---
title: Transform an installed Elastic Agent to run as an EDOT Collector
description: If you have a currently installed standalone Elastic Agent, you can configure it to run as an Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector. This allows...
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/reference/fleet/otel-agent-transform
products:
  - Elastic Agent
  - Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector
  - Fleet
---

# Transform an installed Elastic Agent to run as an EDOT Collector
If you have a currently installed standalone Elastic Agent, you can configure it to run as an [Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/reference/fleet/otel-agent). This allows you to run Elastic Agent both as a service and in an OTel Collector mode.
To configure an installed standalone Elastic Agent to run as an OTel Collector, include a valid [OTel Collector](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/reference/fleet/otel-agent) configuration in the `elastic-agent.yml` file, as shown in the following example.

## Example: Configure Elastic Agent to ingest host logs and metrics into Elasticsearch using the OTel Collector


### Prerequisites

To ingest host logs and metrics into Elasticsearch using the OTel Collector, you need the following:
1. A suitable [Elasticsearch API key](/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/reference/fleet/grant-access-to-elasticsearch#create-api-key-standalone-agent) for authenticating on Elasticsearch.
2. An installed standalone Elastic Agent.
3. A valid OTel Collector configuration. This example uses the OTel sample configuration included in the Elastic Agent repository: `otel_samples/platformlogs_hostmetrics.yml`.
   - [Linux version](https://github.com/elastic/elastic-agent/blob/main/internal/pkg/otel/samples/linux/platformlogs_hostmetrics.yml)
- [MacOS version](https://github.com/elastic/elastic-agent/blob/main/internal/pkg/otel/samples/darwin/platformlogs_hostmetrics.yml)


### Steps

To change a running standalone Elastic Agent to run as an OTel Collector:
1. Create a directory where the OTel Collector can save its state. This example uses `<Elastic Agent install directory>/data/otelcol`.
2. Open the `<Elastic Agent install directory>/otel_samples/platformlogs_hostmetrics.yml` file for editing.
3. Set the environment variables to be used by the OTel Collector:
   - **Option 1:** Define environment variables for the Elastic Agent service:
  - `ELASTIC_ENDPOINT`: The URL of the Elasticsearch instance where data will be sent
- `ELASTIC_API_KEY`: The API Key to use to authenticate with Elasticsearch
- `STORAGE_DIR`: The directory where the OTel Collector can persist its state
- **Option 2:** Replace the environment variable references in the sample configuration with the corresponding values:
  - `${env:ELASTIC_ENDPOINT}`:The URL of the Elasticsearch instance where data will be sent
- `${env:ELASTIC_API_KEY}`: The API Key to use to authenticate with Elasticsearch
- `${env:STORAGE_DIR}`: The directory where the OTel Collector can persist its state
4. Save the OTel configuration as `elastic-agent.yml`, overwriting the default configuration of the installed agent.
5. Run the `elastic-agent status` command to verify that the new configuration has been correctly applied:
   ```shell
   elastic-agent status
   ```
   The OTel Collector running configuration appears under `elastic-agent` key (note the `extensions` and `pipeline` keys):
   ```shell
   ┌─ fleet
   │  └─ status: (STOPPED) Not enrolled into Fleet
   └─ elastic-agent
      ├─ status: (HEALTHY) Running
      ├─ extensions
      │  ├─ status: StatusOK
      │  └─ extension:file_storage
      │     └─ status: StatusOK
      ├─ pipeline:logs/platformlogs
      │  ├─ status: StatusOK
      │  ├─ exporter:elasticsearch/otel
      │  │  └─ status: StatusOK
      │  ├─ processor:resourcedetection
      │  │  └─ status: StatusOK
      │  └─ receiver:filelog/platformlogs
      │     └─ status: StatusOK
      └─ pipeline:metrics/hostmetrics
         ├─ status: StatusOK
         ├─ exporter:elasticsearch/ecs
         │  └─ status: StatusOK
         ├─ processor:attributes/dataset
         │  └─ status: StatusOK
         ├─ processor:elasticinframetrics
         │  └─ status: StatusOK
         ├─ processor:resource/process
         │  └─ status: StatusOK
         ├─ processor:resourcedetection
         │  └─ status: StatusOK
         └─ receiver:hostmetrics/system
            └─ status: StatusOK
   ```

Host logs and metrics are now being collected and ingested by the Elastic Agent service running an OTel Collector instance. For further details about OpenTelemetry Collector components supported by Elastic Agent, refer to [Components](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/elastic-agent/tree/main/reference/edot-collector/components).