Preload the Lambda OpenTelemetry layer into your own AWS account before instrumenting with IaC.
If you use Odigos-managed Lambda instrumentation, you can skip this page — the
connector publishes the layer version into your account itself
(lambda:PublishLayerVersion) the first time it instruments a function. Nothing to
preload.
If you self-manage instrumentation, you have two choices for where the layer your CloudFormation, CDK,
or Terraform attaches actually lives:
Reference the public Odigos layer
Preload into your own account (SAR)
Simplest option: attach the public layer ARN Odigos publishes in every region
(arn:aws:lambda:<region>:<odigos-account>:layer:odigos-otel-<language>-<arch>:<n>) directly in your
function resource. No preloading, no extra deploy — for next steps see
Instrument Lambda. If your organization’s policy
forbids attaching a Lambda layer owned by another AWS account, use the
Preload into your own account (SAR) tab instead.
Deploy the Odigos layer from the AWS Serverless Application Repository (SAR) so the resulting
AWS::Lambda::LayerVersion is owned by your account. Then attach that stack’s LayerVersionArn
instead of the public Odigos layer ARN.Deploying a SAR application is an AWS workflow — follow
Deploying applications
(Console or CLI). For nesting the app in your own template, see
AWS::Serverless::Application.What Odigos supplies for that deploy:
Application IDs — SAR_APPLICATIONS in @odigos/aws-cdk, keyed by language/architecture
(for example python/arm64). Search the console for odigos-otel-<language>-<arch> if you prefer.
Semantic version — SAR_SEMANTIC_VERSION in the same package. Pin it; SAR versions are immutable
and that pin keeps the layer bytes stable across deploys.
With the Odigos CDK construct, you do not call SAR yourself — set
layerSource: OdigosLayerSource.IN_ACCOUNT and the construct nests the application using those exports.
See Where the layer comes from.
The deploying principal needs serverlessrepo:CreateCloudFormationTemplate and
serverlessrepo:GetApplication.
Layer versions are retained, never deleted, when a stack update supersedes them
— a function still pinned to an older version would break at cold start the
moment it disappeared. Clean up old versions yourself once nothing references
them.
