Zipkin plugin

Propagate Zipkin distributed tracing spans, and report spans to a Zipkin server.

Configuration Reference

This plugin is compatible with requests with the following protocols:

http
https
tcp
tls
udp
grpc
grpcs

This plugin is compatible with DB-less mode.

In DB-less mode, Kong Gateway does not have an Admin API. If using this mode, configure the plugin using declarative configuration.

Enabling the plugin on a Service

Admin API

Kubernetes

Declarative (YAML)

For example, configure this plugin on a Service by making the following request:

$ curl -X POST http://<admin-hostname>:8001/services/<service>/plugins \
    --data "name=zipkin"  \
    --data "config.http_endpoint=http://your.zipkin.collector:9411/api/v2/spans" \
    --data "config.sample_ratio=0.001" \
    --data "config.include_credential=true" \
    --data "config.traceid_byte_count=16" \
    --data "config.header_type=preserve" \
    --data "config.default_header_type=b3" \
    --data "config.static_tags={}"

First, create a KongPlugin resource:

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongPlugin
metadata:
  name: <zipkin-example>
config: 
  http_endpoint: http://your.zipkin.collector:9411/api/v2/spans
  sample_ratio: 0.001
  include_credential: true
  traceid_byte_count: 16
  header_type: preserve
  default_header_type: b3
  static_tags: {}
plugin: zipkin

Next, apply the KongPlugin resource to a Service by annotating the Service as follows:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: <service>
  labels:
    app: <service>
  annotations:
    konghq.com/plugins: <zipkin-example>
spec:
  ports:
  - port: 80
    targetPort: 80
    protocol: TCP
    name: <service>
  selector:
    app: <service>

Note: The KongPlugin resource only needs to be defined once and can be applied to any Service, Consumer, or Route in the namespace. If you want the plugin to be available cluster-wide, create the resource as a KongClusterPlugin instead of KongPlugin.

For example, configure this plugin on a Service by adding this section to your declarative configuration file:

plugins:
- name: zipkin
  service: <service>
  config: 
    http_endpoint: http://your.zipkin.collector:9411/api/v2/spans
    sample_ratio: 0.001
    include_credential: true
    traceid_byte_count: 16
    header_type: preserve
    default_header_type: b3
    static_tags: {}

<service> is the id or name of the Service that this plugin configuration will target.

Enabling the plugin on a Route

Admin API

Kubernetes

Declarative (YAML)

For example, configure this plugin on a Route with:

$ curl -X POST http://<admin-hostname>:8001/routes/<route>/plugins \
    --data "name=zipkin"  \
    --data "config.http_endpoint=http://your.zipkin.collector:9411/api/v2/spans" \
    --data "config.sample_ratio=0.001" \
    --data "config.include_credential=true" \
    --data "config.traceid_byte_count=16" \
    --data "config.header_type=preserve" \
    --data "config.default_header_type=b3" \
    --data "config.static_tags={}"

First, create a KongPlugin resource:

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongPlugin
metadata:
  name: <zipkin-example>
config: 
  http_endpoint: http://your.zipkin.collector:9411/api/v2/spans
  sample_ratio: 0.001
  include_credential: true
  traceid_byte_count: 16
  header_type: preserve
  default_header_type: b3
  static_tags: {}
plugin: zipkin

Then, apply it to an ingress (Route or Routes) by annotating the ingress as follows:

apiVersion: networking/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: <route>
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: kong
    konghq.com/plugins: <zipkin-example>
spec:
  rules:
  - host: examplehostname.com
    http:
      paths:
      - path: /bar
        backend:
          serviceName: echo
          servicePort: 80

For example, configure this plugin on a Route by adding this section to your declarative configuration file:

plugins:
- name: zipkin
  route: <route>
  config: 
    http_endpoint: http://your.zipkin.collector:9411/api/v2/spans
    sample_ratio: 0.001
    include_credential: true
    traceid_byte_count: 16
    header_type: preserve
    default_header_type: b3
    static_tags: {}

<route> is the id or name of the Route that this plugin configuration will target.

Enabling the plugin on a Consumer

Admin API

Kubernetes

Declarative (YAML)

For example, configure this plugin on a Consumer with:

$ curl -X POST http://<admin-hostname>:8001/consumers/<consumer>/plugins \
    --data "name=zipkin"  \
    --data "config.http_endpoint=http://your.zipkin.collector:9411/api/v2/spans" \
    --data "config.sample_ratio=0.001" \
    --data "config.include_credential=true" \
    --data "config.traceid_byte_count=16" \
    --data "config.header_type=preserve" \
    --data "config.default_header_type=b3" \
    --data "config.static_tags={}"

You can combine consumer.id, service.id, or route.id in the same request, to further narrow the scope of the plugin.

First, create a KongPlugin resource:

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongPlugin
metadata:
  name: <zipkin-example>
config: 
  http_endpoint: http://your.zipkin.collector:9411/api/v2/spans
  sample_ratio: 0.001
  include_credential: true
  traceid_byte_count: 16
  header_type: preserve
  default_header_type: b3
  static_tags: {}
plugin: zipkin

Then, apply it to a Consumer by annotating the KongConsumer resource as follows:

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongConsumer
metadata:
  name: <consumer>
  annotations:
    konghq.com/plugins: <zipkin-example>
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: kong

For example, configure this plugin on a Consumer by adding this section to your declarative configuration file:

plugins:
- name: zipkin
  consumer: <consumer>
  config: 
    http_endpoint: http://your.zipkin.collector:9411/api/v2/spans
    sample_ratio: 0.001
    include_credential: true
    traceid_byte_count: 16
    header_type: preserve
    default_header_type: b3
    static_tags: {}

<consumer> is the id or username of the Consumer that this plugin configuration will target.

