I would like to add instrumentation to my code running in Azure Functions and App Service to emit telemetry data that could be visualized using Azure App Insights / other tools within the Azure Monitor umbrella. Are there any pros and cons of using OpenTelemetry SDK vs App Insights SDK for emitting the telemetry data when the applications are deployed within Azure?

@Vivek Shankar , Thank you for the question. There are 2 major points that you should consider when choosing the monitoring solution for the App Service/Azure Function: Open telemetry is still in preview for all the framework/languages, except Java for which the Open Telemetry support with AppInsights is generally available. For other framework/languages, the GA date has not been announced yet. Depending on the framework/language that your app uses, there are a number of features which are not supported with OpenTelemetry yet. For a complete list, please review the following link - What's the current release state of features within the Azure Monitor OpenTelemetry Distro? Hope this helps. If the answer did not help, please add more context/follow-up question for it, and we will help you out. Else, if the answer helped, please click Accept answer so that it can help others in the community looking for help on similar topics.

Azure App Insights SDK vs OpenTelemetry SDK

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AnuragSingh-MSFT 20,431 Reputation points

2023-06-05T07:45:21.93+00:00
@Vivek Shankar , Thank you for the question.

There are 2 major points that you should consider when choosing the monitoring solution for the App Service/Azure Function:

Open telemetry is still in preview for all the framework/languages, except Java for which the Open Telemetry support with AppInsights is generally available. For other framework/languages, the GA date has not been announced yet.

Depending on the framework/language that your app uses, there are a number of features which are not supported with OpenTelemetry yet. For a complete list, please review the following link - What's the current release state of features within the Azure Monitor OpenTelemetry Distro?

Hope this helps.

If the answer did not help, please add more context/follow-up question for it, and we will help you out. Else, if the answer helped, please click Accept answer so that it can help others in the community looking for help on similar topics.
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2 people found this answer helpful.
Vivek Shankar 95 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2023-06-05T12:05:30.03+00:00

Thanks Anurag, this helps! We are using .Net, so I believe we should using AppInsights SDK as OpenTelemetry is not GA for .Net. Does AppInsights SDK use OpenTelemetry under the hood and are there any advantages to using OpenTelemetry SDK over AppInsights SDK in an Azure environment?

AnuragSingh-MSFT 20,431 Reputation points

2023-06-07T04:40:04.07+00:00

Vivek Shankar, AppInsights SDK does not use OpenTelemetry under the hood.
Based on the Application Insight's Open telemetry doc, Open Telemetry provides vendor-neutral instrumentation, and more information is available here - https://opentelemetry.io/

You may also refer to Why is Microsoft Azure Monitor investing in OpenTelemetry?

Hope this helps.

Vivek Shankar 95 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2023-06-07T14:39:05.92+00:00

Thanks Anurag. This helps! Can both AppInsights SDK and OpenTelemetry SDK be used together in a single application? Would both these SDKs be able to generate telemetry that is not generated by the other SDK helping the application leverage telemetry data that is generated by both these SDKs? I have a created a separate question for this, however just wanted to seek your thoughts on this.

AnuragSingh-MSFT 20,431 Reputation points

2023-06-08T09:12:00.0166667+00:00

Vivek Shankar, thank you for the reply. I will check with the team regarding using both the options together. I will update your new thread with the information that I get.
Here are my thoughts though - even if you can use both the options in a single application for monitoring, they collect very similar set of telemetry (and based on the table here, the features are also being implemented in similar fashion). This would add confusion for review/diagnostic purpose as there will be duplicate entry for all kind of telemetry being collected. This will further cause confusion.

As Appinsights sdk (the current GA version) is already a mature solution available for .NET based applications, I would prefer to continue using that for my new prod apps, so that the support for the packages is readily available. For test purposes, I might use openTelemetry only if I don't require the advanced features (adaptive sampling, profiler, cloud role name etc.)
I will check further with the team and update the new thread - App Insights & Open Telemetry SDK.

Vivek Shankar 95 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2023-06-15T14:38:37.1566667+00:00

Thanks Anurag. This is helpful. Is there an alternate way to ingest opentelemetry data in App Insights without using the OpenTelemtry SDK which is currently not GA for .Net applications?
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Azure App Insights SDK vs OpenTelemetry SDK

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