The stable HTTP Semantic Conventions impact our Auto-Instrumentation capabilities

[TylerHelmuth]

Component(s)

instrumentation

Describe the issue you're reporting

The HTTP semantic conventions are now stable and they bring lots of impactful breaking changes. As OTel languages take the stable conventions by default our auto-instrumentation images will get updated and those breaking changes will make their way to our users.

Unlike users who manually add instrumentation libraries, the Operator currently adds a layer of obfuscation around what auto-instrumentation is actually installed. In situations where the operator is installing an "agent", like for Java, .Net, or Go, there is an extra layer of obfuscation.

We need to be very careful with these updates so that we do not causes our users to upgrade unknowingly, causing their telemetry to change. Here are some of the solutions we discussed on the SIG meeting on 2023-01-18:

• Determine a migration plan, per language, for auto-instrumentation users. Things we can do to help:
  • Documentation
  • Warnings in the webhook
  • Feature gates
  • Major version bumps of our images.
• Determine how long we will wait, per language, before setting the default language image to use instrumentation libraries with the breaking changes.
• Communicate concerns with the TC/GC via the Maintainers meeting

[pavolloffay]

This is related to #2529