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Important: This documentation is about an older version. It's relevant only to the release noted, many of the features and functions have been updated or replaced. Please view the current version.

Enterprise Open source

Zipkin data source

Grafana ships with built-in support for Zipkin, an open source, distributed tracing system. Just add it as a data source and you are ready to query your traces in Explore.

Adding the data source

To access Zipkin settings, click the Configuration (gear) icon, then click Data Sources, and then click Zipkin.

NameDescription
NameThe data source name. This is how you refer to the data source in panels, queries, and Explore.
DefaultDefault data source means that it will be pre-selected for new panels.
URLThe URL of the Zipkin instance, e.g., http://localhost:9411
AccessServer (default) = URL needs to be accessible from the Grafana backend/server, Browser = URL needs to be accessible from the browser.
Basic AuthEnable basic authentication to the Zipkin data source.
UserUser name for basic authentication.
PasswordPassword for basic authentication.

Query traces

Querying and displaying traces from Zipkin is available via Explore.

Screenshot of the Zipkin query editor
Screenshot of the Zipkin query editor

The Zipkin query editor allows you to query by trace ID directly or selecting a trace from trace selector. To query by trace ID, insert the ID into the text input.

Screenshot of the Zipkin query editor with trace selector expanded
Screenshot of the Zipkin query editor with trace selector expanded

Use the trace selector to pick particular trace from all traces logged in the time range you have selected in Explore. The trace selector has three levels of nesting:

  1. The service you are interested in.
  2. Particular operation is part of the selected service
  3. Specific trace in which the selected operation occurred, represented by the root operation name and trace duration.

Data mapping in the trace UI

Zipkin annotations are shown in the trace view as logs with annotation value shown under annotation key.

Linking Trace ID from logs

You can link to Zipkin trace from logs in Loki by configuring a derived field with internal link. See Loki documentation for details.