Proposal: AIX → OpenTelemetry → Grafana Observability Pattern (Java, DB2, MQ on IBM Power

Grafana
1

Hi Grafana Community,

For an environment that still runs AIX on IBM Power Systems for critical workloads (Java apps on WebSphere, DB2, MQ). We’re thinking of adopting OpenTelemetry and Grafana (Tempo, Mimir, Loki) for observability, but found no official AIX support in Grafana Alloy or OTel Collector builds.

Since Grafana/OTel don’t currently ship AIX binaries, I am thinking if designing a remote-collector pattern that could work in production and wanted to share for feedback/improvements.

Pattern Summary

  • Traces:
    Attach opentelemetry-javaagent.jar to JVMs on AIX.
    Export OTLP/HTTP directly to a Linux-hosted OTel Collector / Grafana Alloy.

  • Metrics (Host):
    Option A: Run node_exporter_aix on AIX, scrape from Collector’s Prometheus receiver.
    Option B: Use njmon/nimon to push to Influx/Prometheus gateway → Collector → Mimir.

  • Logs:
    Forward AIX syslog (TCP/TLS) to the Linux Collector’s syslog receiver → Loki.

  • Collector placement:
    Linux VM/container hosts the OTel Collector or Grafana Alloy, which receives from AIX, enriches with attributes, and exports to Tempo, Mimir, Loki.

AIX LPARs:
JVM apps (otel-javaagent) → OTLP → Linux Collector/Alloy → Tempo (traces)
node_exporter_aix / njmon → Prometheus scrape → Collector → Mimir (metrics)
syslog → TCP/TLS → Collector syslog receiver → Loki (logs)

Why this matters

  • Many enterprises still run AIX for mission-critical workloads but want modern observability tooling.

  • Lack of official Alloy/OTel binaries for AIX blocks a native agent deployment.

  • This “remote collector” pattern bridges the gap without invasive OS changes.

Ask to Grafana team & community

  1. Would Grafana consider documenting a variant of this pattern for unsupported OSes like AIX?

  2. Any performance or scaling caveats we should watch for when pushing OTLP across network from AIX?

  3. Is there interest in contributing/maintaining an AIX build of Alloy/Collector?

  4. Any better exporters for AIX metrics/logs that you’ve seen in the wild?

Would love to hear thoughts, improvements, or alternative approaches from anyone doing AIX → OTel → Grafana in production.

Thanks.

2

Why you don’t try to build them for your AIX? Those are Golang apps and Golang should support aix/ppc64. You can try cross platform compiltation, but it will be easier if you build it directly on your infra. Build otel builder (ocb) first and then you should be able to build collector exactly for your needs.