Add an Ubuntu 24.04 Linux Server Data Source to OpenObserve

This post adds a Linux server (Ubuntu 24.04) as a data source to my existing OpenObserve standalone (local mode) deployment. We’ll use OpenObserve’s Data sources → Recommended → Linux integration, which installs an OpenTelemetry Collector on the server to ship:

• Host metrics (CPU, memory, disk, load, network, etc.)
• System logs (journald + /var/log/*.log)

This post is based on

Lab context

OpenObserve (already deployed)

• OpenObserve UI: https://openobserve.maksonlee.com/web/
• Org: default
• Ingest endpoint: https://openobserve.maksonlee.com/api/default/
• DNS: openobserve.maksonlee.com → 192.168.0.98

Linux server (new data source)

• OS: Ubuntu 24.04
• FQDN: test.maksonlee.com
• Hostname (journald): test
• You have sudo access

What you’ll do

• Copy the Linux install command from OpenObserve UI
• Run it on test.maksonlee.com
• Verify the otel-collector service
• Verify ingestion by querying journald logs for test
• Import a Linux hostmetrics dashboard to demo charts

1. Copy the Linux install command from OpenObserve UI

In OpenObserve:

• Go to Data sources
• Select Recommended
• Click Linux
• Copy the installation command shown at the top

It looks like this (token redacted):

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openobserve/agents/main/linux/install.sh \
&& chmod +x install.sh \
&& sudo ./install.sh https://openobserve.maksonlee.com/api/default/ <AUTH_KEY>

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openobserve/agents/main/linux/install.sh \
&& chmod +x install.sh \
&& sudo ./install.sh https://openobserve.maksonlee.com/api/default/ <AUTH_KEY>

2. Install the Linux collector on test.maksonlee.com

SSH into test.maksonlee.com and run the exact command you copied from the UI.

After installation, the script typically:

• installs otelcol-contrib
• writes config to /etc/otel-config.yaml
• creates a systemd service named otel-collector

3. Verify the collector service

systemctl status otel-collector --no-pager
journalctl -u otel-collector -f

systemctl status otel-collector --no-pager
journalctl -u otel-collector -f

If auth/TLS is wrong, exporter errors will show up here.

4. Verify test is ingesting (query journald logs)

In OpenObserve UI:

• Go to Logs
• Stream: journald
• Query:

body__hostname = 'test'

body__hostname = 'test'

You should see events where the latest _timestamp is recent (keeps moving forward).

5. Import a Linux hostmetrics dashboard (demo charts)

Once logs are confirmed, import a dashboard to validate metrics panels.

• Go to Dashboards
• Click Import
• Import from URL:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/maksonlee/dashboards/refs/heads/main/hostmetrics/Host%20Metrics%20(Linux).dashboard.json

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/maksonlee/dashboards/refs/heads/main/hostmetrics/Host%20Metrics%20(Linux).dashboard.json

If the dashboard has a host dropdown, select test (or whatever value appears based on what the agent reports).