Azure Monitor OpenTelemetry Distro for Python

One-line setup for Application Insights with OpenTelemetry auto-instrumentation.

Installation

pip install azure-monitor-opentelemetry

Environment Variables

APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING=InstrumentationKey=xxx;IngestionEndpoint=https://xxx.in.applicationinsights.azure.com/

Quick Start

from azure.monitor.opentelemetry import configure_azure_monitor

# One-line setup - reads connection string from environment
configure_azure_monitor()

# Your application code...

Explicit Configuration

from azure.monitor.opentelemetry import configure_azure_monitor

configure_azure_monitor(
    connection_string="InstrumentationKey=xxx;IngestionEndpoint=https://xxx.in.applicationinsights.azure.com/"
)

With Flask

from flask import Flask
from azure.monitor.opentelemetry import configure_azure_monitor

configure_azure_monitor()

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route("/")
def hello():
    return "Hello, World!"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run()

With Django

# settings.py
from azure.monitor.opentelemetry import configure_azure_monitor

configure_azure_monitor()

# Django settings...

With FastAPI

from fastapi import FastAPI
from azure.monitor.opentelemetry import configure_azure_monitor

configure_azure_monitor()

app = FastAPI()

@app.get("/")
async def root():
    return {"message": "Hello World"}

Custom Traces

from opentelemetry import trace
from azure.monitor.opentelemetry import configure_azure_monitor

configure_azure_monitor()

tracer = trace.get_tracer(__name__)

with tracer.start_as_current_span("my-operation") as span:
    span.set_attribute("custom.attribute", "value")
    # Do work...

Custom Metrics

from opentelemetry import metrics
from azure.monitor.opentelemetry import configure_azure_monitor

configure_azure_monitor()

meter = metrics.get_meter(__name__)
counter = meter.create_counter("my_counter")

counter.add(1, {"dimension": "value"})

Custom Logs

import logging
from azure.monitor.opentelemetry import configure_azure_monitor

configure_azure_monitor()

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)

logger.info("This will appear in Application Insights")
logger.error("Errors are captured too", exc_info=True)

Sampling

from azure.monitor.opentelemetry import configure_azure_monitor

# Sample 10% of requests
configure_azure_monitor(
    sampling_ratio=0.1
)

Cloud Role Name

Set cloud role name for Application Map:

from azure.monitor.opentelemetry import configure_azure_monitor
from opentelemetry.sdk.resources import Resource, SERVICE_NAME

configure_azure_monitor(
    resource=Resource.create({SERVICE_NAME: "my-service-name"})
)

Disable Specific Instrumentations

from azure.monitor.opentelemetry import configure_azure_monitor

configure_azure_monitor(
    instrumentation_options={"flask": {"enabled": False}}  # Disable Flask; others keep defaults
)

Enable Live Metrics

from azure.monitor.opentelemetry import configure_azure_monitor

configure_azure_monitor(
    enable_live_metrics=True
)

Azure AD Authentication

from azure.monitor.opentelemetry import configure_azure_monitor
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential

configure_azure_monitor(
    credential=DefaultAzureCredential()
)

Configure once per process. Pin and inspect the installed distro: supported libraries and defaults change, and Azure Monitor versus Microsoft OpenTelemetry distros use different APIs. Do not initialize both. Azure SDK reference documents instrumentation_options; confirm optional instrumentations/dependencies rather than assuming every library below is included. Telemetry leaves the process: authorize its destination/retention, redact secrets and personal data from logs/spans, limit cardinality and ingestion cost, and verify export using synthetic data. Trace sampling does not imply metrics or all logs are sampled.

Auto-Instrumentations Included

Configuration Options