distributed-tracing

Distributed tracing tracks latency across microservices by instrumenting code with OpenTelemetry and exporting traces to Jaeger or Tempo, providing end-to-end visibility into request flows and identifying performance bottlenecks across service boundaries.

Implement OpenTelemetry instrumentation by adding tracing libraries to your services, configuring context propagation across service boundaries, and setting up secure exporters to collect accurate traces without exposing sensitive data.

Context propagation passes trace context across service boundaries in microservices, ensuring distributed tracing stitches together spans from different services into a single end-to-end request trace.

Yes, distributed tracing works with both Jaeger and Tempo as trace exporters. You configure OpenTelemetry instrumentation to send traces to either backend, allowing you to analyze request flows and dependencies end-to-end.

Configure sampling in OpenTelemetry to control the volume of collected traces, and use secure exporters to ensure distributed tracing data is transmitted safely without exposing sensitive data across microservices.

You need distributed tracing for microservices observability when debugging request flows across service boundaries, analyzing dependencies, or identifying performance bottlenecks that cannot be isolated within a single service.