Distributed Tracing in Kubernetes using OpenTelemetry & Jaegar: A Step-by-Step Guide

OpenTelemetry-Jaegar Flow Diagram

Introduction

Distributed tracing is a cornerstone of observability in microservices architectures. It helps track requests across multiple services, making it easier to identify performance bottlenecks, diagnose issues, and understand the flow of requests in complex environments.

In this guide, we’ll set up distributed tracing in Kubernetes using OpenTelemetry for instrumentation and Jaeger as the tracing backend.

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes cluster with kubectl access
• Basic understanding of Kubernetes and observability concepts
• Helm installed on your local machine

Overview

1. Deploy Jaeger on Kubernetes: Set up the Jaeger tracing backend.
2. Install OpenTelemetry Collector: Configure it to export traces to Jaeger.
3. Instrument a sample application: Add tracing instrumentation to a sample app.

Step 1: Deploy Jaeger on Kubernetes

Jaeger will serve as our tracing backend, where collected traces will be stored and visualized. We’ll deploy it using Helm for ease of configuration.