Instrumenting a .NET web API using OpenTelemetry, Tempo, and Grafana Cloud

Marty Disibio's guide explores the process of instrumenting a .NET 5.0 web API using OpenTelemetry, Tempo, and Grafana Cloud to enhance observability by standardizing logs, metrics, and traces across platforms. By setting up a web API project and integrating OpenTelemetry nuget packages, users can trace HTTP requests, with traces initially logged to stdout and then uploaded to Grafana Cloud using a Grafana Agent configured via docker-compose. The guide details sending application logs to Grafana Cloud using the Loki log driver, recommending Promtail for production workloads in Kubernetes, and illustrates how to connect logs and traces using Loki's derived field functionality. This setup allows users to view logs and traces side by side in Grafana Cloud, offering a comprehensive solution for monitoring and observability, adaptable for .NET 3.1 and supported by Grafana's new free and paid plans.

Use this post, company, and trend context to find content marketing opportunities, perform competitive analysis, or address product feature gaps via the Plushcap MCP server or the Plushcap API.