Installing the chart

Installation steps

All examples in this guide use the public chart and images. If you've mirrored the repository for your own use (for example, to your Docker Hub namespace), update your commands to reference the mirrored chart instead of the public one.

For example:

• Public chart: dhi.io/<repository>:<tag>
• Mirrored chart: <your-namespace>/dhi-<repository>:<tag>

For more details about customizing the chart to reference other images, see the documentation⁠.

Step 1: Optional. Mirror the Helm chart and/or its images to your own registry

To optionally mirror a chart to your own third-party registry, you can follow the instructions in How to mirror an image⁠ for either the chart, the image, or both.

The same regctl tool that is used for mirroring container images can also be used for mirroring Helm charts, as Helm charts are OCI artifacts.

For example:

regctl image copy \
    "${SRC_CHART_REPO}:${TAG}" \
    "${DEST_REG}/${DEST_CHART_REPO}:${TAG}" \
    --referrers \
    --referrers-src "${SRC_ATT_REPO}" \
    --referrers-tgt "${DEST_REG}/${DEST_CHART_REPO}" \
    --force-recursive

Step 2: Create a Kubernetes secret for pulling images

The Docker Hardened Images that the chart uses require authentication. To allow your Kubernetes cluster to pull those images, you need to create a Kubernetes secret with your Docker Hub credentials or with the credentials for your own registry.

Follow the authentication instructions for DHI in Kubernetes⁠.

For example:

kubectl create secret docker-registry helm-pull-secret \
  --docker-server=dhi.io \
  --docker-username=<Docker username> \
  --docker-password=<Docker token> \
  --docker-email=<Docker email>

Step 3: Install cert-manager (or disable it)

By default the OpenTelemetry Operator chart uses cert-manager⁠ to issue the TLS certificate for its admission webhooks. If cert-manager is not already installed in your cluster, install it first:

helm registry login dhi.io
helm install cert-manager oci://dhi.io/cert-manager-chart --version 1.20.2 \
  --namespace cert-manager --create-namespace \
  --set "global.imagePullSecrets[0].name=helm-pull-secret" \
  --set "crds.enabled=true"

Replace 1.20.2 with the cert-manager chart version that matches your OpenTelemetry Operator chart release. Use the same helm-pull-secret name you created in Step 2.

Alternatively, you can disable cert-manager and let the chart auto-generate a self-signed certificate by passing --set admissionWebhooks.certManager.enabled=false in the install command in Step 4.

Step 4: Install the Helm chart

helm install my-otel-operator oci://dhi.io/opentelemetry-operator-chart --version <version> \
  --set "imagePullSecrets[0].name=helm-pull-secret"

Replace <version> accordingly. If the chart is in your own registry or repository, replace dhi.io with your own registry and namespace. Replace helm-pull-secret with the name of the image pull secret you created earlier.

Step 5: Verify the installation

The operator pod should show up and become ready shortly:

kubectl get pods -l app.kubernetes.io/name=opentelemetry-operator

Verify the custom resource definitions are installed:

kubectl get crds | grep opentelemetry.io

You should see resources such as opentelemetrycollectors.opentelemetry.io and instrumentations.opentelemetry.io.

Step 6: Create an OpenTelemetryCollector

Once the operator is running, you can create an OpenTelemetryCollector custom resource to deploy a collector managed by the operator:

# otel-collector.yaml
apiVersion: opentelemetry.io/v1beta1
kind: OpenTelemetryCollector
metadata:
  name: simplest
spec:
  config:
    receivers:
      otlp:
        protocols:
          grpc:
            endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4317
          http:
            endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4318
    exporters:
      debug: {}
    service:
      pipelines:
        traces:
          receivers: [otlp]
          exporters: [debug]

Apply it:

kubectl apply -f otel-collector.yaml

The operator will reconcile the resource and create a Deployment running the collector image configured in the chart.

For more usage examples (sidecar mode, auto-instrumentation, target allocator), see the upstream operator documentation⁠.