APM Config extension

The APM Config extension (apmconfigextension) enables central configuration for EDOT SDKs through the Open Agent Management Protocol (OpAMP). It establishes a control channel between Elastic Agent and an OpAMP-enabled APM Server endpoint so that configuration updates can be retrieved and delivered dynamically to connected SDKs.

Stack 9.1+ The Elastic Stack includes Elastic's core products such as Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, and Beats. Availability Generally available since 9.1 This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. Unless stated otherwise on the page, this functionality is available when your Elastic Stack is deployed on Elastic Cloud Hosted, Elastic Cloud Enterprise, Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes, and self-managed environments. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes. This extension is required when using the Central Configuration feature for EDOT SDKs.

For full contrib details, refer to the OpenTelemetry apmconfigextension documentation.

The extension acts as an OpAMP client, opening a bidirectional control channel to the OpAMP endpoint exposed by APM Server. Through this channel:

1. The Collector requests configuration bundles for connected EDOT SDKs.
2. The configuration server sends updates based on user changes in the Applications UI.
3. Updated configuration is distributed to EDOT SDKs using OpAMP-supported mechanisms.

The extension does not modify telemetry or manage pipelines. Its sole purpose is configuration synchronization.

Common scenarios where the APM Config extension is required:

• Central configuration for EDOT SDKs. Enables dynamic updates to sampling, attribute collection, security settings, and custom SDK options.

• Standalone Elastic Agent deployments. The extension can connect directly to the APM Server OpAMP endpoint.

• Managing large fleets of instrumented services. Allows consistent and centralized control of SDK configuration without requiring application restarts.

The following examples show how to configure the APM Config extension for different deployment scenarios:

extensions:
  bearertokenauth:
    scheme: "APIKey"
    token: "<ENCODED_ELASTICSEARCH_APIKEY>"

  apmconfig:
    opamp:
      protocols:
        http:
          endpoint: "https://apm.example.com:8200/opamp"

    source:
      elasticsearch:
        endpoint: "<ELASTICSEARCH_ENDPOINT>"
        auth:
          authenticator: bearertokenauth

service:
  extensions: [bearertokenauth, apmconfig]

You can configure timeouts or connection behavior:

extensions:
  apmconfig:
    opamp:
      protocols:
        http:
          endpoint: "https://apm.example.com:8200/opamp"
          timeout: 30s
          tls:
            insecure_skip_verify: false

The following are the most important settings when configuring the APM Config extension:

For the complete list of configuration options, refer to the contrib apmconfigextension documentation.

• Contrib component: apmconfigextension
• OpAMP specification
• Central configuration for EDOT SDKs