Using OpenTelemetry to monitor Apache Airflow

Apache Airflow is a crucial open-source tool for scheduling and orchestrating complex workflows in data engineering pipelines, but its effectiveness can be enhanced through proper monitoring, particularly with the use of OpenTelemetry (OTel), an open-source observability framework. Monitoring Airflow is essential for gaining insights, diagnosing issues, and optimizing pipeline performance; it involves tracking metrics like the health of components, DAG execution times, and pool utilization. OpenTelemetry offers a vendor-agnostic approach to monitoring, allowing users to export data to any backend and gain flexibility in data management. Implementing OpenTelemetry involves configuring the OpenTelemetry Collector and setting up Airflow to send metrics, which can then be visualized and analyzed in platforms like New Relic. This setup enhances the ability to troubleshoot and manage workflows proactively, ensuring improved reliability and performance of Airflow deployments.