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Add OTEP for OTLP exporter fallback endpoint support - #5293

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open-telemetry:mainfrom
apeirora:otep/otlp-exporter-fallback-endpoint
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Add OTEP for OTLP exporter fallback endpoint support#5293
MJarmo wants to merge 1 commit into
open-telemetry:mainfrom
apeirora:otep/otlp-exporter-fallback-endpoint

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@MJarmo

@MJarmo MJarmo commented Sep 1, 2026

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Fixes #4973

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This PR proposes a new OTEP for optional fallback endpoint support on OTLP exporters.

When configured, an OTLP exporter sends to the primary endpoint first (with the existing retry policy). If export fails after retries are exhausted due to a transient error, the exporter attempts the same export to a fallback endpoint (with the same retry policy). If no fallback is configured, behavior is unchanged.

Proposed configuration:

  • OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_FALLBACK_ENDPOINT — generic fallback for all signals
  • OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_<SIGNAL>_FALLBACK_ENDPOINT — signal-specific override (traces, metrics, logs)
  • Programmatic setFallbackEndpoint(String) on OTLP exporter builders

V1 scope (intentionally narrow):

  • SDK OTLP exporters only (Collector out of scope)
  • Single fallback endpoint
  • Failover only on transient errors after primary retries are exhausted
  • Fallback shares protocol, TLS, headers, timeout, and compression with primary
  • Each export attempt tries primary first (no sticky failover)

This is an OTEP proposal only. Spec integration (specification/protocol/exporter.md), declarative configuration schema updates, and language implementations are follow-up work after OTEP approval.

For non-trivial changes, follow the change proposal process.

Propose optional fallback endpoint configuration for OTLP exporters so SDKs can retry export to a secondary destination after primary transient failures are exhausted. Related to open-telemetry#4973.

Signed-off-by: MJarmo <michal.jarmolkiewicz@sap.com>
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Proposal: Fallback/failover endpoint support for OTLP exporters

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