zipkin-server

Zipkin Server is a Java 17+ service, packaged as an executable jar.

Span storage and collectors are configurable. By default, storage is in-memory, the HTTP collector (POST /api/v2/spans endpoint) is enabled, and the server listens on port 9411.

Zipkin Server is implemented with Armeria. While it uses Spring Boot internally, Zipkin Server should not be considered a normal Spring Boot application.

Custom servers are not supported

By Custom servers we mean trying to use/embed zipkin as part of an application you package (e.g. adding zipkin-server dependency to a Spring-boot application) instead of the packaged application we release.

For proper usage, see the guides below.

Quick-start

The quickest way to get started is to fetch the latest released server as a self-contained executable jar. Note that the Zipkin server requires minimum JRE 8. For example:

$ curl -sSL https://zipkin.io/quickstart.sh | bash -s
$ java -jar zipkin.jar

Once you've started, browse to http://localhost:9411/zipkin to find traces!

Endpoints

The following endpoints are defined under the base url http://your_host:9411

/ - UI
/config.json - Configuration for the UI
/api/v2 - API
/health - Returns 200 status if OK
/info - Provides the version of the running instance
/metrics - Includes collector metrics broken down by transport type
/prometheus - Prometheus scrape endpoint

The legacy /api/v1 API is still supported. Backends are decoupled from the HTTP API via data conversion. This means you can still accept legacy data on new backends and visa versa. Enter https://zipkin.io/zipkin-api/zipkin-api.yaml into the explore box of the Swagger UI to view the old definition

CORS (Cross-origin Resource Sharing)

By default, all endpoints under /api/v2 are configured to allow cross-origin requests.

This can be changed by modifying the property zipkin.query.allowed-origins.

For example, to allow CORS requests from http://foo.bar.com:

ZIPKIN_QUERY_ALLOWED_ORIGINS=http://foo.bar.com

See Configuration for more about how Zipkin is configured.

Service and Span names query

The Zipkin API does not include a parameter for how far back to look for service or span names. In order to prevent excessive load, service and span name queries are limited by QUERY_LOOKBACK, which defaults to 24hrs (two daily buckets: one for today and one for yesterday)

Logging

By default, zipkin writes log messages to the console at INFO level and above. You can adjust categories using the logging.level.XXX property.

For example, if you want to enable debug logging for all zipkin categories, you can start the server like so:

$ java -jar zipkin.jar --logging.level.zipkin2=DEBUG

See Configuration for more about how Zipkin is configured.

Advanced Logging Configuration

Under the covers, the server uses Spring Boot - Logback integration. For example, you can add --logging.exception-conversion-word=%wEx{full} to dump full stack traces instead of truncated ones.

Metrics

Collector Metrics are exported to the path /metrics. These and additional metrics are exported to the path /prometheus.

Example Prometheus configuration

Here's an example /prometheus configuration, using the Prometheus exposition text format version 0.0.4

  - job_name: 'zipkin'
    scrape_interval: 5s
    metrics_path: '/prometheus'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['localhost:9411']
    metric_relabel_configs:
      # Response code count
      - source_labels: [__name__]
        regex: '^status_(\d+)_(.*)$'
        replacement: '${1}'
        target_label: status
      - source_labels: [__name__]
        regex: '^status_(\d+)_(.*)$'
        replacement: '${2}'
        target_label: path
      - source_labels: [__name__]
        regex: '^status_(\d+)_(.*)$'
        replacement: 'http_requests_total'
        target_label: __name__

Collector

Collector metrics are broken down by transport, where the defaults are "http" and "grpc". The following are exported to the "/metrics" endpoint:

Metric	Description
counter.zipkin_collector.messages.$transport	cumulative messages received; should relate to messages reported by instrumented apps
counter.zipkin_collector.messages_dropped.$transport	cumulative messages dropped; reasons include client disconnects or malformed content
counter.zipkin_collector.bytes.$transport	cumulative message bytes
counter.zipkin_collector.spans.$transport	cumulative spans read; should relate to messages reported by instrumented apps
counter.zipkin_collector.spans_dropped.$transport	cumulative spans dropped; reasons include sampling or storage failures
gauge.zipkin_collector.message_spans.$transport	last count of spans in a message
gauge.zipkin_collector.message_bytes.$transport	last count of bytes in a message

Configuration

We support ENV variable configuration, such as STORAGE_TYPE=cassandra3, as they are familiar to administrators and easy to use in runtime environments such as Docker.

