OpenTelemetry Operator - Install
OpenTelemetry Operator makes it easier to set up the OpenTelemetry collector and auto-instrument workloads deployed on Kubernetes.
A Kubernetes operator is a method of packaging, deploying, and managing a Kubernetes application. OpenTelemetry Operator helps a lot in managing OpenTelemetry collectors and enables auto-instrumentation.
Prerequisite
Before installing the OpenTelemetry Operator, ensure you have:
- A running Kubernetes cluster (v1.19 or later recommended)
- Administrative kubectl access to your cluster
- SigNoz installed and running (Installation Guide)
- cert-manager installed in your cluster
k8s-infra is a pre-configured Helm chart from SigNoz, tailored for Kubernetes infrastructure observability. It provides a straightforward, out-of-the-box solution: simply install the chart in your cluster, and it will automatically gather metrics, logs, traces, and events from your entire Kubernetes environment and no manual configuration needed.
For more information, refer to the K8s-infra Collection Agent.
Installing the OpenTelemetry Operator
Choose your preferred installation method to deploy the operator:
Deploy the operator directly using the latest release manifest:
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator/releases/latest/download/opentelemetry-operator.yaml
Verify the installation:
kubectl get deployment opentelemetry-operator-controller-manager -n opentelemetry-operator-system
Once the opentelemetry-operator deployment is ready, you can proceed with creating OpenTelemetry Collector instances and configuring automatic instrumentation.
OpenTelemetry Collector
The OpenTelemetry Operator provides a Custom Resource Definition (CRD) for OpenTelemetry Collectors with flexible deployment options through the .Spec.Mode property. You can deploy collectors as:
The .Spec.Config property contains the OpenTelemetry Collector configuration YAML. Explore additional deployment mode examples in the official repository.
OpenTelemetry Operator provides examples for each deployment mode.
To quickly deploy OpenTelemetry Collectors for node-level and cluster-level data collection with SigNoz, you can use our Configure Guide which provides ready-to-use DaemonSet and Deployment manifests with pre-configured settings for sending telemetry directly to SigNoz.
This guide includes:
- DaemonSet and Deployment CRs tailored for SigNoz (Cloud & Self-Hosted)
- RBAC examples for required permissions
- Step-by-step instructions for both deployment modes
Next Step
Last updated: August 21, 2025
Edit on GitHub
