Quickstart

In this guide you'll pull the collector Docker image, point it at your OTel backend, and start seeing GPU and host metrics within minutes.

Prerequisites

• Linux host with NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel GPU (for GPU metrics)
• Docker installed
• An OpenTelemetry-compatible backend (ARMS, Grafana, Datadog, or any OTLP endpoint)

Don't have an OTel backend? Start ARMS locally

docker run -d \
  --name arms \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -p 4318:4318 \
  <gpu-collector-image>

Then use http://localhost:4318 as your OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT.

Pull the collector image

docker pull <gpu-collector-image>

Run the collector

NVIDIA GPU

docker run -d \
  --name otel-gpu-collector \
  --gpus all \
  --pid=host \
  -e OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=my-app \
  -e OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES='deployment.environment=production' \
  -e OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318 \
  <gpu-collector-image>

Requires the NVIDIA Container Toolkit on the host. --pid=host is required for per-process GPU attribution (cmdline, PID, zombie state).

AMD GPU

docker run -d \
  --name otel-gpu-collector \
  --device /dev/kfd:/dev/kfd \
  --device /dev/dri:/dev/dri \
  --pid=host \
  -e OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=my-app \
  -e OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES='deployment.environment=production' \
  -e OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318 \
  <gpu-collector-image>

--pid=host is required for per-process GPU attribution (cmdline, PID, zombie state).

Intel GPU

docker run -d \
  --name otel-gpu-collector \
  --device /dev/dri:/dev/dri \
  --pid=host \
  -e OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=my-app \
  -e OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES='deployment.environment=production' \
  -e OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318 \
  <gpu-collector-image>

Requires Linux kernel 5.10+ with the i915 or Xe driver. --pid=host is required for per-process GPU attribution.

Host metrics only

docker run -d \
  --name otel-gpu-collector \
  -e OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=my-app \
  -e OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES='deployment.environment=production' \
  -e OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318 \
  <gpu-collector-image>

The collector will export host and process metrics even without GPU access.

Verify it's running

docker logs otel-gpu-collector

You should see output like:

time=2024-01-01T00:00:00Z level=INFO msg="starting opentelemetry-gpu-collector"
time=2024-01-01T00:00:00Z level=INFO msg="discovered GPU" address=0000:01:00.0 vendor=nvidia
time=2024-01-01T00:00:00Z level=INFO msg="system metrics collector initialized"
time=2024-01-01T00:00:00Z level=INFO msg="process metrics collector initialized"
time=2024-01-01T00:00:00Z level=INFO msg="collector running"

View metrics in your backend

Open your OTel backend and look for metrics in the hw.gpu.*, system.*, and process.* namespaces.

If using ARMS, navigate to http://localhost:3000 and go to the Metrics section.

Docker Compose

Add the collector as a service alongside your existing stack:

services:
  otel-gpu-collector:
    image: <gpu-collector-image>
    pid: host
    environment:
      OTEL_SERVICE_NAME: my-app
      OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES: deployment.environment=production
      OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT: http://otel-collector:4318
    deploy:
      resources:
        reservations:
          devices:
            - driver: nvidia
              count: all
              capabilities: [gpu]
    depends_on:
      - otel-collector
    restart: always

pid: host (Docker --pid=host) is required so the collector can see host workload PIDs under /proc for per-process GPU metrics, cmdline, and zombie detection.