Alternative Tracing Backends¶

While the default setup uses Jaeger, the gateway components use OpenTelemetry and can export to any OTLP-compatible backend.

Moesif¶

Moesif provides API analytics and monitoring with support for OpenTelemetry traces. It treats each HTTP request/response span as an API event for detailed analytics.

No additional Docker services required - Moesif is a cloud-based SaaS platform. You only need to configure the OTLP Collector to export traces to Moesif's API.

Configuration¶

Update the OTLP Collector configuration (gateway/observability/otel-collector/config.yaml) to export to Moesif:

exporters:
  # Export to Moesif
  otlphttp:
    endpoint: https://api.moesif.net/v1/traces
    headers:
      X-Moesif-Application-Id: 'your-moesif-application-id'

service:
  pipelines:
    traces:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [memory_limiter, batch, resource]
      exporters: [otlphttp]  # Send to Moesif

Important Notes: - The endpoint uses HTTPS (not HTTP) - Use the otlphttp exporter (not otlp which uses gRPC) - The X-Moesif-Application-Id header is required for authentication

Obtaining Your Moesif Application ID¶

Sign up for a Moesif account at moesif.com
Log in to your Moesif dashboard
Navigate to Settings → Installation or API Keys
Locate the Collector Application ID field
Copy your unique Application ID

Using Environment Variables¶

For better security, use environment variables for the Application ID:

exporters:
  otlphttp:
    endpoint: https://api.moesif.net/v1/traces
    headers:
      X-Moesif-Application-Id: '${MOESIF_APPLICATION_ID}'

Update docker-compose.yaml to pass the environment variable:

otel-collector:
  image: otel/opentelemetry-collector:latest
  environment:
    - MOESIF_APPLICATION_ID=${MOESIF_APPLICATION_ID}
  # ... rest of configuration

Set the environment variable before starting:

export MOESIF_APPLICATION_ID=your-moesif-application-id
docker compose --profile tracing up -d

Accessing Moesif Dashboard¶

After configuring and starting the gateway:

Navigate to moesif.com and log in
Go to Events → Live Event Log to see incoming API events
View API analytics, user behavior, and performance metrics
Use Time Series to analyze API usage trends
Set up Alerts for error rates, latency, or custom conditions

Moesif Features¶

API Analytics: Request volume, response times, error rates
User Tracking: Identify and track API users across requests
Error Analysis: Detailed error tracking with request/response bodies
Behavioral Cohorts: Group users by API usage patterns
Custom Dashboards: Build visualizations for your specific KPIs
Alerting: Get notified of anomalies or threshold breaches

Sending to Both Jaeger and Moesif¶

You can send traces to both Jaeger (for development) and Moesif (for analytics):

exporters:
  # Local Jaeger for development
  otlp/jaeger:
    endpoint: jaeger:4317
    tls:
      insecure: true

  # Moesif for analytics
  otlphttp/moesif:
    endpoint: https://api.moesif.net/v1/traces
    headers:
      X-Moesif-Application-Id: '${MOESIF_APPLICATION_ID}'

service:
  pipelines:
    traces:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [memory_limiter, batch, resource]
      exporters: [otlp/jaeger, otlphttp/moesif]

Zipkin¶

Replace Jaeger with Zipkin:

zipkin:
  image: openzipkin/zipkin:latest
  ports:
    - "9411:9411"
  networks:
    - gateway-network

Update OTLP Collector configuration to export to Zipkin:

exporters:
  zipkin:
    endpoint: http://zipkin:9411/api/v2/spans

Access Zipkin UI at http://localhost:9411

Grafana Tempo¶

For a Prometheus-style tracing backend:

tempo:
  image: grafana/tempo:latest
  command: ["-config.file=/etc/tempo.yaml"]
  volumes:
    - ./observability/tempo/tempo.yaml:/etc/tempo.yaml
    - tempo-data:/tmp/tempo
  ports:
    - "3200:3200"   # Tempo HTTP
    - "4317:4317"   # OTLP gRPC
  networks:
    - gateway-network

grafana:
  image: grafana/grafana:latest
  environment:
    - GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ENABLED=true
    - GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ORG_ROLE=Admin
  ports:
    - "3000:3000"
  volumes:
    - ./observability/grafana/datasources.yaml:/etc/grafana/provisioning/datasources/datasources.yaml
  networks:
    - gateway-network
  depends_on:
    - tempo

Configure gateway to send directly to Tempo:

tracing:
  endpoint: tempo:4317

Cloud-Native Tracing Solutions¶

AWS X-Ray¶

Configure OTLP Collector to export to AWS X-Ray:

exporters:
  awsxray:
    region: us-east-1
    no_verify_ssl: false

Or use the AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry (ADOT) Collector:

otel-collector:
  image: public.ecr.aws/aws-observability/aws-otel-collector:latest
  command: ["--config=/etc/otel-collector-config.yaml"]
  environment:
    - AWS_REGION=us-east-1

Google Cloud Trace¶

Configure OTLP Collector to export to Google Cloud:

exporters:
  googlecloud:
    project: your-gcp-project-id
    use_insecure: false

Azure Monitor¶

Use Azure Monitor exporter:

exporters:
  azuremonitor:
    instrumentation_key: "your-instrumentation-key"

Datadog APM¶

Configure OTLP Collector to export to Datadog:

exporters:
  datadog:
    api:
      key: ${DD_API_KEY}
      site: datadoghq.com

Or use Datadog Agent directly:

datadog-agent:
  image: datadog/agent:latest
  environment:
    - DD_API_KEY=${DD_API_KEY}
    - DD_APM_ENABLED=true
    - DD_APM_NON_LOCAL_TRAFFIC=true
    - DD_OTLP_CONFIG_RECEIVER_PROTOCOLS_GRPC_ENDPOINT=0.0.0.0:4317
  ports:
    - "4317:4317"
  networks:
    - gateway-network

Update gateway configuration:

tracing:
  endpoint: datadog-agent:4317

New Relic¶

Configure OTLP Collector to export to New Relic:

exporters:
  otlphttp:
    endpoint: https://otlp.nr-data.net:4317
    headers:
      api-key: ${NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY}

Honeycomb¶

exporters:
  otlp:
    endpoint: api.honeycomb.io:443
    headers:
      x-honeycomb-team: ${HONEYCOMB_API_KEY}

Lightstep¶

exporters:
  otlp:
    endpoint: ingest.lightstep.com:443
    headers:
      lightstep-access-token: ${LIGHTSTEP_ACCESS_TOKEN}

Service Mesh Integration¶

If using a service mesh like Istio or Linkerd:

Istio¶

Istio automatically generates traces for service-to-service communication. Configure gateway components to propagate trace context:

tracing:
  enabled: true
  endpoint: istio-telemetry.istio-system:4317

Linkerd¶

Linkerd integrates with Jaeger via OpenTelemetry:

tracing:
  enabled: true
  endpoint: linkerd-collector.linkerd:4317