OpenTelemetry VM Setup Guide: SigNoz Collection Agents Explained

SigNoz GitHub:
https://github.com/SigNoz/signoz

SigNoz Collection Agents (VMs):
https://signoz.io/docs/opentelemetry-collection-agents/vm/overview/

Signoz demo lite project:
https://github.com/SigNoz/opentelemetry-demo-lite

SigNoz Cloud:
https://signoz.io/teams/

About This Video:

If you're working with OpenTelemetry, managing collector configurations across environments like VMs can quickly become difficult.

In this video, we focus on VM-based setups and walk through how to configure SigNoz Collection Agents step by step.

We start with an introduction to VM collection agents, then move into a practical project walkthrough using the OpenTelemetry demo. From there, we explore the documentation, set up configurations, run the collector, and finally validate everything inside SigNoz.

The goal is to provide a clear, end-to-end flow so you can understand how telemetry is collected and managed in VM environments without unnecessary complexity.

Timestamps

  • 00:00 – Introduction to VM Collection Agents and setup overview
  • 00:49 – Project walkthrough: OpenTelemetry demo and required changes
  • 02:00 – Documentation overview and how VM agents work
  • 03:22 – Installation of VM Collection Agents
  • 05:20 – Running processes and verifying collector setup
  • 06:47 – Running demo application
  • 07:08 – Validating telemetry inside SigNoz
  • 08:33 – Conclusion and next steps

What You’ll Learn

  • How to set up SigNoz Collection Agents on VMs
  • How to understand project structure and required changes
  • How to install and configure the collector
  • How telemetry flows from your VM to SigNoz
  • How to validate logs, metrics, and traces

If you're experimenting with OpenTelemetry or facing configuration challenges, feel free to share them on our slack.