From OpenObserve to DataBuff

Keep your OpenTelemetry SDK / Collector setup; retarget OTLP from OpenObserve to DataBuff Ingest (gRPC 4317 / HTTP 4318). No probe swap, no application code changes. For capability differences, see DataBuff vs OpenObserve.

Migration model

Before:  App / Collector  ──OTLP HTTP──▶  OpenObserve (often :5080/api/default)
After:   App / Collector  ──OTLP──▶  DataBuff Ingest

Core action: change OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT from OpenObserve’s /api/<org> path to DataBuff Ingest (:4318 HTTP or :4317 gRPC).

Roll out canary → verify → expand; small fleets can update all endpoints in one window.

Prerequisites

• DataBuff deployed
• Ingest OTLP reachable (Docker 4317 / 4318)
• Note the current OpenObserve OTLP address (e.g. http://openobserve:5080/api/default) for rollback

Protocol details: OpenTelemetry OTLP ingestion.

Steps

1. Ingest endpoint

Deployment	OTLP gRPC	OTLP HTTP
Docker	<ingest-host>:4317	http://<ingest-host>:4318
Kubernetes	<node-ip>:31417 etc.	http://<node-ip>:31418 etc.

2. Update export target

Application SDK

# Before (OpenObserve example)
# export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="http://openobserve:5080/api/default"

export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="http://<databuff-ingest-host>:4318"
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL="http/protobuf"
export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME="my-service"

If OpenObserve used Basic Auth on the exporter, remove those headers; DataBuff Ingest does not require them by default.

OpenTelemetry Collector:

exporters:
  otlphttp:
    endpoint: "http://<databuff-ingest-host>:4318"

service:
  pipelines:
    traces:
      receivers: [otlp]
      exporters: [otlphttp]
    metrics:
      receivers: [otlp]
      exporters: [otlphttp]
    logs:
      receivers: [otlp]
      exporters: [otlphttp]

K8s / containers: update env vars or Collector ConfigMap and roll pods.

3. Rollout

1. Change one or two non-critical services
2. Verify in DataBuff Web (below)
3. Expand by domain
4. Stop sending APM traffic to OpenObserve when stable (logs / dashboards can stay on OpenObserve if needed)

Acceptance and rollback

Check	Expected
Services	Listed under Application Performance
Traces	New requests show full traces
Metrics	Golden-signal curves if the SDK exports metrics
Alerting	Re-create rules in DataBuff (OpenObserve alerts do not migrate)

Rollback: set OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT back to OpenObserve and restart. Keep before/after values in the change ticket.

Not auto-migrated: historical traces/metrics in OpenObserve, log pipelines, and dashboards—logs can remain on OpenObserve independently.

See also

• DataBuff vs OpenObserve
• OpenTelemetry OTLP ingestion
• Docker Installation