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05 – Setup Tempo Quickstart (Docker Compose)

Learning Objectives​

  • Stand up Tempo, Grafana, and the OTel Collector using Docker Compose.
  • Optionally add Loki and Prometheus for full-stack correlation.
  • Configure Grafana to query Tempo.

Docker Compose (dev lab)​

Create docker-compose.tempo.yml:

version: '3.9'
services:
  tempo:
    image: grafana/tempo:latest
    command: ["-config.file=/etc/tempo/tempo.yaml"]
    ports: ["3200:3200"]
    volumes:
      - ./tempo/tempo.yaml:/etc/tempo/tempo.yaml:ro
      - ./data/tempo:/tmp/tempo

  collector:
    image: otel/opentelemetry-collector:latest
    command: ["--config=/etc/otelcol/config.yaml"]
    ports: ["4317:4317", "4318:4318"]
    volumes:
      - ./collector/config.yaml:/etc/otelcol/config.yaml:ro
    depends_on: [tempo]

  grafana:
    image: grafana/grafana:latest
    ports: ["3000:3000"]
    environment:
      - GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_USER=admin
      - GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_PASSWORD=admin
    volumes:
      - ./grafana/provisioning:/etc/grafana/provisioning
    depends_on: [tempo]

  # Optional extras
  loki:
    image: grafana/loki:2.9.0
    command: ["-config.file=/etc/loki/local-config.yaml"]
    ports: ["3100:3100"]
    volumes:
      - ./loki/local-config.yaml:/etc/loki/local-config.yaml:ro

  prometheus:
    image: prom/prometheus:latest
    command: ["--config.file=/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml"]
    ports: ["9090:9090"]
    volumes:
      - ./prometheus/prometheus.yml:/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml:ro

Visual: Compose Stack​

Supporting Files​

  • tempo/tempo.yaml: from Section 4 (filesystem backend).
  • collector/config.yaml: from Section 3 (OTLP → Tempo exporter).
  • grafana/provisioning/datasources/tempo.yaml:
apiVersion: 1
datasources:
  - name: Tempo
    type: tempo
    access: proxy
    url: http://tempo:3200
    isDefault: true

Hands-on Lab​

  1. Create the folder structure and files as shown.
  2. docker compose -f docker-compose.tempo.yml up -d
  3. Open Grafana on http://localhost:3000, login admin/admin, verify Tempo data source.

Deliverables​

  • A running dev stack with Grafana + Tempo + Collector.

Quiz (Self-check)​

  • Which ports expose OTLP? Which port exposes Tempo HTTP API?
  • What does Grafana need to talk to Tempo?

Resources​

  • Grafana Provisioning Docs
  • Tempo + Grafana quickstart guides