Here are the top-level configuration of Zipkin:

QUERY_PORT: Listen port for the HTTP API and web UI; Defaults to 9411
QUERY_ENABLED: false disables the HTTP read endpoints under '/api/v2'. This also disables the UI, as it relies on the API. If your only goal is to restrict search, use SEARCH_ENABLED instead. If your only goal is to disable the UI, use UI_ENABLED instead. Defaults to true
SEARCH_ENABLED: false disables searching in the query API and any indexing or post-processing in the collector to support search. This does not disable the entire UI, as trace by ID and dependency queries still operate. Disable this when you use another service (such as logs) to find trace IDs. Defaults to true
UI_ENABLED: false disables the web UI, mounted at '/zipkin'. Defaults to true
QUERY_TIMEOUT: Sets the hard timeout for query requests. Accepts any duration string (e.g., 100ms). A value of 0 will disable the timeout completely. Defaults to 11s.
QUERY_LOG_LEVEL: Log level written to the console; Defaults to INFO
QUERY_NAMES_MAX_AGE: Controls the value of the max-age header zipkin-server responds with on http requests for autocompleted values in the UI (service names for example). Defaults to 300 seconds.
QUERY_LOOKBACK: How many milliseconds queries can look back from endTs; Defaults to 24 hours (two daily buckets: one for today and one for yesterday)
STORAGE_TYPE: SpanStore implementation: one of mem, mysql, cassandra3, elasticsearch
COLLECTOR_SAMPLE_RATE: Percentage of traces to retain, defaults to always sample (1.0).
AUTOCOMPLETE_KEYS: list of span tag keys which will be returned by the /api/v2/autocompleteTags endpoint; Tag keys should be comma separated e.g. "instance_id,user_id,env"
AUTOCOMPLETE_TTL: How long in milliseconds to suppress calls to write the same autocomplete key/value pair. Default 3600000 (1 hr)

Configuration file overrides

Under the scenes, all configuration are managed by Spring Boot. This means that properties may also be overridden by system properties or any other alternative supported by Spring Boot.

We use yaml configuration to bind shorter or more idiomatic ENV variables to the Spring properties ultimately in use. While most users should only use environment variables, some may desire a properties file approach to override settings. For example, knowing we set spring.config.name=zipkin-server, Spring Boot will automatically look for a file named zipkin-server.properties in the current directory, and the same properties we set in yaml can be overridden that way.

If you choose to use property-based configuration instead of ENV variables, you are choosing to self-support your configuration. This means you'll use Spring Boot documentation or StackOverflow to resolve concerns related to property resolution as opposed to raising issues or using our chat support. We have to mention this because configuration of Spring implies vast responsibility and our resources must be conserved for Zipkin related tasks.

UI

Zipkin has a web UI, automatically included in the exec jar, and is hosted by default on port 9411 under the path '/zipkin'. This is enabled unless UI_ENABLED or QUERY_ENABLED are set to false.

When the UI loads, it reads default configuration from the /config.json endpoint.

