New component: Datadog Extension

[jackgopack4]

The purpose and use-cases of the new component

This component can be added to a collector to report configuration and other metadata to be displayed in Datadog App UI.

Example configuration for the component

extensions:
  datadog:
    api:
      key: "1234567890abcdef"
      site: "datadoghq.com"
    hostname: "my-collector-host"
    http:
      endpoint: "localhost:8088"
      path: "/metadata"

Telemetry data types supported

none

Code Owner(s)

dineshg13, mx-psi, jackgopack4

Sponsor (optional)

songy23

Additional context

No response

[atoulme]

@mx-psi please confirm you are sponsoring this component.

[songy23]

I can sponsor

[jackgopack4]

@mx-psi please confirm you are sponsoring this component.

Hey sorry I didn't check with him first before creating the issue, since @songy23 said he would we can go with that.

[dineshg13]

Can we name it datadogextension, to ensure we have ability toe expand beyond fleet automation.

[jackgopack4]

Can we name it datadogextension, to ensure we have ability toe expand beyond fleet automation.

I don't see why not

[julealgon]

Can someone please offer a summary of what this component is about and why a consumer would use it, preferably linking to official documentation?

This description on the PR is too brief and too generic IMHO:

This component can be added to a collector to report configuration and other metadata to be displayed in Datadog App UI.

This is the second release where there are Datadog-related components mentioned in the OTEL Collector Contrib release notes with little to no detail about what the component/feature is about.

As the architect for a company that is currently using (or trying to use) latest DD integrations for all of our telemetry, I feel it is important that any new component is thoroughly explained when it is first introduced so that we can make informed decisions on whether we would want to adopt those new components and when.

[jackgopack4]

Thanks for the feedback. The actual UI and user experience is subject to change at the moment, but the current goal of the extension is to enable users to monitor their collectors in Infrastructure Monitoring with Datadog (if that product is enabled on your account, of course).

The component will send configuration and other metadata about the collector to Datadog, which will help users keep tabs on their collectors (which need to be upgraded, possible config issues that could lead to incorrect/broken telemetry, etc).

Down the road we hope to enable more features such as updating/upgrading collectors, enabling remote configuration changes similar to how Datadog Agent can remotely update config from the Datadog App UI.

But a lot of this is still in the works. Rest assured once this component (or any other Datadog component) is ready for Preview/Beta or General Availability, there will be some sort of announcement/blog post and corresponding documentation on the Datadog website.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, the new component addition process for Contrib repo requires splitting into multiple PRs; currently this component is not included in any distribution, and if you add it to your extensions via a custom collector build via OCB, it won't do anything yet.

[julealgon]

I appreciate the information @jackgopack4 . If at all possible, it would be nice if the team could share a bit more context about these new modules in the release notes itself in the future.

I mentioned earlier that I had a similar question with another item mentioned as "new" in a previous release notes and it seems to be a similar situation here: something is being added but it not yet ready for consumption. If the team could make at least that detail a bit more clear that would help a lot with visibility.

Here is the other one I recently asked about for similar reasons (lack of details on the release notes):

• New component: Datadog Semantic Processor #35304 (comment)

[jackgopack4]

Agreed, I've taken this back to the team so we can make better release notes in the future, especially regarding new components.