Deploying OpenTelemetry Collector on Kubernetes and Sending Logs to Splunk Cloud

As organizations adopt cloud-native architectures, observability becomes essential. The OpenTelemetry Collector (OTel Collector) provides a flexible, vendor-neutral way to collect and export telemetry data. In this guide, we’ll walk through deploying the OTel Collector on Kubernetes and configuring it to send logs to Splunk Cloud

.

---

🧰 Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• A running Kubernetes cluster (e.g., Minikube, AKS, GKE)

• kubectl and Helm are installed

• Access to a Splunk Cloud instance with a HTTP Event Collector (HEC) token

• Basic understanding of Kubernetes and observability concepts

  ---

Step 1: Add the OpenTelemetry Helm Repository

helm repo add splunk-otel-collector https://signalfx.github.io/splunk-otel-collector-chart

helm repo update

---

🔐 Step 2: Create a values.yaml File

Sample values.yaml:

https://github.com/signalfx/splunk-otel-collector-chart/blob/main/helm-charts/splunk-otel-collector/values.yaml

Replace:

• <token> with your HEC token

• <endpoint> with your Splunk Cloud endpoint (ex. https://http-inputs-<your-org>.splunkcloud.com)

• <index> with your index to search for logs in Splunk cloud

---

📦 Step 3: Install the Collector

helm install splunk-otel-collector splunk-otel-collector/splunk-otel-collector -f values.yaml

---

🔍 Step 4: Verify the Deployment

Check the pods

kubectl get pods -n splunk-otel-collector

Check logs from the collector:

kubectl logs -n splunk-otel-collector <collector-pod-name>

You should start seeing logs in your Splunk Cloud dashboard under the specified index.

Splunk cloud

Hence, using the Splunk OpenTelemetry Collector Helm chart, you can quickly deploy a robust observability pipeline on Kubernetes. With just a few configurations, logs from your cluster are streamed securely to Splunk Cloud, giving you real-time visibility into your infrastructure.

Keep trying, Keep improving!

---

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Aaqib Ahmad

SRE