Example: Send OpenTelemetry Logs with the OpenTelemetry Python SDK

Logs support in the OpenTelemetry Python SDK is currently experimental and subject to change. To check the status for each language, refer to the OpenTelemetry status page.

This example shows how to configure the OpenTelemetry Python SDK’s logger provider to send logs from a Python application to Honeycomb or an OpenTelemetry Collector.

Acquire Dependencies

Install the OpenTelemetry API, SDK, and OTLP exporter packages:

pip install opentelemetry-api
pip install opentelemetry-sdk
pip install opentelemetry-exporter-otlp

Configure the Logger Provider

During application setup, create and configure the logger provider:

import logging

from opentelemetry._logs import set_logger_provider
from opentelemetry.exporter.otlp.proto.grpc._log_exporter import OTLPLogExporter
from opentelemetry.sdk._logs import LoggerProvider, LoggingHandler
from opentelemetry.sdk._logs.export import BatchLogRecordProcessor
from opentelemetry.sdk.resources import Resource

# Create and set the logger provider
logger_provider = LoggerProvider()
set_logger_provider(logger_provider)

# Create the OTLP log exporter that sends logs to configured destination
exporter = OTLPLogExporter()
logger_provider.add_log_record_processor(BatchLogRecordProcessor(exporter))

# Attach the OTLP handler to the root logger
handler = LoggingHandler(logger_provider=logger_provider)
logging.getLogger().addHandler(handler)

# Use logging directly anywhere in your app
logging.warning("Something interesting happened")

# Shut down the logger before exiting to export all pending logs
logger_provider.shutdown()

Run Your Application

Set environment variables to configure the exporter and define your service name, then run your application.To send logs directly to Honeycomb:

OTEL_SERVICE_NAME="my-service" \
  OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="https://api.honeycomb.io" \
  OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS="x-honeycomb-team=<your-api-key>" \
  python app.py

To send logs to an OpenTelemetry Collector instead:

OTEL_SERVICE_NAME="my-service" \
  OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="my-collector:4317" \
  OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_INSECURE=true \
  python app.py