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Distributed tracing UI plugin

The Cluster Observability Operator is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

The distributed tracing UI plugin adds tracing-related features to the Administrator perspective of the OpenShift web console at Observe → Traces. You can follow requests through the front end and into the backend of microservices, helping you identify code errors and performance bottlenecks in distributed systems.

Installing the Cluster Observability Operator distributed tracing UI plugin

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role.

  • You have logged in to the OKD web console.

  • You have installed the Cluster Observability Operator

Procedure

  1. In the OKD web console, click Operators → Installed Operators and select Cluster Observability Operator

  2. Choose the UI Plugin tab (at the far right of the tab list) and press Create UIPlugin

  3. Select YAML view, enter the following content, and then press Create:

    apiVersion: observability.openshift.io/v1alpha1
kind: UIPlugin
metadata:
  name: distributed-tracing
spec:
  type: DistributedTracing

Using the Cluster Observability Operator distributed tracing UI plugin

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role.

  • You have logged in to the OKD web console.

  • You have installed the Cluster Observability Operator.

  • You have installed the Cluster Observability Operator distributed tracing UI plugin.

  • You have a TempoStack or TempoMonolithic multi-tenant instance in the cluster.

Procedure

  1. In the Administrator perspective of the OKD web console, click Observe → Traces.

  2. Select a TempoStack or TempoMonolithic multi-tenant instance and set a time range and query for the traces to be loaded.

    The traces are displayed on a scatter-plot showing the trace start time, duration, and number of spans. Underneath the scatter plot, there is a list of traces showing information such as the Trace Name, number of Spans, and Duration.

  3. Click on a trace name link.

    The trace detail page for the selected trace contains a Gantt Chart of all of the spans within the trace. Select a span to show a breakdown of the configured attributes.