[Feature Request] Implement OpenTelemetry Metrics in Newt

[marcschaeferger]

Add OpenTelemetry-based observability to Newt

Reference: fosrl/gerbil#25

Summary / Goal

Instrument Newt with OpenTelemetry Metrics (OTel) following CNCF / industry standards so that:

• Metrics are emitted using the OpenTelemetry Go SDK (vendor-neutral API).
• Metrics are backend-agnostic and exportable to Prometheus‑compatible backends and any OTLP‑supporting system via the OpenTelemetry Collector.
• Semantic conventions, SI units (_seconds, _bytes), and low‑cardinality labels are enforced.
• Focus is metrics first; design should allow adding traces and logs later.
• Provide an out‑of‑the‑box /metrics endpoint for Prometheus scraping (Prometheus exporter) and example OTel Collector config for production pipelines.

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Why OpenTelemetry (OTel)

• OTel is the CNCF standard for multi‑signal observability (metrics, traces, logs).
• Instrument once, export anywhere (Prometheus, Grafana Mimir, Thanos/Cortex, cloud vendors).
• OTel Collector enables enrichment, normalization, batching, and flexible export pipelines (OTLP, remote_write).

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Requirements & Constraints

• Use the OpenTelemetry Go SDK (modules) and follow OTel semantic conventions for relevant signals (HTTP, RPC, network).
• Provide a /metrics endpoint in Prometheus exposition format via the OTel Prometheus exporter.
• All durations in seconds and sizes in bytes. Metric names should carry units where applicable (_seconds, _bytes) and counters use _total.
• Labels must be low-cardinality and stable (e.g., site_id, tunnel_id, transport).
• Exporters configurable at runtime through environment variables (no code change required to switch).
• Provide an example OTel Collector config demonstrating attribute promotion and remote_write.

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Recommended Newt Metrics

Category	Metric Name	Type	Labels	Units / Notes
Site / Registration	newt_site_registrations_total	Counter	site_id, region, result	count
	newt_site_online	Gauge	site_id, transport	bool (0/1)
	newt_site_last_heartbeat_seconds	Gauge	site_id	seconds since last heartbeat
Tunnel / Sessions	newt_tunnel_sessions_total	Gauge	site_id, tunnel_id, transport	active sessions
	newt_tunnel_bytes_total	Counter	site_id, tunnel_id, direction	bytes (in/out)
	newt_tunnel_latency_seconds	Histogram	site_id, tunnel_id, transport	seconds
	newt_tunnel_reconnects_total	Counter	site_id, tunnel_id, reason	count
Connection / NAT	newt_connection_attempts_total	Counter	site_id, transport, result	count
	newt_connection_errors_total	Counter	site_id, transport, error_type	count
	newt_nat_mapping_active	Gauge	site_id, mapping_type	bool/count
Peer / Health	newt_peer_heartbeat_latency_seconds	Histogram	site_id, peer_id	seconds
	newt_peer_last_handshake_seconds	Gauge	site_id, peer_id	seconds
Operational / Ops	newt_config_reloads_total	Counter	result	count
	newt_restart_count_total	Counter		count
Runtime	newt_go_goroutines	Gauge		count
	newt_go_mem_alloc_bytes	Gauge		bytes

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Implementation Plan

1. Dependencies (example packages)

   • Add OpenTelemetry Go modules to go.mod:
     • go.opentelemetry.io/otel
     • go.opentelemetry.io/otel/sdk/metric
     • go.opentelemetry.io/otel/exporters/prometheus
     • go.opentelemetry.io/otel/exporters/otlp/otlpmetric/otlpmetricgrpc (or OTLP HTTP variant)
     • Optional contrib instrumentation:
       • go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttp
       • go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/runtime
     • ...

2. Central metrics package

   • Create internal/metrics/ that:
     • Initializes OTel MeterProvider.
     • Registers Prometheus exporter (when enabled) and exposes a handler on /metrics (or mounts to existing server route).
     • Optionally registers OTLP exporter when enabled via env vars.
     • Pre-registers all Newt metric instruments with names, descriptions and label keys.
     • Exposes a singleton metrics API with helper functions:
       • Inc(name string, labels ...attribute.KeyValue)
       • Observe(name string, value float64, labels ...attribute.KeyValue)
       • SetGauge(name string, value float64, labels ...attribute.KeyValue)
     • Implements Shutdown(ctx) to flush and stop providers/exporters.

