Configuring the Go Tracing Library

After you set up the tracing library with your code, configure the Agent to collect APM data, and activate the Go integration, optionally configure the tracing library as desired.

Datadog recommends using DD_ENV, DD_SERVICE, and DD_VERSION to set env, service, and version for your services.

Read the Unified Service Tagging documentation for recommendations on how to configure these environment variables. These variables are available for versions 1.24.0+ of the Go tracer.

You may also elect to provide env, service, and version through the tracer’s API:

package main

import (
    "gopkg.in/DataDog/dd-trace-go.v1/ddtrace/tracer"
)

func main() {
    tracer.Start(
        tracer.WithEnv("prod"),
        tracer.WithService("test-go"),
        tracer.WithServiceVersion("abc123"),
    )

    // When the tracer is stopped, it will flush everything it has to the Datadog Agent before quitting.
    // Make sure this line stays in your main function.
    defer tracer.Stop()
}

The Go tracer supports additional environment variables and functions for configuration. See all available options in the configuration documentation.

DD_VERSION
Set the application’s version, for example: 1.2.3, 6c44da20, 2020.02.13
DD_SERVICE
The service name to be used for this application.
DD_ENV
Set the application’s environment, for example: prod, pre-prod, staging.
DD_AGENT_HOST
Default: localhost
Override the default trace Agent host address for trace submission.
DD_TRACE_AGENT_PORT
Default: 8126
Overrides the default trace Agent port for Datadog trace submission. If the Agent configuration sets receiver_port or DD_APM_RECEIVER_PORT to something other than the default 8126, then the library configuration DD_DOGSTATSD_PORT must match it.
DD_DOGSTATSD_PORT
Default: 8125
Overrides the default trace Agent port for DogStatsD metric submission. If the Agent configuration sets dogstatsd_port or DD_DOGSTATSD_PORT to something other than the default 8125, then the library configuration DD_DOGSTATSD_PORT must match it.
DD_TRACE_SAMPLING_RULES
Default: nil
A JSON array of objects. Each object must have a "sample_rate". The "name","service", "resource", and "tags" fields are optional. The "sample_rate" value must be between 0.0 and 1.0 (inclusive). Rules are applied in configured order to determine the trace’s sample rate.
Support for sampling by resource and tags is in beta.

For more information, see Ingestion Mechanisms.
Examples:

  • Set the sample rate to 20%: '[{"sample_rate": 0.2}]'
  • Set the sample rate to 10% for services starting with ‘a’ and span name ‘b’ and set the sample rate to 20% for all other services: '[{"service": "a.*", "name": "b", "sample_rate": 0.1}, {"sample_rate": 0.2}]'.
  • Set the sample rate to 40% for services that have HTTP GET resource name: '[{"resource": "HTTP GET", "sample_rate": 0.4}]'.
  • Set the sample rate to 100% for services that have a tier tag with the value premium: '[{"tags": {"tier":"premium"}, "sample_rate": 1}]'.
DD_TRACE_SAMPLE_RATE
Enable ingestion rate control.
DD_SPAN_SAMPLING_RULES
Default: nil
A JSON array of objects. Each object must have a "sample_rate". The "name","service", "resource", and "tags" fields are optional. Rules are applied in configured order to determine the span’s sample rate. The sample_rate value must be between 0.0 and 1.0 (inclusive).
Support for sampling by resource and tags is in beta.

For more information, see Ingestion Mechanisms.
Example:

  • Set the span sample rate to 50% for the service my-service and operation name http.request, up to 50 traces per second: '[{"service": "my-service", "name": "http.request", "sample_rate":0.5, "max_per_second": 50}]'
  • Set the sample rate to 100% for services that have a priority tag with the value high: '[{"tags": {"priority":"high"}, "sample_rate": 1}]'.
DD_TRACE_RATE_LIMIT
Maximum number of spans to sample per-second, per-Go process. Defaults to 100 when DD_TRACE_SAMPLE_RATE is set. Otherwise, delegates rate limiting to the Datadog Agent.
DD_TAGS
Default: []
A list of default tags to be added to every span and profile. Tags can be separated by commas or spaces, for example: layer:api,team:intake,key:value or layer:api team:intake key:value.
DD_TRACE_STARTUP_LOGS
Default: true
Enable startup configuration and the diagnostic log.
DD_TRACE_DEBUG
Default: false
Enable debug logging in the tracer.
DD_TRACE_ENABLED
Default: true
Enable web framework and library instrumentation. When false, the application code doesn’t generate any traces.
DD_SERVICE_MAPPING
Default: null
Dynamically rename services through configuration. Services can be separated by commas or spaces, for example: mysql:mysql-service-name,postgres:postgres-service-name, mysql:mysql-service-name postgres:postgres-service-name.
DD_INSTRUMENTATION_TELEMETRY_ENABLED
Default: true
Datadog may collect environmental and diagnostic information about your system to improve the product. When false, this telemetry data will not be collected.
DD_TRACE_PARTIAL_FLUSH_ENABLED
Default: false
Enables incrementally flushing large traces to the Datadog Agent, reducing the chance of rejection by the Agent. Use only when you have long-lived traces or traces with many spans. Valid values are true or false. Added in version 1.54.0. Only compatible with the Datadog Agent 7.26.0+.
DD_TRACE_PARTIAL_FLUSH_MIN_SPANS
Default: 1000
Number of spans within a trace that can be partially flushed to the Datadog Agent. DD_TRACE_PARTIAL_FLUSH_ENABLED must be true for partial flushing to occur. Added in version 1.54.0. Only compatible with the Datadog Agent 7.26.0+.
DD_TRACE_CLIENT_IP_ENABLED
Default: false
Enable client IP collection from relevant IP headers in HTTP request spans. Added in version 1.47.0
DD_TRACE_HEADER_TAGS
Default: null
List of comma-separated HTTP headers to be used as span tags. Optionally specify a “mapped” field to rename the request header as a tag. Configuration can be set globally with this environment variable, or at the integration level using the options specified in the Go documentation. This feature is compatible with HTTP1 headers.
Examples:
  • Capture request header my-header: "DD_TRACE_HEADER_TAGS=my-header"
  • Capture request headers my-header-1 and my-header-2: "DD_TRACE_HEADER_TAGS=my-header1,my-header-2"
  • Capture request header my-header and rename it to my-tag: "DD_TRACE_HEADER_TAGS=my-header:my-tag"

Configure APM environment name

The APM environment name may be configured in the Agent or using the WithEnv start option of the tracer.

Further reading

Additional helpful documentation, links, and articles:

Source codeGITHUB more more Package pageGODOC more more Explore your services, resources and tracesDOCUMENTATION more more Propagating trace contextDOCUMENTATION more more