---
type: docs
title: "Configure Dapr to send distributed tracing data"
linkTitle: "Configure tracing"
weight: 100
description: "Configure Dapr to send distributed tracing data"
---

It is recommended to run Dapr with tracing enabled for any production
scenario.  You can configure Dapr to send tracing and telemetry data
to many observability tools based on your environment, whether it is running in
the cloud or on-premises.

## Configuration

The `tracing` section under the `Configuration` spec contains the following properties:

```yml
spec:
  tracing:
    samplingRate: "1"
    otel: 
      endpointAddress: "https://..."
    zipkin:
      endpointAddress: "https://..."
    
```

The following table lists the properties for tracing:

| Property     | Type   | Description |
|--------------|--------|-------------|
| `samplingRate` | string | Set sampling rate for tracing to be enabled or disabled.
| `stdout` | bool | True write more verbose information to the traces
| `otel.endpointAddress` | string | Set the Open Telemetry (OTEL) server address. 
| `otel.isSecure` | bool | Is the connection to the endpoint address encrypted.
| `otel.protocol` | string | Set to `http` or `grpc` protocol.
| `zipkin.endpointAddress` | string | Set the Zipkin server address. If this is used, you do not need to specify the `otel` section.

To enable tracing, use a configuration file (in self hosted mode) or a Kubernetes configuration object (in Kubernetes mode). For example, the following configuration object changes the sample rate to 1 (every span is sampled), and sends trace using OTEL protocol to the OTEL server at localhost:4317

```yaml
apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
kind: Configuration
metadata:
  name: tracing
spec:
  tracing:
    samplingRate: "1"
    otel:
      endpointAddress: "localhost:4317"
      isSecure: false
      protocol: grpc 
```

## Sampling rate

Dapr uses probabilistic sampling. The sample rate defines the probability a tracing span will be sampled and can have a value between 0 and 1 (inclusive). The default sample rate is 0.0001 (i.e. 1 in 10,000 spans is sampled).

Changing `samplingRate` to 0 disables tracing altogether.

## Environment variables

The OpenTelemetry (otel) endpoint can also be configured via an environment variables. The presence of the OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT environment variable
turns on tracing for the sidecar.

| Environment Variable | Description |
|----------------------|-------------|
| `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT` | Sets the Open Telemetry (OTEL) server address, turns on tracing |
| `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_INSECURE` | Sets the connection to the endpoint as unencrypted (true/false) |
| `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL` | Transport protocol (`grpc`, `http/protobuf`, `http/json`) |