OpenTelemetry Tracing SDK

This module contains the Trace SDK for opentelemetry-js.

Used standalone, this module provides methods for manual instrumentation of code, offering full control over span creation for client-side JavaScript (browser) and Node.js.

It does not provide automated instrumentation of known libraries, context propagation or distributed-context out-of-the-box.

Installation

npm install --save @opentelemetry/api
npm install --save @opentelemetry/sdk-trace
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Usage

const { trace } = require('@opentelemetry/api');
const { TracerProvider } = require('@opentelemetry/sdk-trace');

// A trace is a collection of *spans*. Spans are created with a *Tracer*.
// Tracers are retrieved from a *TracerProvider*. Typically a global
// TracerProvider is registered with the OpenTelemetry API, so that subsequent
// api.trace.getTracer() calls can use it.
trace.setGlobalTracerProvider(new TracerProvider(/* ... */));

// Important: for tracing to track parent/child relationships between spans
// within a process and across services (distributed tracing), requires that
// a *context manager* and a *propagator* be registered. These are handled
// by separate packages. See section below.

// Now retrieve a tracer, and create a span with it.
const tracer = trace.getTracer('default');
const span = tracer.startSpan('a-span-name');

// Set a span attribute
span.setAttribute('key', 'value');

// We must end the spans so they become available for exporting.
span.end();
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More complete tracing setup

As mentioned above, a full tracing setup typically requires a context manager for tracing parent/child relationships within a process and propagators for propagating tracing data across processes (distributed tracing). Context managers and propagators are provided by packages other than @opentelemetry/sdk-trace.

Most users should use one of the higher-level packages that provide a more convenient and complete setup of an OpenTelemetry SDK:

• @opentelemetry/sdk-node for OpenTelemetry SDK setup for Node.js
• @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentation-node for automatic SDK setup for Node.js, including instrumentations, etc.
• See the OpenTelemetry Browser repository for using OpenTelemetry in the browser.

However, as a quick overview, the following shows roughly how tracing is setup for Node.js. (Which context manager, and sometimes which propagators, to use depends on the JavaScript runtime.)

const os = require('os');
const { context, propagation, trace } = require('@opentelemetry/api');
const { TracerProvider } = require('@opentelemetry/sdk-trace');
const { AsyncLocalStorageContextManager } = require('@opentelemetry/context-async-hooks');
const {
  CompositePropagator,
  W3CBaggagePropagator,
  W3CTraceContextPropagator,
} = require('@opentelemetry/core');

const contextManager = new AsyncLocalStorageContextManager();
context.setGlobalContextManager(contextManager);

const propagator = new CompositePropagator({
  propagators: [ new W3CTraceContextPropagator(), new W3CBaggagePropagator() ],
});
propagation.setGlobalPropagator(propagator);

const tracerProvider = new TracerProvider(/* ... */);
trace.setGlobalTracerProvider(tracerProvider);

process.on('SIGTERM', async () => {
  await tracerProvider.shutdown().catch(console.error);
  process.exit(128 + os.constants.signals.SIGTERM);
});
process.once('beforeExit', async () => {
  await tracerProvider.shutdown().catch(console.error);
});
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Built-in Samplers

Sampler is used to make decisions on Span sampling.

AlwaysOn Sampler

Samples every trace regardless of upstream sampling decisions.

This is used as a default Sampler

const { AlwaysOnSampler, TracerProvider } = require("@opentelemetry/sdk-trace");

const tracerProvider = new TracerProvider({
  sampler: new AlwaysOnSampler()
});
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AlwaysOff Sampler

Doesn't sample any trace, regardless of upstream sampling decisions.

const { AlwaysOffSampler, TracerProvider } = require("@opentelemetry/sdk-trace");

const tracerProvider = new TracerProvider({
  sampler: new AlwaysOffSampler()
});
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TraceIdRatioBased Sampler

Samples some percentage of traces, calculated deterministically using the trace ID. Any trace that would be sampled at a given percentage will also be sampled at any higher percentage.

