Glossary
Exporter
The OpenTelemetry component that sends finished spans, log records and metrics out of an app to a backend, such as Azure Monitor, an OTLP endpoint or the console.
OpenTelemetry splits collecting from delivering. Instrumentation libraries create spans and log records, a processor batches them, and an exporter turns each batch into a backend’s format and sends it. The Azure Monitor exporter writes to Application Insights, following Microsoft’s mapping: server spans become requests, other span kinds (client, internal and so on) become dependencies, and log records become traces.
The Microsoft OpenTelemetry Distro for .NET chooses exporters with one option. This sends to Application Insights and to the OTLP endpoint named in OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT:
builder.UseMicrosoftOpenTelemetry(options =>
{
options.Exporters = ExportTarget.AzureMonitor | ExportTarget.Otlp;
});ExportTarget.Console writes to the console for development. Microsoft doesn’t officially support the OTLP exporter in this setup, and the Java agent doesn’t export OTLP at all.
Timing follows OpenTelemetry’s batch settings. The specification’s default delay is 5,000 ms for spans (OTEL_BSP_SCHEDULE_DELAY) and 1,000 ms for log records (OTEL_BLRP_SCHEDULE_DELAY); metrics export every 60,000 ms. When the backend can’t be reached, the Azure Monitor exporter caches telemetry on disk and retries for up to 48 hours. The standalone Azure.Monitor.OpenTelemetry.Exporter package has no Live Metrics; the distros add it.