Ingesting log data into Amazon Opensearch using OpenTelemetry

While it's technically possible to send log data from the OpenTelemetry Collector to an Amazon OpenSearch domain without using an ingestion pipeline or Data Prepper, it's not the recommended or most efficient approach for several reasons:

1. Data format: OpenTelemetry data is typically in a specific format that may not be directly compatible with OpenSearch. An ingestion pipeline or Data Prepper helps transform this data into a format that OpenSearch can effectively use, especially for features like Trace Analytics.

2. Data processing: Ingestion pipelines and Data Prepper offer important capabilities for filtering, enriching, transforming, normalizing, and aggregating data before it reaches OpenSearch. This preprocessing can significantly improve the quality and usability of your data.

3. Managed service benefits: Amazon OpenSearch Ingestion is a fully managed, serverless data collector specifically designed to work with OpenSearch Service. It handles scaling and management automatically, reducing operational overhead.

4. Integration with AWS services: Using the recommended ingestion methods ensures better integration with other AWS services and security features.

5. Trace Analytics support: If you're specifically interested in using Trace Analytics in OpenSearch, you'll need to use Data Prepper or an ingestion pipeline to format the OpenTelemetry data correctly.

While you could potentially use a generic exporter or the Elasticsearch exporter in the OpenTelemetry Collector to send data directly to an OpenSearch domain, you would miss out on the benefits and optimizations provided by the purpose-built ingestion services. These services are designed to work seamlessly with OpenSearch and provide the best performance and functionality for handling OpenTelemetry data in an AWS environment.

If you have a specific use case that requires direct ingestion without these intermediary steps, it's recommended to consult with AWS support to ensure you're following best practices and not missing out on important features or optimizations.
Sources
Amazon OpenSearch Ingestion - Amazon OpenSearch Service
Using an OpenSearch Ingestion pipeline with OpenTelemetry Collector - Amazon OpenSearch Service
Opentelemetry data to opensearch | AWS re:Post