๐Ÿง Missing spans (operations) in a trace

Follow this guide to troubleshoot why specific spans don't show up in a trace.

If you are looking at a trace and expecting to see specific spans which are missing from the visualization, there are several things you can check to pinpoint the issue.

Check if the spans appear on the Trace timeline view

The visualization in the Trace visualization tab shows mostly non-internal spans. If your missing spans are of kind internal that may be the reason why they do not appear on the graph (with the exception of custom spans).

In the visualization screen, switch to the Trace timeline view and search for the missing spans.

If you find them, check their kind.

If you still think the missing spans should appear on the graph, please get in touch along with the trace ID and the missing spans' IDs (which you can copy from the timeline view) so that we can investigate further.

Check if you see other spans with the same operation in Helios

It might be that the specific missing operations are not automatically instrumented. Can you see these operations in other traces? You can try to search for them on our Traces page by using the filters.

Another option is to turn on the DEBUG flag in the Helios SDK and check your logs if the instrumentation occurs.

If you can't find any spans matching said operation, you can get in touch and we'll help you understand if the instrumentation is supported or not.
If you wish, you can add a manual instrumentation for these operations.

Spans are not sent to Helios collector

If the missing operation is instrumented but does not appear as part of the trace it is possible that your process ends before the spans can be reported by the SDK to the Helios collector.
If this is a plausible option in your service, you can try and flush Helios's telemetries before the process ends.

from helios import flush

flush()
const { flush } = require('helios-opentelemetry-sdk');

flush();
import { flush } from '@heliosphere/opentelemetry-sdk';

flush();

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Still can't see all your spans?

Get in touch and we'd be happy to assist quickly โค๏ธ