Deploy the EDOT gateway on Kubernetes

This page extends Send data from a contrib OpenTelemetry Collector with Kubernetes-specific deployment steps. If you haven't read that page, start there for context on the architecture and components.

In Kubernetes, you deploy the EDOT gateway as a Deployment and expose it as a Service so contrib Collectors can reach it using cluster DNS.

The EDOT Collector image for standalone use is docker.elastic.co/elastic-agent/elastic-otel-collector. Unlike the full Elastic Agent image, this image's entrypoint unconditionally starts in otel mode — no extra environment variables are required.

Prerequisites

A running Kubernetes cluster
kubectl configured to access the cluster
A running self-managed Elasticsearch cluster reachable from the Kubernetes cluster

Create a secret for credentials

		kubectl create secret generic elastic-secret-otel \
  --from-literal=elastic_endpoint='https://your-elasticsearch:9200' \
  --from-literal=elastic_api_key='your-encoded-api-key'
		
	

Deploy the EDOT gateway

Apply the following manifest. The ConfigMap holds the gateway configuration, the Deployment runs the EDOT Collector, and the Service exposes port 4317 for contrib Collectors inside the cluster.

		apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: edot-gateway-config
data:
  gateway.yaml: |
    receivers:
      otlp:
        protocols:
          grpc:
            endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4317
          http:
            endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4318
    connectors:
      elasticapm: {}
    processors:
      batch:
        send_batch_size: 1000
        timeout: 1s
        send_batch_max_size: 1500
      batch/metrics:
        send_batch_max_size: 0
        timeout: 1s
      elasticapm: {}
    exporters:
      elasticsearch/otel:
        endpoints:
          - ${env:ELASTIC_ENDPOINT}
        api_key: ${env:ELASTIC_API_KEY}
        mapping:
          mode: otel
    service:
      pipelines:
        traces:
          receivers: [otlp]
          processors: [batch, elasticapm]
          exporters: [elasticapm, elasticsearch/otel]
        metrics:
          receivers: [otlp]
          processors: [batch/metrics]
          exporters: [elasticsearch/otel]
        metrics/aggregated-otel-metrics:
          receivers: [elasticapm]
          processors: []
          exporters: [elasticsearch/otel]
        logs:
          receivers: [otlp]
          processors: [batch]
          exporters: [elasticsearch/otel]
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: edot-gateway
  labels:
    app: edot-gateway
spec:
  replicas: 2
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: edot-gateway
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: edot-gateway
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: edot-gateway
          image: docker.elastic.co/elastic-agent/elastic-otel-collector:{{version.edot_collector}}
          args: ["--config", "/etc/edot/gateway.yaml"]
          env:
            - name: ELASTIC_ENDPOINT
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: elastic-secret-otel
                  key: elastic_endpoint
            - name: ELASTIC_API_KEY
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: elastic-secret-otel
                  key: elastic_api_key
          ports:
            - containerPort: 4317
            - containerPort: 4318
          volumeMounts:
            - name: config
              mountPath: /etc/edot
      volumes:
        - name: config
          configMap:
            name: edot-gateway-config
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: edot-gateway
spec:
  selector:
    app: edot-gateway
  ports:
    - name: otlp-grpc
      port: 4317
      targetPort: 4317
    - name: otlp-http
      port: 4318
      targetPort: 4318
		
	

gRPC
HTTP

Configure the contrib Collector

Point the contrib Collector's OTLP exporter at the gateway Service:
```
exporters:
  otlp:
    endpoint: "edot-gateway:4317"
    tls:
      insecure: true
		
```
1. Set to false and configure ca_file for production
Verify data in Kibana

After the gateway pods are running and your contrib Collectors point to the edot-gateway Service, confirm that data flows in:
1. Check your services in Observability → APM.
2. Check the traces-generic.otel-default, logs-generic.otel-default, and metrics-generic.otel-default data streams in Discover.
If no data appears, refer to No logs, metrics, or traces visible in Kibana.

Note

For comprehensive Kubernetes observability (including host metrics, pod logs, Kubernetes events, and cluster metrics), use the opentelemetry-kube-stack Helm chart with the Elastic values instead. Refer to Kubernetes observability for more information.