The TraceIDRatioSampler may be used with the ParentBasedSampler to respect the sampled flag of an incoming trace.

const {
  TracerProvider,
  TraceIdRatioBasedSampler,
} = require("@opentelemetry/sdk-trace");

const tracerProvider = new TracerProvider({
  // See details of ParentBasedSampler below
  sampler: new ParentBasedSampler({
    // Trace ID Ratio Sampler accepts a positional argument
    // which represents the percentage of traces which should
    // be sampled.
    root: new TraceIdRatioBasedSampler(0.5)
  });
});
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ParentBased Sampler

• This is a composite sampler. ParentBased helps distinguished between the following cases:
  • No parent (root span).
  • Remote parent with sampled flag true
  • Remote parent with sampled flag false
  • Local parent with sampled flag true
  • Local parent with sampled flag false

Required parameters:

• root(Sampler) - Sampler called for spans with no parent (root spans)

Optional parameters:

• remoteParentSampled(Sampler) (default: AlwaysOn)
• remoteParentNotSampled(Sampler) (default: AlwaysOff)
• localParentSampled(Sampler) (default: AlwaysOn)
• localParentNotSampled(Sampler) (default: AlwaysOff)

const {
  AlwaysOffSampler,
  TracerProvider,
  ParentBasedSampler,
  TraceIdRatioBasedSampler,
} = require("@opentelemetry/sdk-trace");

const tracerProvider = new TracerProvider({
  sampler: new ParentBasedSampler({
    // By default, the ParentBasedSampler will respect the parent span's sampling
    // decision. This is configurable by providing a different sampler to use
    // based on the situation. See configuration details above.
    //
    // This will delegate the sampling decision of all root traces (no parent)
    // to the TraceIdRatioBasedSampler.
    // See details of TraceIdRatioBasedSampler above.
    root: new TraceIdRatioBasedSampler(0.5)
  })
});
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AlwaysRecord Sampler

Wraps a delegate sampler and upgrades any NOT_RECORD (drop) decision to RECORD, ensuring all spans are recorded without changing the sampling rate. This is useful when you want to count or measure all spans (e.g. via a processor) while still controlling export costs through the delegate sampler.

const {
  TracerProvider,
  ParentBasedSampler,
  TraceIdRatioBasedSampler,
  createAlwaysRecordSampler,
} = require("@opentelemetry/sdk-trace");

const tracerProvider = new TracerProvider({
  // Wraps a 50% TraceIdRatioBased sampler so that dropped spans are still
  // recorded (but not exported by a sampling exporter).
  sampler: createAlwaysRecordSampler(new TraceIdRatioBasedSampler(0.5))
});
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Example

See examples/basic-tracer-node for an end-to-end example, including exporting created spans.

Migrating from sdk-trace-* packages

This sdk-trace package is intended as the replacement for the @opentelemetry/sdk-trace-base, @opentelemetry/sdk-trace-node, and @opentelemetry/sdk-trace-web. It removes some functionality from those packages that better live elsewhere.

Migrating from sdk-trace-web

WebTracerProvider -> TracerProvider. The WebTracerProvider added a single .register(...) method to register a context manager and propagators. It is recommended that user code do this manually now.

// -- Before
import { WebTracerProvider } from '@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-web';
const tracerProvider = new WebTracerProvider(/* ... */);
tracerProvider.register(/* ... */);

// -- After
import { context, propagation, trace } from '@opentelemetry/api';
import { TracerProvider } from '@opentelemetry/sdk-trace';
import { CompositePropagator, W3CBaggagePropagator, W3CTraceContextPropagator } from '@opentelemetry/core';

const tracerProvider = new TracerProvider(/* ... */);
trace.setGlobalTracerProvider(tracerProvider);

// Whether and which context manager to use in the browser is out of scope
// for this doc.
const contextManager = ...;
context.setGlobalContextManager(contextManager);

const propagator = new CompositePropagator({
    propagators: [
      new W3CTraceContextPropagator(),
      new W3CBaggagePropagator(),
    ],
  })
);
propagation.setGlobalPropagator(propagator);
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See "Migrating from sdk-trace-base" below for some changes to the TracerProvider constructor options.

