [Manually create or edit the CloudWatch agent configuration file](CloudWatch-Agent-Configuration-File-Details.md). The following example shows a configuration that sends metrics to CloudWatch:

**Note**  
 If you are running the agent in containerized environments and sending telemetry from outside the agent container’s network, make sure to specify the endpoint as `0.0.0.0` instead of the default endpoint `127.0.0.1`.

```
{
  "metrics": {
    "metrics_collected": {
      "otlp": {
        "grpc_endpoint": "127.0.0.1:4317",
        "http_endpoint": "127.0.0.1:4318"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

To send metrics to Amazon CloudWatch Logs using the Embedded metric format (EMF), add the `otlp` section under `metrics_collected` within the `logs` section. This sends the EMF logs by default to the `/aws/cwagent` log group and a generated log stream. The metrics are extracted into the `CWAgent` namespace by default. The following example shows a configuration that sends metrics as EMF logs to CloudWatch Logs:

```
{
  "logs": {
    "metrics_collected": {
      "otlp": {
        "grpc_endpoint": "127.0.0.1:4317",
        "http_endpoint": "127.0.0.1:4318"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

To send traces to AWS X-Ray, add the `otlp` section under `traces_collected` within the `traces` section. The following example shows a configuration that sends traces to X-Ray:

```
{
  "traces": {
    "traces_collected": {
      "otlp": {
        "grpc_endpoint": "127.0.0.1:4317",
        "http_endpoint": "127.0.0.1:4318"
      }
    }
  }
}
```