How to Install and Configure an OpenTelemetry Collector
Originally published June 2024. Updated May 2026. A lot has changed since the first version of this guide. In May 2026, OpenTelemetry officially graduated within the CNCF, the highest maturity level a project can achieve. All three core signals (metrics, logs, and traces) are now stable across every major language SDK. Collector adoption has never been higher, and the ecosystem around it, particularly OpAMP for remote management, has matured significantly. This update walks through three things.