Goal

Implement support in the cluster logging operator for OTEL log output of application logs.

Acceptance critiera

• Will be released first as preview, needs feature gate.
• Vector only, no need for fluentd support.
• Emit at least application Pod logs in OTEL format if requested.
  • Infrastructure pod logs and linux /var/log logs would be ideal but app is sufficient for first preview
• No change for API audit and k8s Event logs in first cut
  • Not clear if OTEL is suitable for these logs or exactly how it should be applied.

Tasks

• Implement a feature gate to enable/disable the changes.
• Extend the ClusterLogForwarder.outputs API with a "schema" field as described in https://github.com/openshift/enhancements/pull/1442
  • Only "ViaQ" (default) and "OpenTelemetry" need be supported. Can ignore "None" value for this task
• Modify reconcile code to validate the "schema" field
• Modify vector generator to include a ViaQ->OTEL translation in front of the "output" node if OTEL is requested.

• Include unit/functional tests to verify the ViaQ->OTEL translation independently of the CLO
• Include an e2e test to validate the "schema: OpenTelemetry" setting end to end.
• Include release notes and necessary docs (feature slides if necessary)
• Describe steps and plan for completing coverage of other log types for GA