Sign up and instrument¶
This walkthrough takes you from signing in to seeing your own application's telemetry in IAPM. All three sign-in methods (Email, GitHub, Microsoft) follow the same path; where Microsoft differs, it is called out.
New to the ideas?
IAPM renders your telemetry as a space you move through rather than a set of dashboards. If you want the background first, read Spatial Observability, then come back.
Step 1: Sign in¶
Choose how you want to sign in. All three reach the same product; the difference is only which identity you bring.
- Email or GitHub: for individual developers. You land in the web app at my.iapm.app.
- Microsoft: for organizations on Microsoft 365 or Entra ID, using work or school accounts and SSO. You land at azure.iapm.app.
Both hosts are the same application on the same backend; the address differs only by how you signed in, so bookmark whichever one you land on.
The link opens portal.iapm.app, the sign-in chooser. Pick a method, and it forwards you into the web app. A short Quick Start wizard then names your account, has you choose a plan, and provisions your first grid. Sending your own telemetry requires an active subscription and a provisioned grid: the Start plan is free, but provisioning a grid requires a valid credit card even on Start. (Exploring the demo grids needs none of this, no subscription and no payment.)
Step 2: Get your API key¶
Your API key authenticates telemetry with IAPM. Each grid has its own key.
- In the web app, open Administration → Grids.
- Click the Instrument button on the grid you want to send data to.
- Copy the API key.
Treat the key like a password: do not commit it to source control.
Step 3: Instrument your application¶
Point your OpenTelemetry OTLP exporter at IAPM. The endpoint is otlp.iapm.app:443 (gRPC over TLS), and your API key travels in the api-key header:
# OTLP exporter configuration
exporters:
otlp:
endpoint: "otlp.iapm.app:443"
headers:
"api-key": "your-api-key-here"
View full instrumentation examples
Want to see it work before instrumenting your own app?
Send a stream of ready-made traces first with the trace generator, a single command-line tool you run locally, so there is no application to write. Follow Send your first trace, then come back and point your real application here.
New to OpenTelemetry?
The official Language APIs and SDKs cover instrumentation for your programming language.
Nothing showing up?
If you sent telemetry but no services appear after a couple of minutes, the cause is almost always the key or the endpoint. Check that the endpoint is exactly otlp.iapm.app:443, that the api-key header holds the key for the same grid you are viewing, and that your exporter uses gRPC over TLS. Still stuck? Reach support.
Step 4: Explore your system¶
Once telemetry is flowing, choose how to look at it.
IAPM (3D & VR)¶
Enter the World of Your Application® with mouse and keyboard or a VR headset. Your services stand as towers, traffic flows between them, and a service that has gone dark shows up as a gap you can see.
Install IAPM 3D & VR documentation
IAPM Web¶
Access traces, metrics, logs, alerts, and account management from any browser. Sign in through portal.iapm.app; you land in the web app at my.iapm.app or azure.iapm.app depending on how you signed in.