Configuration for server-side observability

You can configure the observability plugin for the Node.js (server-side) SDK through a mix of environment variables, OpenTelemetry configuration options, and plugin configuration options.

Environment variables

The environment variables specify where to enable instrumentation:

• LAUNCHDARKLY_OTEL_NODE_ENABLE_FILESYSTEM_INSTRUMENTATION enables file system instrumentation. It defaults to false.
• LAUNCHDARKLY_OTEL_NODE_ENABLE_OUTGOING_HTTP_INSTRUMENTATION enables outgoing HTTP instrumentation. It defaults to true. It only affects outgoing HTTP requests instrumented by @opentelemetry/instrumentation-http.

OpenTelemetry configuration options

If you are already using OpenTelemetry configuration options for Node in your application, you can continue to use them.

When you use the observability plugin, the @opentelemetry/instrumentation-fs instrumentation behaves as follows:

• The instrumentation will only be enabled if LAUNCHDARKLY_OTEL_NODE_ENABLE_FILESYSTEM_INSTRUMENTATION is true.
• The instruction is unaffected by the OTEL_NODE_ENABLED_INSTRUMENTATIONS and OTEL_NODE_DISABLED_INSTRUMENTATIONS OpenTelemetry environment variables.

Plugin configuration options

To specify the observability plugin configuration options, use the NodeOptions interface to set the options.

Here’s how:

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const client = init(
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  'sdk-key-123abc',
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  {
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    plugins: [
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      new Observability({
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        serviceName: 'example-service',
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        // we recommend setting serviceVersion to the latest deployed git SHA
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        serviceVersion: 'example-sha',
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        environment: 'production'
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      })
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    ]
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  }
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)

For a complete list of configuration options, read NodeOptions.