Distributed tracing: Understanding how all your components work together

Looking at a service in isolation in a multiservice architecture simply does not give you enough information. Distributed tracing tools shine a light on the relationship between components. Jos Carlos Chvez explains how distributed tracing works, what you can use it for, and how tools like Zipkin can help.

Monitoring and understanding failures in monoliths or small systems starts with looking at a single component in isolation. Multiservice architecture invalidates this assumption because end-user requests now traverse dozens of components. Looking at a service in isolation simply does not give you enough information: each is just one side of a bigger story. Distributed tracing summarizes all sides of the story into a shared timeline. Distributed tracing tools shine a light on the relationship between components, from the very top of the stack to the deepest component in the system, which gives the feeling of working with a single system even while working in distributed environments. José Carlos Chávez explains how distributed tracing works, what you can use it for, and how tools like Zipkin can help.