Overview
ECS Fargate runs containers on serverless compute without exposing the underlying infrastructure. Because you don't have access to the host instances, you need to deploy an OpenTelemetry Collector as a sidecar container within each task you want to observe.
This guide is specific to ECS Fargate. For ECS clusters running on EC2 or External launch types, see Monitor ECS EC2/External which uses a daemon service for host-level collection.
Prerequisites
- An ECS cluster with Fargate launch type
- SigNoz Cloud account or Self-Hosted SigNoz
- AWS CLI access to update task definitions
Why Sidecar on Fargate?
- No host access: Fargate abstracts the underlying infrastructure
- No daemon services: Cannot deploy cluster-wide agents like with EC2 launch type
- The sidecar provides a local OTLP endpoint (
localhost) for your app to send traces, metrics, and logs
Architecture
ECS Task (Fargate)
├─ app container(s)
│ └─ sends OTLP telemetry data to the sidecar
├─ signoz-collector sidecar
│ ├─ receives OTLP data from the app container(s)
│ ├─ collects container metrics via AWS ECS metadata
│ └─ exports telemetry to SigNoz (cloud or self-hosted)
└─ log-router (optional, for Fluent Bit log forwarding)
What You Can Collect
| Data Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Container Metrics | CPU, memory, network usage from ECS metadata |
| Application Traces | Distributed traces from instrumented applications |
| Application Logs | Logs forwarded via Fluent Bit log router |
Setup
For complete setup instructions, follow the ECS Sidecar Installation Guide.
The setup involves:
- Create OTel Collector config in AWS Parameter Store
- Add the sidecar container to your ECS task definition
- Update IAM roles (Task Execution Role and Task Role) with required permissions
- Configure log routing (optional, for application logs via Fluent Bit)
- Deploy the updated task definition and verify data in SigNoz
Validate
Once set up, verify your data appears in SigNoz:
- Logs: Navigate to Logs tab → Logs Explorer
- Metrics: Navigate to Metrics tab → Metrics Explorer
- Traces: Navigate to Services tab to see your instrumented applications
Next Steps
- ECS Sidecar Installation Guide – Complete sidecar setup instructions
- Send Traces from Applications – Configure application instrumentation