Attribute	Property	Description
environment	zipkin.ui.environment	The value here becomes a label in the top-right corner. Not required.
defaultLookback	zipkin.ui.default-lookback	Default duration in millis to look back when finding traces. Affects the "Start time" element in the UI. Defaults to 900000 (15 minutes in millis).
searchEnabled	zipkin.ui.search-enabled	If the Discover screen is enabled. Defaults to true.
queryLimit	zipkin.ui.query-limit	Default limit for Find Traces. Defaults to 10.
instrumented	zipkin.ui.instrumented	Which sites this Zipkin UI covers. Regex syntax. e.g. `http:\/\/example.com\/.` Defaults to match all websites (`.`).
logsUrl	zipkin.ui.logs-url	Logs query service url pattern. If specified, a button will appear on the trace page and will replace {traceId} in the url by the traceId. Not required.
supportUrl	zipkin.ui.support-url	A URL where a user can ask for support. If specified, a link will be placed in the side menu to this URL, for example a page to file support tickets. Not required.
archivePostUrl	zipkin.ui.archive-post-url	Url to POST the current trace in Zipkin v2 json format. e.g. `https://longterm/api/v2/spans`. If specified, a button will appear on the trace page accordingly. Not required.
archiveUrl	zipkin.ui.archive-url	Url to a web application serving an archived trace, templated by '{traceId}'. e.g. `https://longterm/zipkin/trace/{traceId}`. This is shown in a confirmation message after a trace is successfully POSTed to the `archivePostUrl`. Not required.
dependency.enabled	zipkin.ui.dependency.enabled	If the Dependencies screen is enabled. Defaults to true.
dependency.lowErrorRate	zipkin.ui.dependency.low-error-rate	The rate of error calls on a dependency link that turns it yellow. Defaults to 0.5 (50%) set to >1 to disable.
dependency.highErrorRate	zipkin.ui.dependency.high-error-rate	The rate of error calls on a dependency link that turns it red. Defaults to 0.75 (75%) set to >1 to disable.
basePath	zipkin.ui.basepath	path prefix placed into the tag in the UI HTML; useful when running behind a reverse proxy. Default "/zipkin"

To map properties to environment variables, change them to upper-underscore case format. For example, if using docker you can set ZIPKIN_UI_QUERY_LIMIT=100 to affect $.queryLimit in /config.json.

Trace archival

Most production Zipkin clusters store traces with a limited TTL. This makes it a bit inconvenient to share a trace, as the link to it will expire after a few days.

The "archive a trace" feature helps with this. Launch a second zipkin server pointing to a storage with a longer TTL than the regular one and set the archivePostUrl and archiveUrl UI configs pointing to this second server. Once archivePostUrl is set, a new "Archive Trace" button will appear on the trace view page.

Storage

In-Memory Storage

Zipkin's In-Memory Storage holds all data in memory, purging older data upon a span limit. It applies when STORAGE_TYPE is unset or set to the value mem.

* `MEM_MAX_SPANS`: Oldest traces (and their spans) will be purged first when this limit is exceeded. Default 500000

Example usage:

$ java -jar zipkin.jar

Note: this storage component was primarily developed for testing and as a means to get Zipkin server up and running quickly without external dependencies. It is not viable for high work loads. That said, if you encounter out-of-memory errors, try decreasing MEM_MAX_SPANS or increasing the heap size (-Xmx).

Exampled of doubling the amount of spans held in memory:

$ MEM_MAX_SPANS=1000000 java -Xmx1G -jar zipkin.jar

Cassandra Storage

Zipkin's Cassandra storage component supports Cassandra 3.11.3+ and applies when STORAGE_TYPE is set to cassandra3:

* `CASSANDRA_KEYSPACE`: The keyspace to use. Defaults to "zipkin2"
* `CASSANDRA_CONTACT_POINTS`: Comma separated list of host addresses part of Cassandra cluster. You can also specify a custom port with 'host:port'. Defaults to localhost on port 9042.
* `CASSANDRA_LOCAL_DC`: Name of the datacenter that will be considered "local" for load balancing. Defaults to "datacenter1"
* `CASSANDRA_ENSURE_SCHEMA`: Ensuring cassandra has the latest schema. If enabled tries to execute scripts in the classpath prefixed with `cassandra-schema-cql3`. Defaults to true
* `CASSANDRA_USERNAME` and `CASSANDRA_PASSWORD`: Cassandra authentication. Will throw an exception on startup if authentication fails. No default
* `CASSANDRA_USE_SSL`: Requires `javax.net.ssl.trustStore` and `javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword`, defaults to false.
* `CASSANDRA_SSL_HOSTNAME_VALIDATION`: Controls validation of Cassandra server hostname. defaults to true.

