AWS Distribution for OpenTelemetry (ADOT)

When to Use ADOT

ADOT is a good fit when you are running containerised workloads on ECS or EKS and want to:

Send application logs, metrics, and traces to Bronto through one Collector
Avoid CloudWatch log ingestion fees entirely
Use an AWS-supported, pre-built distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector without managing it yourself

If you need full control over collector configuration — custom processors, fan-out to multiple backends, or advanced transformation — consider the Self-Managed OTel Collector instead.

Supported AWS Services

ADOT collects application logs, metrics, and traces from containerised workloads on:

Service	Data types
Amazon ECS (EC2 launch type)	Application logs, metrics, and traces (sidecar)
AWS Fargate (ECS)	Application logs, metrics, and traces (sidecar)
Amazon EKS (EC2 node groups)	Application logs, metrics, and traces (DaemonSet)
Amazon EKS (Fargate)	Application logs, metrics, and traces (sidecar)

For Lambda traces, use the ADOT Lambda Layer. For non-containerised AWS services, see the overview.

ADOT forwards the telemetry your workload sends it — it does not automatically discover application telemetry. Instrument your app with the OpenTelemetry SDK so it exports logs, metrics, and traces to the ADOT sidecar or DaemonSet.

What is ADOT?

The AWS Distribution for OpenTelemetry (ADOT) is an AWS-supported build of the OpenTelemetry Collector. It is available as a Docker image and can be deployed as a sidecar container (ECS) or a daemonset (EKS). It collects logs, metrics, and traces from your application via OTLP and forwards them to any OTLP-compatible backend — including Bronto. ADOT itself is free. You pay only for the compute running the container.

Bronto Ingestion Endpoints

Signal	EU Region	US Region
Logs	`https://ingestion.eu.bronto.io/v1/logs`	`https://ingestion.us.bronto.io/v1/logs`
Metrics	`https://ingestion.eu.bronto.io/v1/metrics`	`https://ingestion.us.bronto.io/v1/metrics`
Traces	`https://ingestion.eu.bronto.io/v1/traces`	`https://ingestion.us.bronto.io/v1/traces`

The /v1/logs, /v1/metrics, and /v1/traces endpoints accept OTLP protobuf only. Metrics ingestion is in public beta.

All requests require the header:

x-bronto-api-key: <YOUR_API_KEY>

See API Keys for how to generate a key.

Setup on ECS (Sidecar)

Add the ADOT container as a sidecar to your ECS task definition. The typical local defaults are localhost:4317 for OTLP/gRPC and localhost:4318 for OTLP/HTTP. Use the receiver address, protocol, and TLS settings configured for your task when they differ; the sidecar then forwards the telemetry to Bronto.

ADOT Collector Configuration

Create a collector config file and make it available to the container (via S3, SSM Parameter Store, or a custom image).

receivers:
  otlp:
    protocols:
      grpc:
        endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4317
      http:
        endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4318

processors:
  batch:

exporters:
  otlphttp/bronto:
    logs_endpoint: "https://ingestion.<REGION>.bronto.io/v1/logs"
    metrics_endpoint: "https://ingestion.<REGION>.bronto.io/v1/metrics"
    traces_endpoint: "https://ingestion.<REGION>.bronto.io/v1/traces"
    compression: none
    headers:
      x-bronto-api-key: ${env:BRONTO_API_KEY}

service:
  pipelines:
    logs:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [batch]
      exporters: [otlphttp/bronto]
    metrics:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [batch]
      exporters: [otlphttp/bronto]
    traces:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [batch]
      exporters: [otlphttp/bronto]

Replace <REGION> with eu or us. In production, do not bake the API key into the YAML. Inject it into the container from AWS Secrets Manager as BRONTO_API_KEY, then use ${env:BRONTO_API_KEY} as the header value. ADOT also accepts the complete configuration through AOT_CONFIG_CONTENT, which can be populated from a protected SSM parameter at deployment time.

ADOT does not include every upstream Collector component. In particular, its standard image does not include the transform processor. For simple GenAI compatibility rewrites—such as copying or renaming legacy gen_ai.system to gen_ai.provider.name—use the attributes processor, or choose the upstream Collector distribution after verifying its component manifest.

