Why Do Some People Say Traces Are All You Need?
Traces show how requests move through your app, connecting events across services. They are powerful for understanding the flow of your app, identifying bottlenecks, and troubleshooting complex issues. Some developers believe traces alone provide all the insights needed to debug effectively.
1. Traces Show the Full Journey
Traces capture the flow of requests across multiple services, showing how events are connected. This makes it easier to identify bottlenecks or failures in distributed systems.
1import { trace } from '@opentelemetry/api';
2const tracer = trace.getTracer('my-app');
3const span = tracer.startSpan('user-login');
4// Simulate some work
5span.end();2. Ideal for Distributed Systems
Traces are invaluable when working with microservices or serverless architectures. They let you see how services interact and where delays occur.
3. Built-In Context and Metadata
Traces include context like timestamps, error messages, and service names, making it easier to debug issues. Unlike logs, traces automatically capture relationships between events.
1span.setAttribute('userId', 123);
2span.setStatus({ code: 2, message: 'Failed to authenticate' });4. Why Developers Prefer Traces
Traces provide a high-level overview of app behavior while including the details needed for debugging. They eliminate the need to piece together scattered logs manually.
5. When Traces Aren’t Enough
While traces are powerful, they don’t capture all the details that logs do, like specific error messages or custom debug data. Combining traces with logs provides a complete picture.