The following are tuning parameters which may not concern all users:

* `CASSANDRA_MAX_CONNECTIONS`: Max pooled connections per datacenter-local host. Defaults to 8
* `CASSANDRA_INDEX_CACHE_MAX`: Maximum trace index metadata entries to cache. Zero disables caching. Defaults to 100000.
* `CASSANDRA_INDEX_CACHE_TTL`: How many seconds to cache index metadata about a trace. Defaults to 60.
* `CASSANDRA_INDEX_FETCH_MULTIPLIER`: How many more index rows to fetch than the user-supplied query limit. Defaults to 3.

Example usage with Cassandra with request logging (TRACE shows query values):

$ STORAGE_TYPE=cassandra3 java -jar zipkin.jar \
--logging.level.com.datastax.oss.driver.internal.core.tracker.RequestLogger=DEBUG

Elasticsearch Storage

Zipkin's Elasticsearch storage component supports versions Elasticsearch 7-8.x and OpenSearch 2.x and applies when STORAGE_TYPE is set to elasticsearch

The following apply when STORAGE_TYPE is set to elasticsearch:

* `ES_HOSTS`: A comma separated list of elasticsearch base urls to connect to ex. http://host:9200.
              Defaults to "http://localhost:9200".
* `ES_PIPELINE`: Indicates the ingest pipeline used before spans are indexed. No default.
* `ES_TIMEOUT`: Controls the connect, read and write socket timeouts (in milliseconds) for
                Elasticsearch / OpenSearch API. Defaults to 10000 (10 seconds)
* `ES_INDEX`: The index prefix to use when generating daily index names. Defaults to zipkin.
* `ES_DATE_SEPARATOR`: The date separator to use when generating daily index names. Defaults to '-'.
* `ES_INDEX_SHARDS`: The number of shards to split the index into. Each shard and its replicas
                     are assigned to a machine in the cluster. Increasing the number of shards
                     and machines in the cluster will improve read and write performance. Number
                     of shards cannot be changed for existing indices, but new daily indices
                     will pick up changes to the setting. Defaults to 5.
* `ES_INDEX_REPLICAS`: The number of replica copies of each shard in the index. Each shard and
                       its replicas are assigned to a machine in the cluster. Increasing the
                       number of replicas and machines in the cluster will improve read
                       performance, but not write performance. Number of replicas can be changed
                       for existing indices. Defaults to 1. It is highly discouraged to set this
                       to 0 as it would mean a machine failure results in data loss.
* `ES_ENSURE_TEMPLATES`: Installs Zipkin index templates when missing. Setting this to false can
                         lead to corrupted data when index templates mismatch expectations. If
                         you set this to false, you choose to troubleshoot your own data or
                         migration problems as opposed to relying on the community for this.
                         Defaults to true.
* `ES_USERNAME` and `ES_PASSWORD`: Elasticsearch / OpenSearch basic authentication, which defaults to empty string.
                                   Use when X-Pack security (formerly Shield) is in place.
* `ES_CREDENTIALS_FILE`: The location of a file containing Elasticsearch / OpenSearch basic authentication
                         credentials, as properties. The username property is
                         `zipkin.storage.elasticsearch.username`, password `zipkin.storage.elasticsearch.password`.
                         This file is reloaded periodically, using `ES_CREDENTIALS_REFRESH_INTERVAL`
                         as the interval. This parameter takes precedence over ES_USERNAME and
                          ES_PASSWORD when specified.
* `ES_CREDENTIALS_REFRESH_INTERVAL`: Credentials refresh interval in seconds, which defaults to
                                     1 second. This is the maximum amount of time spans will drop due to stale
                                     credentials. Any errors reading the credentials file occur in logs at this rate.
* `ES_HTTP_LOGGING`: When set, controls the volume of HTTP logging of the Elasticsearch / OpenSearch API.
                     Options are BASIC, HEADERS, BODY
* `ES_SSL_NO_VERIFY`: When true, disables the verification of server's key certificate chain.
                      This is not appropriate for production. Defaults to false.
* `ES_TEMPLATE_PRIORITY`: The priority value of the composable index templates. This is only applicable
                          for ES version 7.8 or above. Must be set, even to 0, to use composable template

