Implementing service tracing in distributed systems
In distributed systems, where a request might span multiple services, distributed tracing provides visibility into how a request moves through various components.
Let’s begin by understanding what we mean by distributed tracing.
What is distributed tracing?
Distributed tracing allows you to follow the lifecycle of a request as it flows from one service to another. This helps you see where delays or errors occur. In tracing terminology, each step in the request’s journey is called a span, and a trace is the entire set of spans associated with a request.
For example, imagine a request comes into your system to create a new user. This request might touch on the following services:
- API gateway
- Authentication service
- User service (to create the user in the database)
- Notification service (to send a welcome email)
Each of these steps is a span, and all the spans together...
