Overview
Distributed tracing provides a 'bird's-eye view' of how a request flows through a microservices architecture. Each step in the process is recorded as a 'span,' and the entire collection of spans for a single request is called a 'trace.'
Key Concepts
- Span: Represents a single unit of work (e.g., a database query or an HTTP request to another service).
- Trace ID: A unique identifier that links all spans belonging to the same request.
- Context Propagation: The process of passing the Trace ID between services.
Importance
Essential for identifying which service is causing latency or errors in a complex request chain.