---
title: Instrumenting Python applications with EDOT SDKs on Kubernetes
description: Instrumenting Python applications with EDOT SDKs on Kubernetes.
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2422/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/python/setup/k8s
products:
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless
  - Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry SDK
  - Elastic Observability
---

# Instrumenting Python applications with EDOT SDKs on Kubernetes
Learn how to instrument Python applications on Kubernetes using the OpenTelemetry Operator, the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry (EDOT) Collector, and the EDOT Python SDK.
- For general knowledge about the EDOT Python SDK, refer to the [EDOT Java Intro page](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2422/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/python).
- For Python auto-instrumentation specifics, refer to [OpenTelemetry Operator Python auto-instrumentation](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/kubernetes/operator/automatic/#python).
- To manually instrument your Python application code (by customizing spans and metrics), refer to [EDOT Python manual instrumentation](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2422/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/python/setup/manual-instrumentation).
- For general information about instrumenting applications on Kubernetes, refer to [instrumenting applications on Kubernetes](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2422/solutions/observability/get-started/opentelemetry/use-cases/kubernetes/instrumenting-applications).


## Supported environments and configuration

The following environments and configurations are supported:
- EDOT Python container image supports `glibc` and `musl` based auto-instrumentation for Python 3.12.
- `musl` based containers instrumentation requires an [extra annotation](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/kubernetes/operator/automatic/#annotations-python-musl) and operator v0.113.0+.
- To turn on logs auto-instrumentation, refer to [auto-instrument python logs](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/kubernetes/operator/automatic/#auto-instrumenting-python-logs).
- To turn on specific instrumentation libraries, refer to [excluding auto-instrumentation](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/kubernetes/operator/automatic/#python-excluding-auto-instrumentation).
- For a full list of configuration options, refer to [Python specific configuration](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/zero-code/python/configuration/#python-specific-configuration).
- For Python specific limitations when using the OpenTelemetry operator, refer to [Python-specific topics](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/zero-code/python/operator/#python-specific-topics).


## Instrument a Python app on Kubernetes

Following this example, you can learn how to:
- Turn on auto-instrumentation of a Python application using one of the following supported methods:
  - Adding an annotation to the deployment Pods.
- Adding an annotation to the namespace.
- Verify that auto-instrumentation libraries are injected and configured correctly.
- Confirm data is flowing to **Kibana Observability**.

For this example, we assume the application you're instrumenting is a deployment named `python-app` running in the `python-ns` namespace.
1. Ensure you have successfully [installed the OpenTelemetry Operator](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2422/solutions/observability/get-started/opentelemetry/use-cases/kubernetes/deployment), and confirm that the following `Instrumentation` object exists in the system:
   ```bash
   $ kubectl get instrumentation -n opentelemetry-operator-system
   NAME                      AGE    ENDPOINT
   elastic-instrumentation   107s   http://opentelemetry-kube-stack-daemon-collector.opentelemetry-operator-system.svc.cluster.local:4318
   ```
   <note>
   If your `Instrumentation` object has a different name or is created in a different namespace, you will have to adapt the annotation value in the next step.
   </note>
2. Turn on auto-instrumentation of the Python application using one of the following methods:
   - Edit your application workload definition and include the annotation under `spec.template.metadata.annotations`:
  ```yaml
  spec:
  # ...
  template:
      metadata:
      labels:
          app: python-app
      annotations:
          instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/inject-python: opentelemetry-operator-system/elastic-instrumentation
  # ...
  ```
- Alternatively, add the annotation at namespace level to apply auto-instrumentation in all Pods of the namespace:
  ```bash
  kubectl annotate namespace python-ns instrumentation.opentelemetry.io/inject-python=opentelemetry-operator-system/elastic-instrumentation
  ```
3. Restart the application:
   After the annotation has been set, restart the application to create new Pods and inject the instrumentation libraries:
   `bash kubectl rollout restart deployment python-app -n python-ns `
4. Verify the [auto-instrumentation resources](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2422/solutions/observability/get-started/opentelemetry/use-cases/kubernetes/instrumenting-applications#how-auto-instrumentation-works) are injected in the Pod:
   Run a `kubectl describe` of one of your application pods and check:
   - There should be an init container named `opentelemetry-auto-instrumentation-python` in the Pod:
  ```bash
  $ kubectl describe pod python-app-8d84c47b8-8h5z2 -n python-ns
  ...
  ...
  Init Containers:
  opentelemetry-auto-instrumentation-python:
      Container ID:  containerd://fdc86b3191e34ef5ec872853b14a950d0af1e36b0bc207f3d59bd50dd3caafe9
      Image:         docker.elastic.co/observability/elastic-otel-python:0.3.0
      Image ID:      docker.elastic.co/observability/elastic-otel-python@sha256:de7b5cce7514a10081a00820a05097931190567ec6e18a384ff7c148bad0695e
      Port:          <none>
      Host Port:     <none>
      Command:
      cp
      -r
      /autoinstrumentation/.
      /otel-auto-instrumentation-python
      State:          Terminated
      Reason:       Completed
  ...
  ```
- The main container has new environment variables, including `PYTHONPATH`:
  ```bash
  ...
  Containers:
  python-app:
  ...
      Environment:
  ...
      PYTHONPATH:                          /otel-auto-instrumentation-python/opentelemetry/instrumentation/auto_instrumentation:/otel-auto-instrumentation-python
      OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL:         http/protobuf
      OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER:                otlp
      OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER:               otlp
      OTEL_SERVICE_NAME:                   python-app
      OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT:         http://opentelemetry-kube-stack-daemon-collector.opentelemetry-operator-system.svc.cluster.local:4318
  ...
  ```
- The Pod has an `EmptyDir` volume named `opentelemetry-auto-instrumentation-python` mounted in both the main and the init containers in path `/otel-auto-instrumentation-python`:
  ```bash
  Init Containers:
  opentelemetry-auto-instrumentation-python:
  ...
      Mounts:
      /otel-auto-instrumentation-python from opentelemetry-auto-instrumentation-python (rw)
  Containers:
  python-app:
  ...
      Mounts:
      /otel-auto-instrumentation-python from opentelemetry-auto-instrumentation-python (rw)
  ...
  Volumes:
  ...
  opentelemetry-auto-instrumentation-python:
      Type:        EmptyDir (a temporary directory that shares a pod's lifetime)
  ```
   Make sure the environment variable `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT` points to a valid endpoint and there's network communication between the Pod and the endpoint.
5. Confirm data is flowing to **Kibana**:
   - Open **Observability** → **Applications** → **Service inventory**, and determine if:
  - The application appears in the list of services.
- The application shows transactions and metrics.
- If [python logs instrumentation](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/kubernetes/operator/automatic/#auto-instrumenting-python-logs) is enabled, the application logs should  appear in the Logs tab.
- For application container logs, open **Kibana Discover** and filter for your Pods' logs. In the provided example, we could filter for them with either of the following:
  - `k8s.deployment.name: "python-app"` (adapt the query filter to your use case)
- `k8s.pod.name: python-app*` (adapt the query filter to your use case)
   Note that the container logs are not provided by the instrumentation library, but by the DaemonSet collector deployed as part of the [operator installation](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2422/solutions/observability/get-started/opentelemetry/use-cases/kubernetes/deployment).


## Troubleshooting

Refer to [troubleshoot auto-instrumentation](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2422/solutions/observability/get-started/opentelemetry/use-cases/kubernetes/instrumenting-applications#troubleshooting-auto-instrumentation) for further analysis.