Distributed tracing

ProconTEL supports passing basic tracing properties by using Activity class.

Properties that are passed:

• ParentId
• TraceId
• SpanId
• Tags

This information is passed through the entire call chain - even if it interacts with another application via message bus. This means that if you create new Activity or modify the current one before sending a message, then receiver Activity will also be modified.

Reading Activity properties

var parentId = Activity.Current.ParentId;
var traceId = Activity.Current.TraceId;
var spanId = Activity.Current.SpanId;
var tags = Activity.Current.Tags;

Adding tags

Activity.Current.SetTag("key", "value");

Creating new Activity

var activity = new Activity("MyCustomActivity");
activity.SetParentId(
    ActivityTraceId.CreateFromString("01234567890123456789012345678901"),
    ActivitySpanId.CreateFromString("0123456789012345"));

activity.Start();

Structured logging fields

All of these Activity specific properties will be added as fields to structured logging. This means that every log message that is sent using ILogger will have all the fields from the current Activity added:

Example

Sender

[HttpPost("startSlabCreationProcess")]
public async Task StartSlabCreationProcessAsync()
{
    Activity.Current.SetTag("SlabCreationProcessID", Guid.NewGuid().ToString());

    var slab = _slabCreatorService.CreateSlab();
    _logger.LogInformation("Creating a new steel slab {Slab}", slab);
    await _messageBus.PublishAsync("MessageTypeX001", slab);
}

Receiver

public async Task HandleAsync(SlabCreatedMessage message)
{
    var guid = Activity.Current.GetTagItem("SlabCreationProcessID");
    _logger.LogWarning("Message received {@Message}, SlabCreationProcessID: {SlabCreationProcessID}", message, guid);
    await Task.CompletedTask;
}

In Receiver app you will see the same Activity Tag as set in Sender app.