Traces

groundcover is fully able to ingest traces generated by DatadDog APM, displaying it natively in our platform. The result is a seamless experience of combining eBPF and DataDog traces to enable even more insights into your applications.

Once ingested, DataDog traces will natively appear as Distributed Traces in the platform.

There are two ways to ingest DataDog traces into groundcover:

1. Dual Shipping from the DataDog agent - to DataDog + groundcover's endpoint

2. Redirecting the DataDog SDK to send traces to groundcover's endpoint

Finding the groundcover sensor service endpoint

Both methods - Dual Shipping and SDK redirection - require locating the groundcover endpoint to ship the traces to. Use the instructions here to locate the endpoint for the sensor service, referenced below as {GROUNDCOVER_SENSOR_ENDPOINT}.

Dual Shipping from the DataDog agent

This method will send traces both to DataDog and to groundcover, and relies on having a running DataDog agent.

It's mostly useful when you wish to see how DataDog traces look in groundcover, while still sending them to DataDog as well.

Configuring the DataDog agent for Dual Shipping is done using the following environment variable. Note that the "apikey" should be left as is, as the ingestion does not require any type of apikey.

YAML

datadog:  
  env:
    - name: "DD_APM_ADDITIONAL_ENDPOINTS"
      value: "{\"http://{GROUNDCOVER_SENSOR_ENDPOINT}:8126\": [\"apikey\"]}"

ENV

DD_APM_ADDITIONAL_ENDPOINTS='{\"http://{GROUNDCOVER_ALLIGATOR_ENDPOINT}:8126\": [\"apikey\"]}'

Redirecting the SDKs traces endpoint

This method redirects the DataDog SDKs to send traces to groundcover directly, without requiring a running DataDog agent.

It allows taking advantage of existing instrumentation without the need for maintaining a running DataDog agent.

Apply the following environment variables to your deployment to redirect the traffic to groundcover's endpoint for ingestion:

env:
  - name: DD_TRACE_AGENT_URL
    value: "http://{GROUNDCOVER_SENSOR_ENDPOINT}:8126"

Keep in mind - using this method will stop sending traces to the DataDog agent, meaning they will not appear in DataDog's platform

Sampling Incoming Traces

As of December 1st, 2024, the default sampling rate is 5%. See below on how to control this value.

If sampling is not done by the DataDog SDK, it can be convenient to sample a ratio of the incoming traces in groundcover.

groundcover sampling does not take into account sampling being done in earlier stages (e.g SDK or collectors). It's recommended to choose one point for sampling.

To configure sampling, the relevant values can be used:

agent:
  sensor:
    apmIngestor:
      dataDog:
        samplingRatio: 0.05

The samplingRatio field is a fraction in the range 0-1. For example, 0.1 means 10% of the incoming traces will be sampled and stored in groundcover.

Configuring 100% Sampling Ratio (No Sampling)

Use the values below to disable sampling and ingest 100% of the incoming traces.

agent:
  sensor:
    apmIngestor:
      dataDog:
        samplingRatio: 1