Additional utilities in sdk-trace-web -> ???. There are a number of additional utilities in sdk-trace-web. It has generally been agreed that these better belong elsewhere, perhaps in @opentelemetry/browser-instrumentation. However, many utilities have not yet been migrated.

Migrating from sdk-trace-node

NodeTracerProvider -> BasicTracerProvider -> TracerProvider. NodeTracerProvider added a single .register(...) method to register a context manager and propagators. It is recommended that user code do this manually now. BasicTracerProvider (in sdk-trace-base) reads environment variables for some tracer provider defaults. It is recommended that user code use the sdk-node or configuration packages for environment variable-based or file-based SDK configuration.

// -- Before
import { NodeTracerProvider } from '@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-node';
const tracerProvider = new NodeTracerProvider(/* ... */);
tracerProvider.register(/* ... */);

// -- After (using low-level primitives)
import { context, propagation, trace } from '@opentelemetry/api';
import { TracerProvider } from '@opentelemetry/sdk-trace';
import { CompositePropagator, W3CBaggagePropagator, W3CTraceContextPropagator } from '@opentelemetry/core';

// Manually handle `OTEL_` envvars as necessary, or see "sdk-node" package docs.
const tracerProvider = new TracerProvider(/* ... */);
trace.setGlobalTracerProvider(tracerProvider);

import { AsyncLocalStorageContextManager } from '@opentelemetry/context-async-hooks';
context.setGlobalContextManager(new AsyncLocalStorageContextManager());

const propagator = new CompositePropagator({
  propagators: [new W3CTraceContextPropagator(), new W3CBaggagePropagator()],
});
propagation.setGlobalPropagator(propagator);
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See "Migrating from sdk-trace-base" below for some changes to the TracerProvider constructor options.

Migrating from sdk-trace-base

Roughly speaking sdk-trace is sdk-trace-base with any reading of environment variables removed.

The specific API changes are as follows:

• BasicTracerProvider -> TracerProvider class name change
  • The generalLimits constructor option is no longer supported. The caller must merge those limits into the spanLimits argument.
  • The following environment variables are no longer read for fallback values:
    • OTEL_ATTRIBUTE_VALUE_LENGTH_LIMIT
    • OTEL_ATTRIBUTE_COUNT_LIMIT
    • OTEL_SPAN_ATTRIBUTE_VALUE_LENGTH_LIMIT
    • OTEL_SPAN_ATTRIBUTE_COUNT_LIMIT
    • OTEL_SPAN_LINK_COUNT_LIMIT
    • OTEL_SPAN_EVENT_COUNT_LIMIT
    • OTEL_SPAN_ATTRIBUTE_PER_EVENT_COUNT_LIMIT
    • OTEL_SPAN_ATTRIBUTE_PER_LINK_COUNT_LIMIT
    • OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER
    • OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG
• BatchSpanProcessor no longer reads the following environment variables for fallback values:
  • OTEL_BSP_MAX_EXPORT_BATCH_SIZE
  • OTEL_BSP_MAX_QUEUE_SIZE
  • OTEL_BSP_SCHEDULE_DELAY
  • OTEL_BSP_EXPORT_TIMEOUT

For SDK environment variable support it is recommended that users use the sdk-node package.

Useful links

• For more information on OpenTelemetry, visit: https://opentelemetry.io/
• For more about OpenTelemetry JavaScript: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js
• For help or feedback on this project, join us in GitHub Discussions

License

Apache 2.0 - See LICENSE for more information.