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Considerations

Before enabling delete attribute, please note the following:

  • This action will delete selected attributes from spans, metric data points and log records, but will not delete the entire span, metric data point or log record.
  • For matching attributes, the attribute value will be deleted entirely. This action is not suitable for partial deletion or masking of the attribute value. For example, if you collect an http.request.body attribute, this action can be used to delete the attribute but not a key from the JSON object.
  • While it is common for information to be recorded in attributes, it can also be recorded into names or other fields, for which this action will not be effective.

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Use Cases

Security

  • By default, OpenTelemetry should not record PII (Personally Identifiable Information) or sensitive data such as passwords, api tokens, creditcard numbers etc. However, if the data is accidentally added to the telemetry signals, or if a manual instrumentation recorded it into an attribute, this action can be used to delete such data.

Cost Reduction

  • Some vendors charge based on the amount of data ingested. For self hosted destinations, the cost is correlated to the use of cloud resources which grows with the based on the amount of data you process and store. By deleting unnecessary attributes, you can reduce the amount of data ingested and reduce costs.

Usability

  • Remove duplications - sometimes, the same attribute is added to the telemetry signals by multiple sources. This action can be used to delete the duplicates and keep the data clean. For example, you might find the host name recorded both as host.name and k8s.node.name which are the same value.
  • Verbosity - not all data is useful to all users. You might wish to delete certain attributes when they give no value to your organization or observability needs. Sometimes, recording too much data can obscure the important information and make it harder to find.

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Configuration Options

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Basic Example

The following example demonstrates how to delete the host.name attribute from all telemetry signals.

1

Create a YAML file with the following content:

delete-host-name.yaml
apiVersion: actions.odigos.io/v1alpha1
kind: DeleteAttribute
metadata:
  name: delete-host-name
  namespace: odigos-system
spec:
  actionName: "delete host.name"
  attributeNamesToDelete:
    - host.name
  signals:
    - TRACES
    - METRICS
    - LOGS
2

Apply the action to the cluster:

kubectl apply -f delete-host-name.yaml