OpenTelemetry Visual Handbook · lab
The steps are easy. The order is the plan.
Every step of an OpenTelemetry rollout is in this handbook, with a lab of its own. The mistakes are rarely in a step; they are in doing one before what it stands on — manual spans before there is a request span to hang them from, sampling before traces are whole, logs pointing at traces cut in half at the first proxy.
Watch the recommended order climb, then switch to starting from code and see where each step lands too early. In the planner, put the steps in your own order: every warning names what was missing and what it costs.
Break it
- Start from code. Read the warnings: each one is rework or a blind spot, with the lab that explains it.
- Move the Collector to the top. Two warnings disappear at once: the agent and sampling both stood on it.
- Put sampling before propagation. The tail sampler would be deciding on traces split in two.
Predict before you look
Answer first, then try it in the planner.
A team starts by adding manual spans to its own code, before any agent or Collector. What is the first thing that goes wrong?
Commit to an answer first. You cannot change it afterwards.
Where this connects
Every step links to its lab: Agent or gateway, Zero-code instrumentation, Hard context and baggage, A log that knows its trace, Manual spans and Head vs tail sampling. This is the page that puts them in order.
Check your understanding
The assessment for this lab has not been authored yet.