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Package detail

@opentelemetry/instrumentation-http

open-telemetry22.5mApache-2.00.201.0TypeScript support: included

OpenTelemetry instrumentation for node:http and node:https http client and server modules

opentelemetry, http, nodejs, tracing, profiling, instrumentation

readme

OpenTelemetry HTTP and HTTPS Instrumentation for Node.js

NPM Published Version Apache License

Note: This is an experimental package under active development. New releases may include breaking changes.

This module provides automatic instrumentation for http and https.

For automatic instrumentation see the @opentelemetry/sdk-trace-node package.

Installation

npm install --save @opentelemetry/instrumentation-http

Supported Versions

  • Nodejs >=14

Usage

OpenTelemetry HTTP Instrumentation allows the user to automatically collect telemetry and export it to their backend of choice, to give observability to distributed systems.

To load a specific instrumentation (HTTP in this case), specify it in the Node Tracer's configuration.

const { HttpInstrumentation } = require('@opentelemetry/instrumentation-http');
const {
  ConsoleSpanExporter,
  NodeTracerProvider,
  SimpleSpanProcessor,
} = require('@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-node');
const { registerInstrumentations } = require('@opentelemetry/instrumentation');

const provider = new NodeTracerProvider({
  spanProcessors: [new SimpleSpanProcessor(new ConsoleSpanExporter())]
});

provider.register();

registerInstrumentations({
  instrumentations: [new HttpInstrumentation()],
});

See examples/http for a short example.

Http instrumentation Options

Http instrumentation has a few configuration options available to choose from. You can set the following:

Options Type Description
applyCustomAttributesOnSpan HttpCustomAttributeFunction Function for adding custom attributes
requestHook HttpRequestCustomAttributeFunction Function for adding custom attributes before request is handled
responseHook HttpResponseCustomAttributeFunction Function for adding custom attributes before response is handled
startIncomingSpanHook StartIncomingSpanCustomAttributeFunction Function for adding custom attributes before a span is started in incomingRequest
startOutgoingSpanHook StartOutgoingSpanCustomAttributeFunction Function for adding custom attributes before a span is started in outgoingRequest
ignoreIncomingRequestHook IgnoreIncomingRequestFunction Http instrumentation will not trace all incoming requests that matched with custom function
ignoreOutgoingRequestHook IgnoreOutgoingRequestFunction Http instrumentation will not trace all outgoing requests that matched with custom function
disableOutgoingRequestInstrumentation boolean Set to true to avoid instrumenting outgoing requests at all. This can be helpful when another instrumentation handles outgoing requests.
disableIncomingRequestInstrumentation boolean Set to true to avoid instrumenting incoming requests at all. This can be helpful when another instrumentation handles incoming requests.
serverName string The primary server name of the matched virtual host.
requireParentforOutgoingSpans Boolean Require that is a parent span to create new span for outgoing requests.
requireParentforIncomingSpans Boolean Require that is a parent span to create new span for incoming requests.
headersToSpanAttributes object List of case insensitive HTTP headers to convert to span attributes. Client (outgoing requests, incoming responses) and server (incoming requests, outgoing responses) headers will be converted to span attributes in the form of http.{request|response}.header.header_name, e.g. http.response.header.content_length

Semantic Conventions

Prior to version 0.54.0, this instrumentation created spans targeting an experimental semantic convention Version 1.7.0.

HTTP semantic conventions (semconv) were stabilized in v1.23.0, and a migration process was defined. instrumentation-http versions 0.54.0 and later include support for migrating to stable HTTP semantic conventions, as described below. The intent is to provide an approximate 6 month time window for users of this instrumentation to migrate to the new HTTP semconv, after which a new minor version will use the new semconv by default and drop support for the old semconv. See the HTTP semconv migration plan for OpenTelemetry JS instrumentations.

To select which semconv version(s) is emitted from this instrumentation, use the OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN environment variable.

  • http: emit the new (stable) v1.23.0+ semantics
  • http/dep: emit both the old v1.7.0 and the new (stable) v1.23.0+ semantics
  • By default, if OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN includes neither of the above tokens, the old v1.7.0 semconv is used.

Attributes collected

v1.7.0 semconv v1.23.0 semconv Short Description
http.client_ip client.address The IP address of the original client behind all proxies, if known
http.flavor network.protocol.version Kind of HTTP protocol used
http.host server.address The value of the HTTP host header
http.method http.request.method HTTP request method
http.request_content_length (opt-in, headersToSpanAttributes) The size of the request payload body in bytes. For newer semconv, use the headersToSpanAttributes: option to capture this as http.request.header.content_length.
http.request_content_length_uncompressed (not included) The size of the uncompressed request payload body after transport decoding. (In semconv v1.23.0 this is defined by http.request.body.size, which is experimental and opt-in.)
http.response_content_length (opt-in, headersToSpanAttributes) The size of the response payload body in bytes. For newer semconv, use the headersToSpanAttributes: option to capture this as http.response.header.content_length.
http.response_content_length_uncompressed (not included) The size of the uncompressed response payload body after transport decoding. (In semconv v1.23.0 this is defined by http.response.body.size, which is experimental and opt-in.)
http.route no change The matched route (path template).
http.scheme url.scheme The URI scheme identifying the used protocol
http.server_name server.address The primary server name of the matched virtual host
http.status_code http.response.status_code HTTP response status code
http.target url.path and url.query The URI path and query component
http.url url.full Full HTTP request URL in the form scheme://host[:port]/path?query[#fragment]
http.user_agent user_agent.original Value of the HTTP User-Agent header sent by the client
net.host.ip network.local.address Like net.peer.ip but for the host IP. Useful in case of a multi-IP host
net.host.name server.address Local hostname or similar
net.host.port server.port Like net.peer.port but for the host port
net.peer.ip. network.peer.address Remote address of the peer (dotted decimal for IPv4 or RFC5952 for IPv6)
net.peer.name server.address Server domain name if available without reverse DNS lookup
net.peer.port server.port Server port number
net.transport network.transport Transport protocol used

Metrics Exported:

Upgrading Semantic Conventions

When upgrading to the new semantic conventions, it is recommended to do so in the following order:

  1. Upgrade @opentelemetry/instrumentation-http to the latest version
  2. Set OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN=http/dup to emit both old and new semantic conventions
  3. Modify alerts, dashboards, metrics, and other processes to expect the new semantic conventions
  4. Set OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN=http to emit only the new semantic conventions

This will cause both the old and new semantic conventions to be emitted during the transition period.

License

Apache 2.0 - See LICENSE for more information.