Example usage:

To connect normally:

$ STORAGE_TYPE=elasticsearch ES_HOSTS=http://myhost:9200 java -jar zipkin.jar

To log Elasticsearch / OpenSearch API requests:

$ STORAGE_TYPE=elasticsearch ES_HTTP_LOGGING=BASIC java -jar zipkin.jar

Using a custom Key Store or Trust Store (SSL)

If your Elasticsearch / OpenSearch endpoint customized SSL configuration (for example self-signed) certificates, you can use any of the following subset of JSSE properties to connect.

javax.net.ssl.keyStore
javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword
javax.net.ssl.keyStoreType
javax.net.ssl.trustStore
javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword
javax.net.ssl.trustStoreType

Usage example:

$ JAVA_OPTS='-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore=keystore.p12 -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword=keypassword -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStoreType=PKCS12 -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=truststore.p12 -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=trustpassword -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStoreType=PKCS12'
$ STORAGE_TYPE=elasticsearch java $JAVA_OPTS -jar zipkin.jar

Under the scenes, these map to properties prefixed zipkin.storage.elasticsearch.ssl., which affect the Armeria client used to connect to Elasticsearch / OpenSearch.

The above properties allow the most common SSL setup to work out of box. If you need more customization, please make a comment in this issue.

Automatic Index Creation

Zipkin will automatically create new indices as needed. Elasticsearch / OpenSearch by default allows automatic creation of said indices, though your local install may have been configured to disallow it. You can verify this in the cluster settings: action.auto_create_index: false.

Legacy (v1) storage components

The following components are no longer encouraged, but exist to help aid transition to supported ones. These are indicated as "v1" as they use data layouts based on Zipkin's V1 Thrift model, as opposed to the simpler v2 data model currently used.

MySQL Storage

Zipkin's MySQL component is tested against MySQL 5.7 and applies when STORAGE_TYPE is set to mysql:

* `MYSQL_DB`: The database to use. Defaults to "zipkin".
* `MYSQL_USER` and `MYSQL_PASS`: MySQL authentication, which defaults to empty string.
* `MYSQL_HOST`: Defaults to localhost
* `MYSQL_TCP_PORT`: Defaults to 3306
* `MYSQL_MAX_CONNECTIONS`: Maximum concurrent connections, defaults to 10
* `MYSQL_USE_SSL`: Requires `javax.net.ssl.trustStore` and `javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword`, defaults to false.

Note: This module is not recommended for production usage. Before using this, you must apply the schema.

Alternatively you can use MYSQL_JDBC_URL and specify the complete JDBC url yourself. Note that the URL constructed by using the separate settings above will also include the following parameters: ?autoReconnect=true&useSSL=false&useUnicode=yes&characterEncoding=UTF-8. If you specify the JDBC url yourself, add these parameters as well.

Example usage:

$ STORAGE_TYPE=mysql MYSQL_USER=root java -jar zipkin.jar

Throttled Storage (Experimental)

These settings can be used to help tune the rate at which Zipkin flushes data to another, underlying StorageComponent (such as Elasticsearch):

* `STORAGE_THROTTLE_ENABLED`: Enables throttling
* `STORAGE_THROTTLE_MIN_CONCURRENCY`: Minimum number of Threads to use for writing to storage.
* `STORAGE_THROTTLE_MAX_CONCURRENCY`: Maximum number of Threads to use for writing to storage.
* `STORAGE_THROTTLE_MAX_QUEUE_SIZE`: How many messages to buffer while all Threads are writing data before abandoning a message (0 = no buffering).

As this feature is experimental, it is not recommended to run this in production environments.

Collector

HTTP Collector

The HTTP collector is enabled by default. It accepts spans via POST /api/v1/spans and POST /api/v2/spans, on the ${QUERY_PORT} which defaults to 9411.

