Chapter one: Telemetry basics

OpenTelemetry standardizes the way we work with telemetry. So, before you learn about what OpenTelemetry is, how it works, and why it's valuable, you need to have a solid understanding of what telemetry is.

Objectives

In this first chapter, you learn answers to questions like:

What is telemetry?
What kinds of data is it concerned with?
What are the traditional ways of working with telemetry data?

Prerequisite knowledge

As this chapter introduces you to the basics of telemetry, you don't need to have any previous experience with it to follow along. That said, you would benefit from a familiarity with:

Traces
Metrics
Logs
Telemetry agents, like New Relic’s

Procedures

1. Telemetry

What is telemetry?

2. Telemetry data types

What are the telemetry data types?

3. Traces

What are traces?

4. Telemetry and observability

The relationship between telemetry and observability

5. Traditional telemetry instrumentation

Traditional telemetry instrumentation