SystemLink Enterprise supports integration with observability tools. With these tools you can monitor application performance. Trace requests across microservices and aggregate logs for troubleshooting.

OpenTelemetry is an open-source observability framework that provides a standardized way to collect telemetry data such as traces, metrics, and logs from applications. By enabling OpenTelemetry in SystemLink Enterprise, you can:

  • Monitor the performance and health of SystemLink services
  • Trace requests across multiple microservices to identify bottlenecks
  • Troubleshoot issues by correlating logs, metrics, and traces
  • Integrate with observability platforms that support OpenTelemetry standards

SystemLink Enterprise uses the OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) to export telemetry data to a telemetry collector. The collector can then process and forward the data to your preferred observability back end.

NI recommends using the Grafana Kubernetes Monitoring Helm chart with Grafana Cloud for observability. This setup is the tooling NI uses internally and provides the best alignment with NI's testing and support experience.

Observability Data Types

SystemLink Enterprise can export three types of observability data:

  • Traces: Distributed traces that show the path of requests through SystemLink services, helping identify performance bottlenecks and failures
  • Metrics: Time-series data about service performance, resource utilization, and application behavior
  • Logs: Structured and unstructured log data from SystemLink components for debugging purposes and audit purposes

Architecture

SystemLink Enterprise exports telemetry data using the following architecture:

  1. SystemLink services generate traces and metrics using OpenTelemetry instrumentation
  2. Telemetry data is exported via OTLP to a telemetry collector (such as Grafana Alloy or the OpenTelemetry Collector)
  3. The collector processes, batches, and forwards data to your observability backend
  4. Your observability platform stores and visualizes the telemetry data

This architecture provides flexibility to integrate with multiple observability platforms and change backends without modifying SystemLink configuration.