Quickstart

Get the OpenTelemetry GPU Collector running in under 5 minutes

In this guide you’ll pull the collector Docker image, point it at your OTel backend, and start seeing GPU and host metrics within minutes.

Prerequisites

• Linux host with NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel GPU (for GPU metrics)
• Docker installed
• An OpenTelemetry-compatible backend (OpenLIT, Grafana, Datadog, or any OTLP endpoint)

Don't have an OTel backend? Start OpenLIT locally

docker run -d \
  --name openlit \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -p 4318:4318 \
  ghcr.io/openlit/openlit:latest

Then use http://localhost:4318 as your OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT.

1. Pull the collector image

   docker pull ghcr.io/openlit/otel-gpu-collector:latest
   
2. Run the collector

   NVIDIA GPU

   docker run -d \
     --name otel-gpu-collector \
     --gpus all \
     -e OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=my-app \
     -e OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES='deployment.environment=production' \
     -e OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318 \
     ghcr.io/openlit/otel-gpu-collector:latest
   

   Requires the NVIDIA Container Toolkit on the host.

   AMD GPU

   docker run -d \
     --name otel-gpu-collector \
     --device /dev/kfd:/dev/kfd \
     --device /dev/dri:/dev/dri \
     -e OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=my-app \
     -e OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES='deployment.environment=production' \
     -e OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318 \
     ghcr.io/openlit/otel-gpu-collector:latest
   

   Intel GPU

   docker run -d \
     --name otel-gpu-collector \
     --device /dev/dri:/dev/dri \
     -e OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=my-app \
     -e OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES='deployment.environment=production' \
     -e OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318 \
     ghcr.io/openlit/otel-gpu-collector:latest
   

   Requires Linux kernel 5.10+ with the i915 or Xe driver.

   Host metrics only

   docker run -d \
     --name otel-gpu-collector \
     -e OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=my-app \
     -e OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES='deployment.environment=production' \
     -e OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318 \
     ghcr.io/openlit/otel-gpu-collector:latest
   

   The collector will export host and process metrics even without GPU access.

3. Verify it's running

   docker logs otel-gpu-collector
   

   You should see output like:

   time=2024-01-01T00:00:00Z level=INFO msg="starting opentelemetry-gpu-collector"
   time=2024-01-01T00:00:00Z level=INFO msg="discovered GPU" address=0000:01:00.0 vendor=nvidia
   time=2024-01-01T00:00:00Z level=INFO msg="system metrics collector initialized"
   time=2024-01-01T00:00:00Z level=INFO msg="process metrics collector initialized"
   time=2024-01-01T00:00:00Z level=INFO msg="collector running"
   
4. View metrics in your backend

   Open your OTel backend and look for metrics in the hw.gpu.*, system.*, and process.* namespaces.

   If using OpenLIT, navigate to http://localhost:3000 and go to the Metrics section.

Docker Compose

Add the collector as a service alongside your existing stack:

services:
  otel-gpu-collector:
    image: ghcr.io/openlit/otel-gpu-collector:latest
    environment:
      OTEL_SERVICE_NAME: my-app
      OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES: deployment.environment=production
      OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT: http://otel-collector:4318
    deploy:
      resources:
        reservations:
          devices:
            - driver: nvidia
              count: all
              capabilities: [gpu]
    depends_on:
      - otel-collector
    restart: always

---

Configuration

Full reference for all environment variables and defaults

Metrics reference

Complete list of all metrics, types, units, and attributes