OpenTelemetry Tracing

Several MATRIXX components support distributed tracing using the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) standard for collecting trace information, OpenTelemetry.

Distributed traces record the complete paths that requests take as they propagate through multi-service architectures. Multiple spans are connected to create a trace. This information can then be queried to find out the health of the system, individual components, or individual requests.

The MATRIXX components that support OpenTelemetry are:

SBA Gateway (CHF)
Kafka CDR Consumer
External Diameter Gateway
RS Gateway

OpenTelemetry Tracing Process illustrates the OpenTelemetry tracing process for MATRIXX components.

OpenTelemetry Environment Variables describes the OpenTelemetry environment variables that can be used to configure MATRIXX components:

Table 1. OpenTelemetry Environment Variables
Environment Variable	Description
OTEL_JAVAAGENT_ENABLED	To configure this value in the MATRIXX Helm chart, set `global.tracing.enabled` to `true`; the default value is `false`. When `global.tracing.enabled` is `true`, this environment variable is also set to `true`.
OTEL_SERVICE_NAME	When `global.tracing.enabled` is set to `true`, specifies the OpenTelemetry service name for the component. Valid values are: `chf-proxy` `kafka-cdr-consumer` `edgw` `rsgateway`
OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER	The default for this environment variable is `parentbased_always_on`. For a list of other options for this variable, refer to the OpenTelemetry documentation.
OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG	This is required when OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER is set to `traceidratio` or `parentbased_traceidratio`. For more information, refer to the OpenTelemetry documentation.
OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER	The default for this environment variable is `otlp`. For a list of other options for this variable, refer to the OpenTelemetry documentation.
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT	Configure the endpoint for OpenTelemetry. Alternately, configure the `global.tracing.opentelemetry.endpoint.(httpSchema\|host\|grpcPort]`Helm chart property.

Kafka CDR Consumer and External Diameter Gateway use their own Helm values files. The configuration parameters list for these two components follows, with service names kafka-cdr-consumer and edgw, respectively:

   - name: "OTEL_SDK_DISABLED"
              value: "false"
            - name: "OTEL_SERVICE_NAME"
              value: {{ .Values.gateway.opentelemetry.serviceName }}
            - name: "OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT"
              value: {{ .Values.gateway.opentelemetry.endPointUrl }}
            - name: "OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES"
              value: "{{ .Values.gateway.opentelemetry.resourceAttributes }}"
            - name: "OTEL_PROPAGATORS"
              value: {{ .Values.gateway.opentelemetry.propagators }}
            - name: "OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER"
              value: {{ .Values.gateway.opentelemetry.tracesExporter }}
            - name: "OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER"
              value: {{ .Values.gateway.opentelemetry.tracesSampler }}

For more information about configuring MATRIXX components for distributed tracing, see the discussion about distributed tracing configuration in MATRIXX Configuration.

For more information about environment variables, see the discussion about environment variables and command arguments in MATRIXX Installation and Upgrade.