3. Instrumentation approach

   • Site registration & heartbeats:
     • Increment registration counters and set site_online/site_last_heartbeat.
   • Tunnels & sessions:
     • Update session counts, bytes in/out, latency histograms, reconnect counters.
   • Connection & NAT logic:
     • Record connection attempts, successes/failures, NAT mapping states.
   • Peer health & handshakes:
     • Observe heartbeat latency and last handshake timestamps.
   • Operational flows:
     • Config reloads and restarts.
   • Runtime metrics:
     • Register basic Go runtime metrics (goroutines, mem) via contrib or runtime package and export them.

4. Histograms & buckets

   • Duration buckets: [0.005, 0.01, 0.025, 0.05, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2.5, 5, 10, 30]
   • Byte-size buckets: [512, 1024, 4096, 16384, 65536, 262144, 1048576]
   • Always use seconds for durations and bytes for sizes.

5. Exporter configuration (runtime)

   • Environment variables (suggested defaults):
     • NEWT_METRICS_PROMETHEUS_ENABLED=true
     • NEWT_METRICS_OTLP_ENABLED=false
     • OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT (when OTLP enabled)
     • OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL (http/protobuf or grpc)
     • OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=newt
     • OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES (e.g., service.instance.id=...)
     • OTEL_METRIC_EXPORT_INTERVAL (ms)

6. Local testing

   • Provide docker-compose.metrics.yml with:
     • Newt (local build)
     • OpenTelemetry Collector (example config)
     • Prometheus (scraping /metrics or scraping Collector)
     • Grafana (optional)
   • Validate direct Prometheus scrape and OTLP → Collector → remote_write flows.

7. Collector example

   • Include examples/collector.yaml demonstrating:
     • OTLP receiver
     • Transform processor to promote resource attributes (e.g., wg_interface, peer, site_id)
     • Prometheus remote_write exporter (generic endpoint)
     • Notes on:
       • Metric name normalization for Prometheus
       • out_of_order_time_window if sending OTLP to Prometheus

8. Documentation

   • observability.md:
     • Metric catalog (name, type, labels, units, description)
     • How to enable/disable Prometheus exporter and OTLP exporter via env vars
     • How to run Docker Compose test stack
     • How to add a new metric (naming, labels, buckets)

9. Testing & validation

   • Manual test: start compose, generate traffic, curl /metrics, verify metrics names, units, labels and histogram buckets.
   • Include sample /metrics output in the PR.
   • ...

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Acceptance Criteria

• /metrics endpoint exposes OTel metrics in Prometheus format with correct naming and units.
• Newt metrics cover site registration/heartbeats, tunnel sessions/throughput/latency, connections/NAT, peer health, certificates and operational events.
• Exporter backends can be swapped via environment variables without code changes.
• Example OTel Collector config provided and tested in local compose flow.
• docs/observability.md added with metric catalog and run instructions.

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🔗 References & Best Practices

• Traefik - Metrics (observability) -- Traefik metrics configuration and exporter options.
• OpenTelemetry - Go: Getting Started / Instrumentation Guide -- How to instrument Go applications with OpenTelemetry.
• OpenTelemetry - Go: Exporters -- Exporter options for Go (OTLP, Prometheus, etc.).

Guides & integrations

• Prometheus - OpenTelemetry guide -- Guidance for integrating Prometheus with OpenTelemetry.
• Prometheus blog - Commitment to OpenTelemetry (Mar 2024) -- Prometheus project notes and recommended OTLP ingestion patterns.

Practical walkthroughs & blog posts

• OpenTelemetry blog - Prometheus + OpenTelemetry (2024) - Practical notes on combining Prometheus and OpenTelemetry.
• Grafana Blog - A practical guide to data collection with OpenTelemetry and Prometheus (Jul 2023) -- Hands-on examples and best practices for OTEL + Prometheus.
• BetterStack - OpenTelemetry for Go -- Practical guide for instrumenting Go apps with OpenTelemetry.
• BetterStack - OpenTelemetry metrics vs Prometheus metrics -- Comparison and guidance when to use OTEL vs Prometheus metric