[exporter/sematext] Exporter starts without required configuration, fails on trying to send data

[andrzej-stencel]

Component(s)

exporter/sematext

Collector version

v0.124.1

What happened?

Description

The Sematext exporter can be started with no configuration, leading to errors when trying to send data, as it is not possible to send data without an app token and the region.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Prepare configuration

service:
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers:
        - hostmetrics
      exporters:
        - sematext
receivers:
  hostmetrics:
    scrapers:
      load:
exporters:
  sematext:

2. Add Sematext exporter to the list of exporters in cmd/otelcontribcol/builder-config.yaml:

  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/exporter/sematextexporter v0.124.1

3. Build the collector binary

make install-tools && make genotelcontribcol && make otelcontribcol

4. Run the built binary with the above config

bin/otelcontribcol_linux_amd64 --config config.yaml

Expected Result

Collector should fail to start, reporting that the region and metrics app token are required.

Actual Result

Collector starts successfully and reports errors when trying to send data:

$ bin/otelcontribcol_linux_amd64 --config config.yaml
2025-04-24T11:00:29.515+0200    info    service@v0.124.1-0.20250422165940-c47951a8bf71/service.go:199   Setting up own telemetry...
2025-04-24T11:00:29.515+0200    info    builders/builders.go:26 Development component. May change in the future.        {"otelcol.component.id": "sematext", "otelcol.component.kind": "exporter", "otelcol.signal": "metrics"}
2025-04-24T11:00:29.516+0200    info    service@v0.124.1-0.20250422165940-c47951a8bf71/service.go:266   Starting otelcontribcol...      {"Version": "0.124.1-dev", "NumCPU": 20}
2025-04-24T11:00:29.517+0200    info    extensions/extensions.go:41     Starting extensions...
2025-04-24T11:00:29.517+0200    info    service@v0.124.1-0.20250422165940-c47951a8bf71/service.go:289   Everything is ready. Begin running and processing data.
2025-04-24T11:00:30.518+0200    error   internal/queue_sender.go:57     Exporting failed. Dropping data.        {"otelcol.component.id": "sematext", "otelcol.component.kind": "exporter", "otelcol.signal": "metrics", "error": "not retryable error: Permanent error: failed to convert OTLP metric to line protocol: failed to write point for gauge: Permanent error: failed to encode point: invalid tag value token=\"\"", "dropped_items": 3}
go.opentelemetry.io/collector/exporter/exporterhelper/internal.NewQueueSender.func1
        go.opentelemetry.io/collector/exporter@v0.124.1-0.20250422165940-c47951a8bf71/exporterhelper/internal/queue_sender.go:57
go.opentelemetry.io/collector/exporter/exporterhelper/internal/queuebatch.(*disabledBatcher[...]).Consume
        go.opentelemetry.io/collector/exporter@v0.124.1-0.20250422165940-c47951a8bf71/exporterhelper/internal/queuebatch/disabled_batcher.go:22
go.opentelemetry.io/collector/exporter/exporterhelper/internal/queuebatch.(*asyncQueue[...]).Start.func1
        go.opentelemetry.io/collector/exporter@v0.124.1-0.20250422165940-c47951a8bf71/exporterhelper/internal/queuebatch/async_queue.go:47

Additional context

The properties region, logs::app_token, metrics::app_token should be marked as required in the component's README, unless I'm missing something? Is any of them not required?

[github-actions]

Pinging code owners:

• exporter/sematext: @AkhigbeEromo

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