Company
Date Published
Author
Victoria Nduka
Word count
2062
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

Victoria Nduka's research project, conducted during her mentorship with Prometheus through the Linux Foundation, explored how Prometheus handles OpenTelemetry resource attributes and sought user feedback to improve the experience. Her study revealed that while Prometheus uses labels to identify metrics, converting OpenTelemetry resource attributes to labels can lead to cardinality issues. To address this, three main approaches are considered: mapping all resource attributes to labels, selective promotion of important attributes, and using a separate metric called "target_info" for joining queries. Stakeholder and user interviews highlighted the lack of early collaboration between the Prometheus and OpenTelemetry communities, leading to interoperability challenges. Users found the current integration complex, particularly the join syntax, and expressed that documentation gaps hinder their understanding. The study emphasized the need for improved documentation, awareness of OpenTelemetry's resource detection feature, and potential long-term solutions like metadata storage and an entity framework. These findings aim to enhance user experience without compromising Prometheus's core architecture, with a focus on fostering better collaboration between the two communities.