The HTTP collector supports the following configuration:

Property	Environment Variable	Description
`zipkin.collector.http.enabled`	`COLLECTOR_HTTP_ENABLED`	`false` disables the HTTP collector. Defaults to `true`.

Scribe (Legacy) Collector

A collector supporting Scribe is enabled when COLLECTOR_SCRIBE_ENABLED=true. New sites are discouraged from using this collector as Scribe is an archived technology.

Environment Variable	Property	Description
`COLLECTOR_PORT`	`zipkin.collector.scribe.port`	The port to listen for thrift RPC scribe requests. Defaults to 9410
`SCRIBE_CATEGORY`	`zipkin.collector.scribe.category`	Category zipkin spans will be consumed from. Defaults to `zipkin`

ActiveMQ Collector

The ActiveMQ Collector is enabled when ACTIVEMQ_URL is set to a v5.x broker. The following settings apply in this case.

Environment Variable	Property	Description
`COLLECTOR_ACTIVEMQ_ENABLED`	`zipkin.collector.activemq.enabled`	`false` disables the ActiveMQ collector. Defaults to `true`.
`ACTIVEMQ_URL`	`zipkin.collector.activemq.url`	Connection URL to the ActiveMQ broker, ex. `tcp://localhost:61616` or `failover:(tcp://localhost:61616,tcp://remotehost:61616)`
`ACTIVEMQ_QUEUE`	`zipkin.collector.activemq.queue`	Queue from which to collect span messages. Defaults to `zipkin`
`ACTIVEMQ_CLIENT_ID_PREFIX`	`zipkin.collector.activemq.client-id-prefix`	Client ID prefix for queue consumers. Defaults to `zipkin`
`ACTIVEMQ_CONCURRENCY`	`zipkin.collector.activemq.concurrency`	Number of concurrent span consumers. Defaults to `1`
`ACTIVEMQ_USERNAME`	`zipkin.collector.activemq.username`	Optional username to connect to the broker
`ACTIVEMQ_PASSWORD`	`zipkin.collector.activemq.password`	Optional password to connect to the broker

Example usage:

$ ACTIVEMQ_URL=tcp://localhost:61616 java -jar zipkin.jar

Kafka Collector

The Kafka collector is enabled when KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS is set to a v0.10+ server. The following settings apply in this case. Some settings correspond to "New Consumer Configs" in Kafka documentation.

Variable	New Consumer Config	Description
`COLLECTOR_KAFKA_ENABLED`	N/A	`false` disables the Kafka collector. Defaults to `true`.
`KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS`	bootstrap.servers	Comma-separated list of brokers, ex. 127.0.0.1:9092. No default
`KAFKA_GROUP_ID`	group.id	The consumer group this process is consuming on behalf of. Defaults to `zipkin`
`KAFKA_TOPIC`	N/A	Comma-separated list of topics that zipkin spans will be consumed from. Defaults to `zipkin`
`KAFKA_STREAMS`	N/A	Count of threads consuming the topic. Defaults to `1`

Example usage:

$ KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS=127.0.0.1:9092 \
    java -jar zipkin.jar

Other Kafka consumer properties

You may need to set other Kafka consumer properties, in addition to the ones with explicit properties defined by the collector. In this case, you need to prefix that property name with zipkin.collector.kafka.overrides and pass it as a system property argument.

For example, to override auto.offset.reset, you can set a system property named zipkin.collector.kafka.overrides.auto.offset.reset:

$ KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS=127.0.0.1:9092 \
    java -Dzipkin.collector.kafka.overrides.auto.offset.reset=latest -jar zipkin.jar

Detailed examples

Example targeting Kafka running in Docker:

$ export KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS=$(docker-machine ip `docker-machine active`)
# Run Kafka in the background
$ docker run -d -p 9092:9092 \
    --env ADVERTISED_HOST=$KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS \
    --env AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS=true \
    spotify/kafka
# Start the zipkin server, which reads $KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS
$ java -jar zipkin.jar

