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What Are Traces and Spans in OpenTelemetry?

(oneuptime.com)
116 points ndhandala | 3 comments | 27 Aug 25 12:10 UTC | HN request time: 0.005s | source
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N_Lens ◴[31 Aug 25 10:41 UTC] No.45082128[source]▶
OTEL as a set of standards is admirable and ambitious, though in my experience actual implementation differs significantly between different vendors and they all seem to overcomplicate it.
replies(1): >>45082689 #
eurekin ◴[31 Aug 25 12:31 UTC] No.45082689[source]▶
Plus that tens of terabytes of data you have to store for a week worth of traces
replies(1): >>45083511 #
c2h5oh ◴[31 Aug 25 14:42 UTC] No.45083511[source]▶
That's why you sample just enough instead of storing everything
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voidfunc ◴[31 Aug 25 14:56 UTC] No.45083636[source]▶
That sounds great until you have a massive issue that costs the company real money and leadership asks why you weren't logging everything in full fidelity?

We run with Debug logging on in prod for that reason too. We also ingest insane amounts of data but it does seem to be worth it for a sufficiently complex and important enough system to really have it all.

replies(3): >>45084058 #>>45084941 #>>45094434 #
1. evidencetamper ◴[31 Aug 25 15:42 UTC] No.45084058[source]▶
> and leadership asks why you weren't logging everything in full fidelity?

I haven't been asked this question ever. In a way, I wish I was. I wish leadership was engaged in the details of the capabilities of the systems they lead.

But I don't anyone asking me this question any time soon either.

replies(1): >>45085449 #
2. no_wizard ◴[31 Aug 25 18:10 UTC] No.45085449[source]▶
Have you ever been asked “why didn’t we catch this sooner?”. I feel like it’s the same question worded differently
replies(1): >>45089399 #
3. voidfunc ◴[01 Sep 25 04:17 UTC] No.45089399[source]▶
Its really two questions:

1. Why didn't we catch this sooner

2. Why did it take so long to mitigate

Without the debug logging #2 can be really tricky sometimes as well as you can be flying blind to some deep internal conditional branch firing off.