---
title: Configure profiles collection
description: Learn how to configure and customize profiles collection through the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector.
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/edot-collector/config/configure-profiles-collection
products:
  - Elastic Agent
  - Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector
  - Elastic Observability
applies_to:
  - Serverless Observability projects: Preview
  - Elastic Stack: Preview since 9.2
  - Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector: Preview since 9.2
---

# Configure profiles collection
The Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry (EDOT) Collector includes a profiling receiver, which offers an eBPF-based, system-wide profiler.
To activate and configure profiling and send profiles to Elastic Cloud or Elasticsearch, follow these instructions.
<important>
  OpenTelemetry profiling is still under active development. Refer to [The State of Profiling](https://opentelemetry.io/blog/2024/state-profiling/) blog post for more information.
</important>


## Turn on profiling

Follow these steps to turn on profiling.

### Prepare Elasticsearch for profiling data

Before EDOT Collector ingests profiling data into Elasticsearch, make sure that [Universal Profiling](https://www.elastic.co/docs/solutions/observability/infra-and-hosts/get-started-with-universal-profiling#profiling-configure-data-ingestion) is configured for ingestion.

### Configure and run EDOT Collector with profiling

Follow these steps to configure profiles collection through the EDOT Collector.
<applies-switch>
  <applies-item title="stack: preview 9.3+" applies-to="Elastic Stack: Preview since 9.3">
    ```yaml
    receivers:
      profiling:

    service:
      pipelines:
        profiles:
          receivers: [ profiling ]
          exporters: [ elasticsearch ]
    ```
  </applies-item>

  <applies-item title="stack: preview =9.2" applies-to="Elastic Stack: Preview in 9.2">
    ```yaml
    receivers:
      profiling:
        SamplesPerSecond: 19

    service:
      pipelines:
        profiles:
          receivers: [ profiling ]
          exporters: [ elasticsearch ]
    ```
  </applies-item>
</applies-switch>

<note>
  Elasticsearch OTel Profiles is still under development and therefore protected by a feature gate.
</note>


### Activate profiling in the Collector

<stepper>
  <step title="Activate profiling in the Collector">
    To activate profiling in the EDOT Collector, start it using the additional argument `--feature-gates=service.profilesSupport`.For example:
    ```sh
    sudo ./otelcol --config otel.yml --feature-gates=service.profilesSupport
    ```
  </step>
</stepper>


## System requirements

The profiling receiver is only available on Linux. Running it on an operating system other than Linux results in an error.
The supported Linux kernel versions are either 5.4 and later for x86_64 or 5.5 and later for ARM64.

## Supported runtimes

The profiling receiver handles native runtimes, like C, C++, Go and Rust, as well as various interpreters.
The minimum supported versions of each interpreter are:
- JVM/JDK: 7
- Python: 3.6
- V8: 8.1.0
- Perl: 5.28
- PHP: 7.3
- Ruby: 2.5
- .Net: 6
- Erlang/OTP 27.2.4


## Generate metrics from profiles

You can configure the components to generate and report metrics exclusively from profile information. This method contributes to a reduction in ingest traffic and storage costs.
The following example generates profiling metrics by frame, frame type, and classification:
<applies-switch>
  <applies-item title="stack: preview =9.2" applies-to="Elastic Stack: Preview in 9.2">
    ```yaml
    connectors:
      profilingmetrics:
        by_frame: true
        by_frametype: true
        by_classification: true

    receivers:
      profiling:
        SamplesPerSecond: 19

    service:
      pipelines:
        profiles:
          receivers: [ profiling ]
          exporters: [ profilingmetrics ]
        metrics:
          receivers: [ profilingmetrics ]
          exporters: [ elasticsearch ]
    ```
  </applies-item>

  <applies-item title="stack: preview 9.3+" applies-to="Elastic Stack: Preview since 9.3">
    ```yaml
    connectors:
      profilingmetrics:

    receivers:
      profiling:

    service:
      pipelines:
        profiles:
          receivers: [ profiling ]
          exporters: [ profilingmetrics ]
        metrics:
          receivers: [ profilingmetrics ]
          exporters: [ elasticsearch ]
    ```
  </applies-item>
</applies-switch>


## Kubernetes deployments

In Kubernetes, we suggest deploying the EDOT Collector with a profiling receiver as a DaemonSet. This ensures comprehensive, node-level profiling across the entire cluster, providing consistent data collection, resilience, scalability, and simplified management. This approach is recommended for optimal performance and full observability.