ECS Task Definition (sidecar container)

{
  "name": "adot-collector",
  "image": "public.ecr.aws/aws-observability/aws-otel-collector:latest",
  "essential": false,
  "command": ["--config", "/etc/otel/config.yaml"],
  "portMappings": [
    { "containerPort": 4317, "protocol": "tcp" },
    { "containerPort": 4318, "protocol": "tcp" }
  ]
}

In a multi-container task, add a container dependency so the application starts only after the Collector is healthy. Grant the task role (not only the execution role) any permissions the application needs for Bedrock, and grant the execution role access to the Secrets Manager/SSM values injected into the task definition. With the receiver configuration above, an application sharing the task network can normally export to http://localhost:4317 over gRPC or http://localhost:4318 over HTTP. The exact host, port, protocol, and TLS settings depend on the task’s network mode and your Collector configuration.

Setup on EKS (DaemonSet)

Deploy ADOT as a DaemonSet so one collector pod runs per node. Application pods export telemetry to the node’s collector via the node IP or a local service.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: DaemonSet
metadata:
  name: adot-collector
  namespace: monitoring
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: adot-collector
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: adot-collector
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: adot-collector
          image: public.ecr.aws/aws-observability/aws-otel-collector:latest
          args: ["--config", "/etc/otel/config.yaml"]
          volumeMounts:
            - name: otel-config
              mountPath: /etc/otel
      volumes:
        - name: otel-config
          configMap:
            name: adot-config

Store the collector configuration above in a ConfigMap named adot-config.

Data Organization

ADOT uses OpenTelemetry resource attributes for routing. Bronto maps service.name to a Dataset and service.namespace to a Collection — see Data Organization for how datasets, collections, and tags work. Set these in the resource block of your collector config:

processors:
  resource:
    attributes:
      - key: service.name
        value: <YOUR_DATASET_NAME>
        action: upsert
      - key: service.namespace
        value: <YOUR_COLLECTION_NAME>
        action: upsert

You can also override routing per-exporter using HTTP headers, which is useful when one collector ships to multiple datasets:

Header	Description
`x-bronto-dataset`	Overrides `service.name`
`x-bronto-collection`	Overrides `service.namespace`
`x-bronto-tags`	Comma-separated tags to attach to events

exporters:
  otlphttp/bronto:
    logs_endpoint: https://ingestion.<REGION>.bronto.io/v1/logs
    headers:
      x-bronto-api-key: <YOUR_API_KEY>
      x-bronto-dataset: <YOUR_DATASET_NAME>
      x-bronto-collection: <YOUR_COLLECTION_NAME>
      x-bronto-tags: env=prod,team=platform

Cost Notes

No CloudWatch ingestion fees — logs, metrics, and traces go directly from ADOT to Bronto over OTLP/HTTP.
Compute cost only — you pay for the ECS task or EKS pod running the collector, which is typically small relative to CloudWatch PUT and ingestion charges at scale.
Compare with the CloudWatch Log Forwarder if your services already write to CloudWatch and the migration cost outweighs the savings.

For assistance, contact support@bronto.io.

Overview

Ingest with agents

Ingest from AWS

Ingest from Azure

Ingest from CDN and edge

Ingest from apps and platforms

Ingest from infrastructure and databases

Ingest OpenTelemetry data

AWS Distribution for OpenTelemetry (ADOT)

When to Use ADOT

Supported AWS Services

What is ADOT?

Bronto Ingestion Endpoints

Setup on ECS (Sidecar)

ADOT Collector Configuration

ECS Task Definition (sidecar container)

Setup on EKS (DaemonSet)

Data Organization

Cost Notes

​When to Use ADOT

​Supported AWS Services

​What is ADOT?

​Bronto Ingestion Endpoints

​Setup on ECS (Sidecar)

​ADOT Collector Configuration

​ECS Task Definition (sidecar container)

​Setup on EKS (DaemonSet)

​Data Organization

​Cost Notes

When to Use ADOT

Supported AWS Services

What is ADOT?

Bronto Ingestion Endpoints

Setup on ECS (Sidecar)

ADOT Collector Configuration

ECS Task Definition (sidecar container)

Setup on EKS (DaemonSet)

Data Organization

Cost Notes