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MeshTrace
This policy uses new policy matching algorithm. Do not combine with TrafficTrace.
This policy enables publishing traces to a third party tracing solution.
Tracing is supported over HTTP, HTTP2, and gRPC protocols. You must explicitly specify the protocol for each service and data plane proxy you want to enable tracing for.
Kong Mesh currently supports the following trace exposition formats:
-
Zipkintraces in this format can be sent to many different tracing backends Datadog
Services still need to be instrumented to preserve the trace chain across requests made across different services.
You can instrument with a language library of your choice (for Zipkin and for Datadog). For HTTP you can also manually forward the following headers:
x-request-idx-b3-traceidx-b3-parentspanidx-b3-spanidx-b3-sampledx-b3-flags
TargetRef support matrix
| TargetRef type | top level | to | from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mesh | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| MeshSubset | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| MeshService | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| MeshServiceSubset | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
To learn more about the information in this table, see the matching docs.
Configuration
Sampling
Most of the time setting only
overallis sufficient.randomandclientare for advanced use cases.
You can configure sampling settings equivalent to Envoy’s:
The value is always a percentage and is between 0 and 100.
Example:
sampling:
overall: 80
random: 60
client: 40
Tags
You can add tags to trace metadata by directly supplying the value (literal) or by taking it from a header (header).
Example:
tags:
- name: team
literal: core
- name: env
header:
name: x-env
default: prod
- name: version
header:
name: x-version
If a value is missing for header, default is used.
If default isn’t provided, then the tag won’t be added.
Backends
Datadog
You can configure a Datadog backend with a url and splitService.
Example:
datadog:
url: http://my-agent:8080 # Required. The url to reach a running datadog agent
splitService: true # Default to false. If true, it will split inbound and outbound requests in different services in Datadog
The splitService property determines if Datadog service names should be split based on traffic direction and destination.
For example, with splitService: true and a backend service that communicates with a couple of databases,
you would get service names like backend_INBOUND, backend_OUTBOUND_db1, and backend_OUTBOUND_db2 in Datadog.
Zipkin
In most cases the only field you’ll want to set is url.
Example:
zipkin:
url: http://jaeger-collector:9411/api/v2/spans # Required. The url to a zipkin collector to send traces to
traceId128bit: false # Default to false which will expose a 64bits traceId. If true, the id of the trace is 128bits
apiVersion: httpJson # Default to httpJson. It can be httpJson, httpProto and is the version of the zipkin API
sharedSpanContext: false # Default to true. If true, the inbound and outbound traffic will share the same span.
OpenTelemetry
The only field you can set is endpoint.
Example:
openTelemetry:
endpoint: otel-collector:4317 # Required. Address of OpenTelemetry collector
Examples
Zipkin
Simple example:
apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: MeshTrace
metadata:
name: default
namespace: kong-mesh-system
labels:
kuma.io/mesh: default
spec:
targetRef:
kind: Mesh
default:
backends:
- type: Zipkin
zipkin:
url: http://jaeger-collector:9411/api/v2/spans
apiVersion: httpJson
Full example:
apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: MeshTrace
metadata:
name: default
namespace: kong-mesh-system
labels:
kuma.io/mesh: default
spec:
targetRef:
kind: Mesh
default:
tags:
- name: team
literal: core
- name: env
header:
name: x-env
default: prod
- name: version
header:
name: x-version
sampling:
overall: 80
random: 60
client: 40
backends:
- type: Zipkin
zipkin:
url: http://jaeger-collector:9411/api/v2/spans
apiVersion: httpJson
Datadog
This assumes a Datadog agent is configured and running. If you haven’t already check the Datadog observability page.
