---
title: Resources
weight: 6
---

A [resource][] represents the entity producing telemetry as resource attributes.
For example, a process producing telemetry that is running in a container on
Kubernetes has a Pod name, a namespace, and possibly a deployment name. All
three of these attributes can be included in the resource.

In your observability backend, you can use resource information to better
investigate interesting behavior. For example, if your trace or metrics data
indicate latency in your system, you can narrow it down to a specific container,
pod, or Kubernetes deployment.

## Setup

Follow the instructions in the [Getting Started][], so that you have a running
.NET app exporting data to the console.

## Adding resources with environment variables

You can use the `OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES` environment variable to inject
resources into your application. The .NET SDK will automatically detect these
resources.

The following example adds [Service][], [Host][] and [OS][] resource attributes
via environment variables, running unix programs like `uname` to generate the
resource data.

```console
$ env OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES="service.name=resource-tutorial-dotnet,service.namespace=tutorial,service.version=1.0,service.instance.id=`uuidgen`,host.name=`HOSTNAME`,host.type=`uname -m`,os.name=`uname -s`,os.version=`uname -r`" dotnet run

Activity.TraceId:          d1cbb7787440cc95b325835cb2ff8018
Activity.SpanId:           2ca007300fcb3068
Activity.TraceFlags:           Recorded
Activity.ActivitySourceName: tutorial-dotnet
Activity.DisplayName: SayHello
Activity.Kind:        Internal
Activity.StartTime:   2022-10-02T13:31:12.0175090Z
Activity.Duration:    00:00:00.0003920
Activity.Tags:
    foo: 1
    bar: Hello, World!
    baz: [1,2,3]
Resource associated with Activity:
    service.name: resource-tutorial-dotnet
    service.namespace: tutorial
    service.version: 1.0
    service.instance.id: 93B14BAD-813D-48EE-9FB1-2ADFD07C5E78
    host.name: myhost
    host.type: arm64
    os.name: Darwin
    os.version: 21.6.0
```

## Adding resources in code

You can also add custom resources in code by attaching them to a
`ResourceBuilder`.

The following example builds on the [getting started] sample and adds two custom
resources, `environment.name` and `team.name` in code:

```csharp
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Collections.Generic;

using OpenTelemetry;
using OpenTelemetry.Trace;
using OpenTelemetry.Resources;

var serviceName = "resource-tutorial-dotnet";
var serviceVersion = "1.0";

var resourceBuilder =
    ResourceBuilder
        .CreateDefault()
        .AddService(serviceName: serviceName, serviceVersion: serviceVersion)
        .AddAttributes(new Dictionary<string, object>
        {
            ["environment.name"] = "production",
            ["team.name"] = "backend"
        });

var sourceName = "tutorial-dotnet";

using var tracerProvider = Sdk.CreateTracerProviderBuilder()
    .AddSource(sourceName)
    .SetResourceBuilder(resourceBuilder)
    .AddConsoleExporter()
    .Build();

var MyActivitySource = new ActivitySource(sourceName);

using var activity = MyActivitySource.StartActivity("SayHello");
activity?.SetTag("foo", 1);
activity?.SetTag("bar", "Hello, World!");
activity?.SetTag("baz", new int[] { 1, 2, 3 });
```

In this example, the `service.name` and `service.version` values are set in code
as well. Additionally, `service.instance.id` gets a default value.

If you run the same command as in
[Adding resources with environment variables](#adding-resources-with-environment-variables),
but this time without `service.name` `service.version`, and
`service.instance.id`, you'll see the `environment.name` and `team.name`
resources in the resource list:

```console
$ env OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES="service.namespace=tutorial,host.name=`HOSTNAME`,host.type=`uname -m`,os.name=`uname -s`,os.version=`uname -r`" dotnet run

Activity.TraceId:          d1cbb7787440cc95b325835cb2ff8018
Activity.SpanId:           2ca007300fcb3068
Activity.TraceFlags:           Recorded
Activity.ActivitySourceName: tutorial-dotnet
Activity.DisplayName: SayHello
Activity.Kind:        Internal
Activity.StartTime:   2022-10-02T13:31:12.0175090Z
Activity.Duration:    00:00:00.0003920
Activity.Tags:
    foo: 1
    bar: Hello, World!
    baz: [1,2,3]
Resource associated with Activity:
    environment.name: production
    team.name: backend
    service.name: resource-tutorial-dotnet
    service.namespace: tutorial
    service.version: 1.0
    service.instance.id: 28976A1C-BF02-43CA-BAE0-6E0564431462
    host.name: pcarter
    host.type: arm64
    os.name: Darwin
    os.version: 21.6.0
```

**Note**: If you set resource attributes with both environment variables and
code, the values in code take precedence.

## Next steps

There are more resource detectors you can add to your configuration, for example
to get details about your [Cloud] environment or [Deployment][].

[resource]: /docs/reference/specification/resource/sdk/
[getting started]: /docs/instrumentation/net/getting-started/
[process and process runtime resources]:
  /docs/reference/specification/resource/semantic_conventions/process/
[host]: /docs/reference/specification/resource/semantic_conventions/host/
[cloud]: /docs/reference/specification/resource/semantic_conventions/cloud/
[deployment]:
  /docs/reference/specification/resource/semantic_conventions/deployment_environment/
[service]: /docs/reference/specification/resource/semantic_conventions/#service
[os]: /docs/reference/specification/resource/semantic_conventions/os/
