Mastering Distributed Tracing

Trace models

In Figure 3.4, we saw a component called "Collection/Normalization." The purpose of this component is to receive tracing data from the trace points in the applications and convert it to some normalized trace model, before saving it in the trace storage. Aside from the usual architectural advantages of having a façade on top of the trace storage, the normalization is especially important when we are faced with the diversity of instrumentations. It is quite common for many production environments to be using numerous versions of instrumentation libraries, from very recent ones to some that are several years old. It is also common for those versions to capture trace data in very different formats and models, both physical and conceptual. ...