Simple example:
apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: MeshTrace
metadata:
name: default
namespace: kong-mesh-system
labels:
kuma.io/mesh: default
spec:
targetRef:
kind: Mesh
default:
backends:
- type: Datadog
datadog:
url: http://127.0.0.1:8126
Full example:
apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: MeshTrace
metadata:
name: default
namespace: kong-mesh-system
labels:
kuma.io/mesh: default
spec:
targetRef:
kind: Mesh
default:
tags:
- name: team
literal: core
- name: env
header:
name: x-env
default: prod
- name: version
header:
name: x-version
sampling:
overall: 80
random: 60
client: 40
backends:
- type: Datadog
datadog:
url: http://127.0.0.1:8126
splitService: true
OpenTelemetry
This assumes a OpenTelemetry collector is configured and running. If you haven’t already check the OpenTelementry operator.
Simple example:
apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: MeshTrace
metadata:
name: default
namespace: kong-mesh-system
labels:
kuma.io/mesh: default
spec:
targetRef:
kind: Mesh
default:
backends:
- type: OpenTelemetry
openTelemetry:
endpoint: otel-collector.com:4317
Full example:
apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: MeshTrace
metadata:
name: default
namespace: kong-mesh-system
labels:
kuma.io/mesh: default
spec:
targetRef:
kind: Mesh
default:
tags:
- name: team
literal: core
- name: env
header:
name: x-env
default: prod
- name: version
header:
name: x-version
sampling:
overall: 80
random: 60
client: 40
backends:
- type: OpenTelemetry
openTelemetry:
endpoint: otel-collector.com:4317
Targeting parts of the infrastructure
While usually you want all the traces to be sent to the same tracing backend,
you can target parts of a Mesh by using a finer-grained targetRef and a designated backend to trace different paths of our service traffic.
This is especially useful when you want traces to never leave a world region, or a cloud, for example.
In this example, we have two zones east and west, each of these with their own Zipkin collector: east.zipkincollector:9411/api/v2/spans and west.zipkincollector:9411/api/v2/spans.
We want data plane proxies in each zone to only send traces to their local collector.
To do this, we use a TargetRef kind value of MeshSubset to filter which data plane proxy a policy applies to.
West only policy:
apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: MeshTrace
metadata:
name: trace-west
namespace: kong-mesh-system
labels:
kuma.io/mesh: default
spec:
targetRef:
kind: MeshSubset
tags:
kuma.io/zone: west
default:
backends:
- type: Zipkin
zipkin:
url: http://west.zipkincollector:9411/api/v2/spans
apiVersion: httpJson
East only policy:
apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: MeshTrace
metadata:
name: trace-east
namespace: kong-mesh-system
labels:
kuma.io/mesh: default
spec:
targetRef:
kind: MeshSubset
tags:
kuma.io/zone: east
default:
backends:
- zipkin:
url: http://east.zipkincollector:9411/api/v2/spans
apiVersion: httpJson
All policy options
Spec is the specification of the Kuma MeshTrace resource.
Type: object
Properties
default
MeshTrace configuration.
Type:
objectProperties
backends
A one element array of backend definition.Envoy allows configuring only 1 backend, so the natural way ofrepresenting that would be just one object. Unfortunately due to thereasons explained in MADR 009-tracing-policy this has to be a one elementarray for now.
Type:
arrayItems
Only one of zipkin, datadog or openTelemetry can be used.
Type:
objectProperties
datadog
- Datadog backend configuration.
- Type:
object - Properties
- splitService
- Determines if datadog service name should be split based on trafficdirection and destination. For example, with
splitService: trueand abackendservice that communicates with a couple of databases, you wouldget service names likebackend_INBOUND,backend_OUTBOUND_db1, andbackend_OUTBOUND_db2in Datadog. Default: false - Type:
boolean
- Determines if datadog service name should be split based on trafficdirection and destination. For example, with
- url
required- Address of Datadog collector, only host and port are allowed (no paths,fragments etc.)
- Type:
string
- splitService
openTelemetry
- OpenTelemetry backend configuration.
- Type:
object - Properties
- endpoint
required- Address of OpenTelemetry collector.
