AWS Image-Based Lambda Showing Logs but No Traces or Service in Dynatrace

[Ashwinjayakumar]

Hi Team,

I'm trying to instrument an AWS image-based Lambda with Dynatrace by adding the following components through the AWS CLI:

• Dynatrace Lambda extension
• Dynatrace layer
• Dynatrace agent configuration

The deployment completes successfully, and the Lambda executes without errors.

Current Behavior

• ✅ Lambda invocations are successful.
• ✅ CloudWatch logs are being generated.
• ✅ The Lambda is visible in the Dynatrace managed account/environment.
• ✅ Environment variables appear to be configured correctly.
• ❌ No traces are being generated.
• ❌ The Lambda is not appearing under Services in Dynatrace.
• ❌ No end-to-end distributed tracing is visible.

Verification Performed

• Cross-checked all Dynatrace-related environment variables.
• Confirmed that the extension, layer, and agent configuration are attached to the Lambda.
• Verified that Lambda executions are producing CloudWatch logs.
• No obvious configuration issues were found.

Environment

• AWS Lambda Type: Container Image (PackageType=Image)
• Runtime: [Nodejs]
• Dynatrace Deployment Method: Extension + Layer + Agent
• Dynatrace Environment: SaaS

Questions

1. Is there any additional configuration required for container image-based Lambdas beyond attaching the Dynatrace extension and layer?
2. Are there known limitations or extra steps needed for trace generation in image-based Lambdas?
3. What log entries should I look for to confirm that the Dynatrace agent/tracer is initialized correctly?
4. Is there a recommended way to validate whether spans are being generated and exported successfully?

Logs:

Message

{ "level": "info", "ts": 1783597163.178263, "caller": "collector/collector.go:65", "msg": "No dynatrace config file found. This is probably fine if you use other configuration methods.", "component": "collector", "error": "dtconfig.json neither in current directory (error: stat dtconfig.json: no such file or directory) nor in /var/task: stat /var/task/dtconfig.json: no such file or directory" }

2026-07-09T11:39:23.181Z info otelconftelemetry/metrics.go:25 Internal metrics telemetry disabled { "resource": { "service.instance.id": "820e287f-34c0-472b-979d-14483c67af2e", "service.name": "otelcol", "service.version": "1.339.3.20260617-150944" } }

2026-07-09T11:39:23.186Z info [email protected]/service.go:241 Starting otelcol... { "resource": { "service.instance.id": "820e287f-34c0-472b-979d-14483c67af2e", "service.name": "otelcol", "service.version": "1.339.3.20260617-150944" }, "Version": "1.339.3.20260617-150944", "NumCPU": 2 }

2026-07-09T11:39:23.186Z info extensions/extensions.go:40 Starting extensions... { "resource": { "service.instance.id": "820e287f-34c0-472b-979d-14483c67af2e", "service.name": "otelcol", "service.version": "1.339.3.20260617-150944" } }