Using custom trace & span datasets

Observe’s trace data features work best with the datasets provided out of the box with the OpenTelemetry app.

If you want to use a custom span dataset, here’s what you’ll need to provide in the dataset definition (Observe automatically builds traces from spans, so you don’t need to provide a trace dataset):

Trace Explorer

Trace Explorer feature	Field(s) required in your span dataset
Use Trace Explorer at all on your dataset	span_name, span_id, trace_id, parent_span_id, start_time, and end_time fields
Filter on span type in dropdown	span_type field. The available values of the Type field are: ”Request Entry Point”, “Service Entry Point”, “Remote Call”
Filter on start time	start_time field
Duration chart	duration field
Error chart	response_status field
Service facet filter & group by Service on charts	Service field
Operation facet filter & group by Operation on charts	span_name field
Environment facet filter & group by Environment on charts	environment field
Version facet filter & group by Version on charts	version field
Error chart, response status facet filter & group by response status on charts	response_status field (When response_status is Error, the span is an error span)
Status code facet filter & group by Status code on charts	status_code field
View the flame graph for a trace	start_time, end_time, and duration fields
View the list of services in a given trace	Service field
View span events for a given span	No required fields in the span dataset; this requires a dataset named Span Event that has a foreign key column coming from the your span dataset