- Type:
string - Length: ≥ 1
- endpoint
type
required- Type:
string - The value is restricted to the following:
- "Zipkin"
- "Datadog"
- "OpenTelemetry"
- Type:
zipkin
- Zipkin backend configuration.
- Type:
object - Properties
- apiVersion
- Version of the API. values: httpJson, httpProto. Default:httpJson seehttps://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/blob/v1.22.0/api/envoy/config/trace/v3/zipkin.proto#L66
- Type:
string - The value is restricted to the following:
- "httpJson"
- "httpProto"
- Default: "httpJson"
- sharedSpanContext
- Determines whether client and server spans will share the same spancontext. Default: true.https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/blob/v1.22.0/api/envoy/config/trace/v3/zipkin.proto#L63
- Type:
boolean
- traceId128bit
- Generate 128bit traces. Default: false
- Type:
boolean
- url
required- Address of Zipkin collector.
- Type:
string
- apiVersion
sampling
- Sampling configuration.Sampling is the process by which a decision is made on whether toprocess/export a span or not.
- Type:
object - Properties
- client
- Target percentage of requests that will be force traced if the'x-client-trace-id' header is set. Default: 100% Mirror ofclientsampling in Envoyhttps://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/blob/v1.22.0/api/envoy/config/filter/network/httpconnectionmanager/v2/httpconnection_manager.proto#L127-L133Either int or decimal represented as string.
- overall
- Target percentage of requests will be tracedafter all other sampling checks have been applied (client, force tracing,random sampling). This field functions as an upper limit on the totalconfigured sampling rate. For instance, setting clientsampling to 100%but overallsampling to 1% will result in only 1% of client requests withthe appropriate headers to be force traced. Default: 100% Mirror ofoverallsampling in Envoyhttps://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/blob/v1.22.0/api/envoy/config/filter/network/httpconnectionmanager/v2/httpconnection_manager.proto#L142-L150Either int or decimal represented as string.
- random
- Target percentage of requests that will be randomly selected for tracegeneration, if not requested by the client or not forced. Default: 100%Mirror of randomsampling in Envoyhttps://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/blob/v1.22.0/api/envoy/config/filter/network/httpconnectionmanager/v2/httpconnection_manager.proto#L135-L140Either int or decimal represented as string.
- client
tags
- Custom tags configuration. You can add custom tags to traces based onheaders or literal values.
- Type:
array- Items
- Custom tags configuration.Only one of literal or header can be used.
- Type:
object - Properties
- header
- Tag taken from a header.
- Type:
object - Properties
- default
- Default value to use if header is missing.If the default is missing and there is no value the tag will not beincluded.
- Type:
string
- name
required- Name of the header.
- Type:
string
- default
- literal
- Tag taken from literal value.
- Type:
string
- name
required- Name of the tag.
- Type:
string
- header
targetRef
required- TargetRef is a reference to the resource the policy takes an effect on.The resource could be either a real store object or virtual resourcedefined inplace.
- Type:
object - Properties
- kind
- Kind of the referenced resource
- Type:
string - The value is restricted to the following:
- "Mesh"
- "MeshSubset"
- "MeshGateway"
- "MeshService"
- "MeshServiceSubset"
- "MeshHTTPRoute"
- mesh
- Mesh is reserved for future use to identify cross mesh resources.
- Type:
string
- name
- Name of the referenced resource. Can only be used with kinds:
MeshService,MeshServiceSubsetandMeshGatewayRoute - Type:
string
- Name of the referenced resource. Can only be used with kinds:
- tags
- Tags used to select a subset of proxies by tags. Can only be used with kinds
MeshSubsetandMeshServiceSubset - Type:
object - This schema accepts additional properties.
- Properties
- Tags used to select a subset of proxies by tags. Can only be used with kinds
- kind
Generated with json-schema-md-doc Fri May 09 2025 15:34:46 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
