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Distributed Tracing with OpenTelemetry in .NET Core

Introduction

In the fast-paced world of software development, it has become common to build and maintain complex distributed systems. As these applications get bigger and more complex, the challenges of understanding and troubleshooting them also increase. This is where observability comes in, providing insights into the behavior of these distributed systems.

Distributed tracing is a critical component of observability that enables developers to track and monitor requests as they move through different components of a distributed system. However, traditionally, implementing distributed tracing has been a daunting task that requires manual instrumentation and integration with multiple libraries. Fortunately, the introduction of OpenTelemetry has significantly simplified this process.

What is OpenTelemetry?

OpenTelemetry is an open-source project that aims to provide a standardized approach for collecting observability data such as traces, metrics, and logs from across different services, frameworks, and languages. It enables developers to instrument their applications to automatically generate telemetry data and then collect process, and export it to various backend systems for analysis and visualization.

Why OpenTelemetry?

Before OpenTelemetry, developers often had to rely on multiple proprietary or language-specific tracing libraries, each with its API and limitations. This fragmented approach made achieving comprehensive observability across different parts of a distributed system challenging.

OpenTelemetry addresses these challenges by offering a unified API and SDK for various programming languages, including .NET Core. By adopting OpenTelemetry, developers can instrument their applications once and seamlessly switch between different backend systems for storing and analyzing telemetry data.

Getting Started with OpenTelemetry in .NET Core

Implementing distributed tracing with OpenTelemetry in a .NET Core application is straightforward. Here's a step-by-step guide to get you started.

Step 1. Install OpenTelemetry Packages

Begin by adding the necessary OpenTelemetry packages to your .NET Core project using NuGet Package Manager or the .NET CLI.

dotnet add package OpenTelemetry.Extensions.Hosting
dotnet add package OpenTelemetry.Exporter.Zipkin

Step 2.Instrument Your Application

Instrument your application to generate traces using the OpenTelemetry SDK. This typically involves adding code to start and stop spans around critical operations in your codebase. For example.

using OpenTelemetry.Trace;

var tracerProvider = Sdk.CreateTracerProviderBuilder()
    .AddAspNetCoreInstrumentation()
    .AddHttpClientInstrumentation()
    .AddZipkinExporter()
    .Build();

using var openTelemetry = Sdk.CreateTracerProviderBuilder()
    .AddAspNetCoreInstrumentation()
    .AddHttpClientInstrumentation()
    .AddZipkinExporter()
    .Build();

var tracer = openTelemetry.GetTracer("MyTracer");
using (var span = tracer.StartActiveSpan("OperationName"))
{
    // Perform some operation
}

Step 3. Configure Exporter

Configure the exporter to send trace data to your preferred backend system. In this example, we're using the Zipkin exporter.

using OpenTelemetry.Exporter.Zipkin;

var zipkinExporter = new ZipkinExporter(new ZipkinExporterOptions
{
    Endpoint = new Uri("http://localhost:9411/api/v2/spans")
});

tracerProvider.AddSpanProcessor(new SimpleSpanProcessor(zipkinExporter));

Step 4. Run Your Application

Run your .NET Core application, and OpenTelemetry will automatically start collecting and exporting trace data to your chosen backend system.

Conclusion

OpenTelemetry simplifies the process of implementing distributed tracing in .NET Core applications, providing a unified approach to observability. By instrumenting your code with OpenTelemetry, you can gain valuable insights into the behaviour of your distributed systems, helping you identify and resolve issues more effectively.

Whether you're building microservices, serverless functions, or any other type of distributed application, OpenTelemetry empowers you to achieve comprehensive observability, ultimately leading to better performance, reliability, and user experience. So why not give it a try and unlock the full potential of your .NET Core applications?


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