Multiple bootstrap servers:

$ KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS=broker1.local:9092,broker2.local:9092 \
    java -jar zipkin.jar

Alternate topic name(s):

$ KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS=127.0.0.1:9092 \
    java -Dzipkin.collector.kafka.topic=zapkin,zipken -jar zipkin.jar

Specifying bootstrap servers as a system property, instead of an environment variable:

$ java -Dzipkin.collector.kafka.bootstrap-servers=127.0.0.1:9092 \
    -jar zipkin.jar

RabbitMQ collector

The RabbitMQ collector will be enabled when the addresses or uri for the RabbitMQ server(s) is set.

Example usage:

$ RABBIT_ADDRESSES=localhost java -jar zipkin.jar

gRPC Collector

The gRPC collector is enabled by default. It accepts spans via zipkin.proto3.SpanService/Report, on the ${QUERY_PORT} which defaults to 9411.

The gRPC collector supports the following configuration:

Variable	Description
`COLLECTOR_GRPC_ENABLED`	`false` disables the gRPC service. Defaults to `true`.

The proto definition is here: https://github.com/openzipkin/zipkin-api/blob/master/zipkin.proto

Service Registration

Eureka

Zipkin can register itself in Eureka, allowing traced services to discover its listen address and health state. This is enabled when EUREKA_SERVICE_URL is set to a valid v2 endpoint of the Eureka REST API.

Variable	Instance field	Description
`DISCOVERY_EUREKA_ENABLED`	N/A	`false` disables Eureka registration. Defaults to `true`.
`EUREKA_SERVICE_URL`	N/A	v2 endpoint of Eureka, e.g. `https://eureka-prod/eureka/v2`. No default
`EUREKA_APP_NAME`	.app	The application this instance registers to. Defaults to `zipkin`
`EUREKA_HOSTNAME`	.hostName	The instance `hostName`. Defaults to detect.
`EUREKA_INSTANCE_ID`	.instanceId	Defaults to `${EUREKA_HOSTNAME}:${EUREKA_APP_NAME}:${QUERY_PORT}`.

Example usage:

$ EUREKA_SERVICE_URL=http://localhost:8761/eureka/v2 java -jar zipkin.jar

If you are using a containerized environment, you may need to set EUREKA_HOSTNAME to avoid detecting the wrong hostname. For example, if using docker-compose, set EUREKA_HOSTNAME to zipkin's container_name.

If your Eureka server requires authentication, adjust EUREKA_SERVICE_URL accordingly. If user info is present, those credentials will be used for BASIC authentication. For example, if the URL is https://myuser:mypassword@1.1.3.1/eureka/v2/, requests to Eureka will authenticate with the user "myuser" and password "mypassword".

Note: Eureka server registration only includes host and port details. Tracers need to resolve this to the POST endpoint "/api/v2/spans".

Self-Tracing

Self tracing exists to help troubleshoot performance of the zipkin-server. Production deployments who enable self-tracing should lower the sample rate from 1.0 (100%) to a much smaller rate, like 0.001 (0.1% or 1 out of 1000).

When zipkin.self-tracing.enabled=true, Zipkin will self-trace calls to the API under the service name "zipkin-server".

Variable	Property	Description
SELF_TRACING_ENABLED	zipkin.self-tracing.enabled	Set to true to enable self-tracing. Defaults to false
SELF_TRACING_SAMPLE_RATE	zipkin.self-tracing.sample-rate	Percentage of self-traces to retain, defaults to always sample (1.0).
SELF_TRACING_FLUSH_INTERVAL	zipkin.self-tracing.flush-interval	Interval in seconds to flush self-tracing data to storage. Defaults to 1

128-bit trace IDs

Zipkin supports 64 and 128-bit trace identifiers, typically serialized as 16 or 32 character hex strings. By default, spans reported to zipkin with the same trace ID will be considered in the same trace.

For example, 463ac35c9f6413ad48485a3953bb6124 is a 128-bit trace ID, while 48485a3953bb6124 is a 64-bit one.

