# Set up distributed tracing with Azure Monitor

Dapr integrates with Application Monitor through OpenTelemetry's default exporter along with a dedicated agent known as [Local Forwarder](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/opencensus-local-forwarder).

## How to configure distributed tracing with Azure Monitor

The following steps will show you how to configure Dapr to send distributed tracing data to Azure Monitor.

### Setup Azure Monitor

1. First, you'll need an Azure account. Please see instructions [here](https://azure.microsoft.com/free/) to apply for a **free** Azure account.
2. Follow instructions [here](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/create-new-resource) to create a new Application Insights resource.

### Setup the Local Forwarder

The Local Forwarder listens to OpenTelemetry's traces through
Please follow the insturctions [here](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/opencensus-local-forwarder) to setup Local Forwarder as a local service or daemon.

> **NOTE**: At the time of writing, there's no official guidance on packaging and running the Local Forwarder as a Docker container. To use Local Forwarder on Kubernetes, you'll need to package the Local Forwarder as a Docker container and register a *ClusterIP* service. Then, you should set the service as the export target of the native exporter.

### How to configure distributed tracing with Azure Monitor

You'll need two YAML files - a Dapr configuration file that enables tracing, and a native export configuration file that configures the native exporter.

1. Create the following YAML files:

* native.yaml

```yaml
apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: native
spec:
  type: exporters.native
  metadata:
  - name: enabled
    value: "true"
  - name: agentEndpoint
    value: "<Local forwarder address, for example: 50.140.60.170:6789>"
```

* tracing.yaml

```yaml
apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
kind: Configuration
metadata:
  name: tracing
spec:
  tracing:
    enabled: true
    expandParams: true
    includeBody: true
```

2. When running under local mode, copy *tracing.yaml* to a *components* folder under the same folder where you run you application. When running under Kubernetes model, use kubectl to apply the above CRD files:

```bash
kubectl apply -f tracing.yaml
kubectl apply -f native.yaml
```

3. When running in the local mode, you need to launch Dapr with the `--config` parameter:

```bash
dapr run --app-id mynode --app-port 3000 --config ./tracing.yaml node app.js
```

When running in the Kubernetes model, you need to add a `dapr.io/config` annotation to your container that you want to participate in the distributed tracing, as shown in the following example:

```yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  ...
spec:
  ...
  template:
    metadata:
      ...
      annotations:
        dapr.io/enabled: "true"
        dapr.io/id: "calculator-front-end"
        dapr.io/port: "8080"
        dapr.io/config: "tracing"
```

That's it! There's no need include any SDKs or instrument your application code in anyway. Dapr automatically handles distributed tracing for you.

> **NOTE**: You can register multiple exporters at the same time, and tracing logs will be forwarded to all registered exporters.

Generate some workloads. And after a few minutes, you should see tracing logs appearing in your Application Insights resource. And you can also use **Application map** to examine the topology of your services, as shown below:

![Azure Monitor screen](../../images/azure-monitor.png)

## Tracing Configuration

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

```yml
tracing:
    enabled: true
    expandParams: true
    includeBody: true
```

The following table lists the different properties.

Property | Type | Description
---- | ------- | -----------
enabled  | bool | Set tracing to be enabled or disabled
expandParams  | bool | When true, expands parameters passed to HTTP endpoints
includeBody  | bool | When true, includes the request body in the tracing event