What Are Traces and Spans?

Traces and spans help developers understand how a request moves through their app. They provide a detailed picture of what’s happening so you can identify and fix issues faster.

1. What is a Trace?

A trace follows the journey of a request as it moves through different services or parts of your app. It shows every step, from the user action to the response, so you can see how long each part takes.

2. What is a Span?

A span is a single unit of work within a trace. Each span represents one task, like a database query or an API call. Together, spans make up the complete trace, showing how all the tasks connect.

3. Why Are Traces and Spans Important?

Traces and spans help you pinpoint slow or failing parts of your app. For example, if a request is slow, a trace can show whether the delay is in a database query or an external API call.

4. How Does OpenTelemetry Create Traces and Spans?

OpenTelemetry automatically instruments your code to generate traces and spans. It works with many libraries like MongoDB or SQL, so you don’t need to write extra code. The data can then be sent to a platform like Otelic.com for analysis.

5. How Can Otelic.com Help?

Otelic.com collects traces and spans from your app and makes it easy to browse and understand them. You can set up alerts to monitor for slow services and quickly find the root cause of issues.