Note: Span (or parent) IDs within a trace are 64-bit regardless of the length or value of their trace ID.

Migrating from 64 to 128-bit trace IDs

Unless you only issue 128-bit traces when all applications support them, the process of updating applications from 64 to 128-bit trace IDs results in a mixed state. This mixed state is mitigated by the setting STRICT_TRACE_ID=false, explained below. Once a migration is complete, remove the setting STRICT_TRACE_ID=false or set it to true.

Here are a few trace IDs the help what happens during this setting.

Trace ID A: 463ac35c9f6413ad48485a3953bb6124
Trace ID B: 48485a3953bb6124
Trace ID C: 463ac35c9f6413adf1a48a8cff464e0e
Trace ID D: 463ac35c9f6413ad

In a 64-bit environment, trace IDs will look like B or D above. When an application upgrades to 128-bit instrumentation and decides to create a 128-bit trace, its trace IDs will look like A or C above.

Applications who aren't yet 128-bit capable typically only retain the right-most 16 characters of the trace ID. When this happens, the same trace could be reported as trace ID A or trace ID B.

By default, Zipkin will think these are different trace IDs, as they are different strings. During a transition from 64-128 bit trace IDs, spans would appear split across two IDs. For example, it might start as trace ID A, but the next hop might truncate it to trace ID B. This would render the system unusable for applications performing upgrades.

One way to address this problem is to not use 128-bit trace IDs until all applications support them. This prevents a mixed scenario at the cost of coordination. Another way is to set STRICT_TRACE_ID=false.

When STRICT_TRACE_ID=false, only the right-most 16 of a 32 character trace ID are considered when grouping or retrieving traces. This setting should only be applied when transitioning from 64 to 128-bit trace IDs and removed once the transition is complete.

See openzipkin/b3-propagation#6 for the status of known open source libraries on 128-bit trace identifiers.

See zipkin2.storage.StorageComponent.Builder for even more details!

TLS/SSL

Zipkin-server can be made to run with TLS if needed:

# assuming you generate the key like this
keytool -genkeypair -alias mysite -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -storetype PKCS12 -keystore zipkin.p12 -validity 3650

java -jar zipkin.jar --armeria.ssl.key-store=zipkin.p12 --armeria.ssl.key-store-type=PKCS12 --armeria.ssl.key-store-password=123123 --armeria.ssl.key-alias=mysite  --armeria.ssl.enabled=true --armeria.ports[0].port=9411 --armeria.ports[0].protocols[0]=https

Running with Docker

Released versions of zipkin-server are published to Docker Hub as openzipkin/zipkin. See docker-zipkin for details.

Building locally

To build and run the server from the currently checked out source, enter the following.

# Build the server and also make its dependencies
$ ./mvnw -T1C -q --batch-mode -DskipTests --also-make -pl zipkin-server clean package
# Run the server
$ java -jar ./zipkin-server/target/zipkin-server-*exec.jar
# or Run the slim server
$ java -jar ./zipkin-server/target/zipkin-server-*slim.jar

Files

README.md

Latest commit

History

README.md

File metadata and controls

zipkin-server

Custom servers are not supported

Quick-start

Endpoints

CORS (Cross-origin Resource Sharing)

Service and Span names query

Logging

Advanced Logging Configuration

Metrics

Example Prometheus configuration

Collector

Configuration

Configuration file overrides

UI

Trace archival

Storage

In-Memory Storage

Cassandra Storage

Elasticsearch Storage

Using a custom Key Store or Trust Store (SSL)

Automatic Index Creation

Legacy (v1) storage components

MySQL Storage

Throttled Storage (Experimental)

Collector

HTTP Collector

Scribe (Legacy) Collector

ActiveMQ Collector

Kafka Collector

Other Kafka consumer properties

Detailed examples

RabbitMQ collector

gRPC Collector

Service Registration

Eureka

Self-Tracing

128-bit trace IDs

Migrating from 64 to 128-bit trace IDs

TLS/SSL

Running with Docker

Building locally