This quickstart spins up a multi-service OpenTelemetry Demo app and sends traces, logs, and metrics to your SigNoz Cloud account — no code changes needed.
Prerequisites
- A SigNoz Cloud account (sign up free)
- Docker and Docker Compose installed
Setup
Step 1: Clone the demo app
git clone https://github.com/SigNoz/opentelemetry-demo-lite.git
cd opentelemetry-demo-lite
Step 2: Start the demo app
Run the following command from the opentelemetry-demo-lite directory:
OTLP_ENDPOINT=ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443 SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY=<your-ingestion-key> docker compose up -d
Replace the following:
<region>: Your SigNoz Cloud region<your-ingestion-key>: Your SigNoz ingestion key
Step 3: Verify containers are running
docker compose ps -a
You should see all 12 services in the running state:
The app automatically generates traffic using a built-in browser simulator, so telemetry starts flowing to SigNoz immediately.
Validate
After 2–3 minutes, open your SigNoz Cloud dashboard and verify each signal:
- Services — Navigate to Services tab. You should see services like
frontend,cartservice,checkoutservice, and others listed with live RED metrics (Rate, Errors, Duration).
Traces — Go to Traces and search for traces from any service. Click a trace to see the full request journey across services.
Logs — Go to Logs tab and filter by any service name to see structured log entries.
Metrics — Go to Metrics Explorer and explore metrics.
The demo app's browser simulator generates continuous traffic at ~5 requests per second, so you'll see a steady stream of telemetry data.
Troubleshooting
Services not appearing in SigNoz
- Check your credentials — Verify that
OTLP_ENDPOINTandSIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEYare set correctly. Re-run with the correct values if needed. - Wait for data — OpenTelemetry batches data before sending. Wait 2–3 minutes after starting the demo app.
- Check network connectivity — Ensure your machine can reach
ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443. Test with:curl -v https://ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443
Containers not starting
Check logs for the failing service:
docker compose logs <service-name>
Common causes:
- Insufficient memory — The demo app requires ~4 GB of available Docker memory. Check Docker Desktop settings.
- Port conflicts — Ensure no other services are using ports required by the demo containers.
Enable Collector debug logging
Edit otel-collector-config.yaml and change the log level:
service:
telemetry:
logs:
level: debug
Restart and rebuild to apply changes:
docker compose up -d --build
Then check the OTel Collector logs:
docker compose logs otel-col
Look for export confirmation messages or errors like connection failures and authentication issues.
Clean up
When you're done exploring, stop and remove all containers:
docker compose down
Next Steps
Now that you have telemetry flowing, try these:
- Instrument your own app — Set up OpenTelemetry instrumentation for your language and framework
- Send logs — Collect and send application logs to SigNoz from your own services
- Send metrics — Push custom metrics from your applications to SigNoz
- Set up alerts — Create alerts for high latency or error rates
- Monitor infrastructure — Use Infrastructure Monitoring for a unified view of host and container performance
Get Help
If you need help with the steps in this topic, please reach out to us on SigNoz Community Slack.
If you are a SigNoz Cloud user, please use in product chat support located at the bottom right corner of your SigNoz instance or contact us at cloud-support@signoz.io.