Using the SDK

Connect to ARMS

Ensure ARMS is running. Send telemetry to https://<arms-host>/api/ingest with an x-api-key header — not collector port 4318. For on-prem access, see On-prem ARMS.

Install ARMS

Open your command line or terminal and run:

pip install --extra-index-url https://arms-packages.elsaifoundry.ai/root/elsai-arms/ elsai-arms==3.0.4

Initialize ARMS in your Application

TIP

Not sure which method to choose? Check out Instrumentation Methods to understand the differences.

Zero-code instrumentation

Via CLI arguments

# Start GPU monitoring instantly
elsai-arms-instrument --collect-system-metrics python your_app.py

# With custom settings
elsai-arms-instrument \
  --otlp-endpoint http://127.0.0.1:4318 \
  --service-name my-gpu-app \
  --environment production \
  --collect-system-metrics \
  python your_app.py

Via Environment Variables

Set environment variables:

export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="http://127.0.0.1:4318"
export ELSAI_ARMS_COLLECT_SYSTEM_METRICS=true
export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=my-gpu-app

# Run your application
elsai-arms-instrument python your_app.py

Manual instrumentation

You can set up ARMS in your application using either function arguments directly in your code or by using environment variables.

Parameters

Add the following two lines to your application code:

import elsai_arms

elsai_arms.init(
  otlp_endpoint="http:127.0.0.1:4318",
  collect_system_metrics=True  # This enables GPU monitoring
)

Replace:

1. YOUR_OTEL_ENDPOINT with your OpenTelemetry backend. For ARMS, use https://<arms-host>/api/ingest plus an x-api-key header — not collector port 4318. For a generic OTel Collector, use http://127.0.0.1:4318.

Note: collect_system_metrics=True replaces the deprecated collect_gpu_stats=True

Environment Variables

Configure your OTLP endpoint using environment variables:

export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=""http://127.0.0.1:4318"
export ELSAI_ARMS_COLLECT_SYSTEM_METRICS=true

Add the following two lines to your application code:

import elsai_arms

elsai_arms.init(collect_system_metrics=True)

Replace:

1. YOUR_OTEL_ENDPOINT with your OpenTelemetry backend. For ARMS, use https://<arms-host>/api/ingest plus an x-api-key header — not collector port 4318. For a generic OTel Collector, use http://127.0.0.1:4318.

To send metrics to other Observability tools, refer to the supported destinations.

For more advanced configurations and application use cases, visit the ARMS Python repository.

Using the Collector

Connect to ARMS

Ensure ARMS is running. Send telemetry to https://<arms-host>/api/ingest with an x-api-key header — not collector port 4318. For on-prem access, see On-prem ARMS.

Pull otel-gpu-collector Docker Image

You can quickly start using the OTel GPU Collector by pulling the Docker image:

docker pull <gpu-collector-image>

Run otel-gpu-collector Docker container

You can quickly start using the OTel GPU Collector by pulling the Docker image: Here's a quick example showing how to run the container with the required environment variables:

docker run --gpus all --pid=host \
    -e OTEL_SERVICE_NAME='chatbot' \
    -e OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES='deployment.environment=staging' \
    -e OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="http://127.0.0.1:4318" \
    <gpu-collector-image>

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

For more advanced configurations of the collector, visit the OTel GPU Collector repository.

Note: If ARMS and the collector run on the same Docker network, use the ARMS service hostname; otherwise use the host IP. You can also add the OTel GPU Collector under services in your own Compose file:

Docker Compose: Add the following config under services

otel-gpu-collector:
  image: <gpu-collector-image>
  pid: host
  environment:
    OTEL_SERVICE_NAME: 'chatbot'
    OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES: 'deployment.environment=staging'
    OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT: "http://otel-collector:4318"
  device_requests:
  - driver: nvidia
    count: all
    capabilities: [gpu]
  depends_on:
  - otel-collector
  restart: always

Host IP: Use the Host IP to connect to OTel Collector

OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="http://192.168.10.15:4318"