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getsentry
Open Telemetry support should mention Collector and Exporters and include a Diagram
Core or SDK?
Platform/SDK
Which part? Which one?
all sdk's that have OTEL integration
Problem
I explain Sentry's approach with Span Processors on calls, I show the code, our documentation. The customer's response sounds as if they completely ignored what I said and still don't understand. Maybe their mind is super wrapped around a different approach, or they don't have a roadmap defined for their own Otel use case. Maybe they have a poor understanding of Otel in general. Or my explanation is super bad.
When there are multiple variant techniques for how a technology (Otel) can be implemented, and it's unknown the currently implemented approach and roadmap of a customer, then it's bad to rely on a verbal conversation alone without having a Visual to set the stage for what the possibilities are. It helps both sides understand what's currently in place versus what the possibilities are. It demonstrates better Thought Leadership too on the subject.
Additionally, we're not always live on a phone call to have such a discussion and hand-hold them through all this. So a visual would be key here.
Description
Asks
- Could we get a diagram in SDK docs? Or, in a general product docs area? a diagram like the one in https://github.com/getsentry/sentry/discussions/40712
- Could we get the words Collector or Exporter added somewhere in our SDK docs?
- Can we describe if we are tail-based sampling or not and why? I get asked a lot.
- docs.sentry.io/product/performance/opentelemetry
Why: Currently there is 0 mention of Collectors and Exporters in SDK docs. Oftentimes I show them our SDK docs, which to me is pretty clear, I explain it on a call. They still start asking me questions about Collectors and Exporters. If we're not a Collector or Exporter, then say it in docs. If we're something else, then say it.
This explanation is clear to me, but it's toug to grasp without a nice visual that sets the stage indicating other Otel backends, exporters, collectors, and the Sentry backend. While all that might be implied, I think people have a hard time visualizing all this. https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/python/performance/instrumentation/opentelemetry/#opentelemetry-and-sentry
Suggested Solution
Diagram and the words Collector + Exporter in every single SDK's documentation, or in an sdk-agnostic area like "docs.sentry.io/product/performance/otel" would be nice, currently it does not exist. Or add a link in each SDK's documentation, pointing over to the general product doc for OTEL (which does not exist yet).
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Could we have a diagram with Sentry colors and UI elements? Also this is picky but could you write "OpenTelemetry SDK" instead instead of "Open Telemetry API"? That always confused me.
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In the diagram could we add Sentry SDK instead of leaving it as SentrySpan Processor?
When I explain our approach, people go blank, and start name dropping lots of buzzwords "tail-based sampling", "collector, exporter". I'm afraid my explanation is bad, or they're not even familiar with this approach, independent of how well our documentation and my explanation is.
UPDATE: I just noticed our GH Discussion says 'Other Exporters' so this means we're a Exporter? Could we make it clearer? The SDK docs do not say Exporter anywhere.
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