---
title: Apache SkyWalking
description: Learn how to configure the proxies to send tracing requests to Apache SkyWalking.
weight: 10
keywords: [telemetry,tracing,skywalking,span,port-forwarding]
owner: istio/wg-policies-and-telemetry-maintainers
test: yes
---

After completing this task, you will understand how to have your application participate in tracing with [Apache SkyWalking](https://skywalking.apache.org),
regardless of the language, framework, or platform you use to build it.

This task uses the [Bookinfo](/docs/examples/bookinfo/) sample as the example application.

To learn how Istio handles tracing, visit the [Distributed Tracing Overview](../overview/) section.

## Configure tracing

If you used an `IstioOperator` CR to install Istio, add the following field to your configuration:

{{< text yaml >}}
apiVersion: install.istio.io/v1alpha1
kind: IstioOperator
spec:
  meshConfig:
    defaultProviders:
      tracing:
      - "skywalking"
    enableTracing: true
    extensionProviders:
    - name: "skywalking"
      skywalking:
        service: tracing.istio-system.svc.cluster.local
        port: 11800
{{< /text >}}

With this configuration, Istio is installed with a SkyWalking Agent as the default tracer. Trace data will be sent to a SkyWalking backend.

In the default profile, the sampling rate is 1%. Increase it to 100% using the [Telemetry API](/docs/tasks/observability/telemetry/):

{{< text bash >}}
$ kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: telemetry.istio.io/v1alpha1
kind: Telemetry
metadata:
  name: mesh-default
  namespace: istio-system
spec:
  tracing:
  - randomSamplingPercentage: 100.00
EOF
{{< /text >}}

## Deploy the SkyWalking Collector

Follow the [SkyWalking installation](/docs/ops/integrations/skywalking/#installation) documentation to deploy SkyWalking into your cluster.

## Deploy the Bookinfo Application

Deploy the [Bookinfo](/docs/examples/bookinfo/#deploying-the-application) sample application.

## Accessing the dashboard

[Remotely Accessing Telemetry Addons](/docs/tasks/observability/gateways) details how to configure access to the Istio addons through a gateway.

For testing (and temporary access), you may also use port-forwarding. Use the following, assuming you've deployed SkyWalking to the `istio-system` namespace:

{{< text bash >}}
$ istioctl dashboard skywalking
{{< /text >}}

## Generating traces using the Bookinfo sample

1.  When the Bookinfo application is up and running, access `http://$GATEWAY_URL/productpage` one or more times
    to generate trace information.

    {{< boilerplate trace-generation >}}

1.  From the "General Service" panel, you can see the service list.

    {{< image link="./istio-service-list-skywalking.png" caption="Service List" >}}

1.  Select the `Trace` tab in the main content. You can see the trace list in the left sidebar and the trace details in the right panel:

    {{< image link="./istio-tracing-list-skywalking.png" caption="Trace View" >}}

1.  The trace is comprised of a set of spans,
    where each span corresponds to a Bookinfo service, invoked during the execution of a `/productpage` request, or
    internal Istio component, for example: `istio-ingressgateway`.

## Explore SkyWalking's official demo application

In this tutorial, we use the [Bookinfo](/docs/examples/bookinfo/#deploying-the-application) sample application, in this sample application
there is no SkyWalking agent installed to the services, all the traces are generated by the sidecar proxies.

If you want to explore more about [SkyWalking's language agents](https://skywalking.apache.org/docs/#Agent), the SkyWalking team also provides
[a demo application](http://github.com/apache/skywalking-showcase) that is integrated with the language agents and you can have more detailed traces as well as other language agent specific
features such as profiling.

## Cleanup

1.  Remove any `istioctl` processes that may still be running using control-C or:

    {{< text bash >}}
    $ killall istioctl
    {{< /text >}}

1.  If you are not planning to explore any follow-on tasks, refer to the
    [Bookinfo cleanup](/docs/examples/bookinfo/#cleanup) instructions
    to shutdown the application.