Enabling the plugin globally

A plugin which is not associated to any Service, Route, or Consumer is considered global, and will be run on every request. Read the Plugin Reference and the Plugin Precedence sections for more information.

Admin API

Kubernetes

Declarative (YAML)

For example, configure this plugin globally with:

$ curl -X POST http://<admin-hostname>:8001/plugins/ \
    --data "name=zipkin"  \
    --data "config.http_endpoint=http://your.zipkin.collector:9411/api/v2/spans" \
    --data "config.sample_ratio=0.001" \
    --data "config.include_credential=true" \
    --data "config.traceid_byte_count=16" \
    --data "config.header_type=preserve" \
    --data "config.default_header_type=b3" \
    --data "config.static_tags={}"

Create a KongClusterPlugin resource and label it as global:

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongClusterPlugin
metadata:
  name: <global-zipkin>
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: kong
  labels:
    global: \"true\"
config: 
  http_endpoint: http://your.zipkin.collector:9411/api/v2/spans
  sample_ratio: 0.001
  include_credential: true
  traceid_byte_count: 16
  header_type: preserve
  default_header_type: b3
  static_tags: {}
plugin: zipkin

For example, configure this plugin using the plugins: entry in the declarative configuration file:

plugins:
- name: zipkin
  config: 
    http_endpoint: http://your.zipkin.collector:9411/api/v2/spans
    sample_ratio: 0.001
    include_credential: true
    traceid_byte_count: 16
    header_type: preserve
    default_header_type: b3
    static_tags: {}

Parameters

Here's a list of all the parameters which can be used in this plugin's configuration:

Form Parameter	Description
`name` Type: string	The name of the plugin to use, in this case `zipkin`.
`service.id` Type: string	The ID of the Service the plugin targets.
`route.id` Type: string	The ID of the Route the plugin targets.
`consumer.id` Type: string	The ID of the Consumer the plugin targets.
`enabled` Type: boolean Default value: `true`	Whether this plugin will be applied.
`config.http_endpoint` optional Default value:	The full HTTP(S) endpoint to which Zipkin spans should be sent by Kong. If not specified, the Zipkin plugin will only act as a tracing header generator/transmitter.
`config.sample_ratio` optional Default value: 0.001	How often to sample requests that do not contain trace ids. Set to `0` to turn sampling off, or to `1` to sample all requests.
`config.default_service_name` optional	The default service name to override the unknown-service-name spans.
`config.include_credential` required Default value: true	Should the credential of the currently authenticated consumer be included in metadata sent to the Zipkin server?
`config.traceid_byte_count` required Default value: 16	The length in bytes of each request’s Trace ID.
`config.header_type` required Default value: preserve	All HTTP requests going through the plugin will be tagged with a tracing HTTP request. This property codifies what kind of tracing header the plugin expects on incoming requests. Possible values are `b3`, `b3-single`, `w3c`, or `preserve`. The `b3` option means that the plugin expects Zipkin’s B3 multiple headers on incoming requests, and will add them to the transmitted requests if they are missing from it. The `b3-single` option expects or adds Zipkin’s B3 single-header tracing headers. The `w3c` option expects or adds W3C’s traceparent tracing header. The `preserve` option does not expect any format, and will transmit whatever header is recognized or present, defaulting to `b3` if none is found. In case of mismatch between the expected and incoming tracing headers (for example, when `header_type` is set to `b3` but a w3c-style tracing header is found in the incoming request), then the plugin will add both kinds of tracing headers to the request and generate a mismatch warning in the logs.
`config.default_header_type` required Default value: b3	Allows specifying the type of header to be added to requests with no pre-existing tracing headers and when `config.header_type` is set to `"preserve"`. When `header_type` is set to any other value, `default_header_type` is ignored.
`config.static_tags` optional Default value: {}	The tags specified on this property will be added to the generated request traces.

How it Works

When enabled, this plugin traces requests in a way compatible with zipkin.

The code is structured around an opentracing core using the opentracing-lua library to collect timing data of a request in each of Kong’s phases. The plugin uses opentracing-lua compatible extractor, injector, and reporters to implement Zipkin’s protocols.

Reporter

An opentracing “reporter” is how tracing data is reported to another system. This plugin records tracing data for a given request, and sends it as a batch to a Zipkin server using the Zipkin v2 API. Note that zipkin version 1.31 or higher is required.

The http_endpoint configuration variable must contain the full uri including scheme, host, port and path sections (i.e. your uri likely ends in /api/v2/spans).

About this Plugin
Made by
Categories	Analytics & Monitoring
DB-less compatible?	Yes (Kong Gateway (OSS) only)
Source	Code
Version Compatibility
Kong Gateway (Enterprise) 2.3.x 2.2.x 2.1.x 1.5.x 1.3-x 0.36-x Kong Gateway (OSS) 2.3.x 2.2.x 2.1.x 2.0.x 1.5.x 1.4.x 1.3.x 1.2.x 1.1.x 1.0.x 0.14.x

Configuration Reference

Enabling the plugin on a Service

Enabling the plugin on a Route

Enabling the plugin on a Consumer

Enabling the plugin globally

Parameters

How it Works

Reporter

See also