istio.io/content/en/docs/tasks/observability/distributed-tracing/zipkin/index.md

title	description	weight	keywords	aliases
Zipkin	Learn how to configure the proxies to send tracing requests to Zipkin.	10	telemetry tracing zipkin span port-forwarding	/docs/tasks/zipkin-tracing.html

After completing this task, you understand how to have your application participate in tracing with Zipkin, regardless of the language, framework, or platform you use to build your application.

This task uses the Bookinfo sample as the example application.

To learn how Istio handles tracing, visit this task's overview.

Before you begin

1. To set up Istio, follow the instructions in the Installation guide and then configure:

   a) a demo/test environment by setting the --set values.tracing.enabled=true and --set values.tracing.provider=zipkin install options to enable tracing "out of the box"

   b) a production environment by referencing an existing Zipkin instance and then setting the --set values.global.tracer.zipkin.address=<zipkin-collector-service>.<zipkin-collector-namespace>:9411 install option.

   {{< warning >}} When you enable tracing, you can set the sampling rate that Istio uses for tracing. Use the pilot.traceSampling option to set the sampling rate. The default sampling rate is 1%. {{< /warning >}}

2. Deploy the Bookinfo sample application.

Accessing the dashboard

Remotely Accessing Telemetry Addons details how to configure access to the Istio addons through a gateway. Alternatively, to use a Kubernetes ingress, specify the option --set values.tracing.ingress.enabled=true during install.

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

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

2. From the top panel, select a service of interest (or 'all') from the Service Name drop-down list and click Find Traces:

   {{< image link="./istio-tracing-list-zipkin.png" caption="Tracing Dashboard" >}}

3. Click on the most recent trace at the top to see the details corresponding to the latest request to the /productpage:

   {{< image link="./istio-tracing-details-zipkin.png" caption="Detailed Trace View" >}}

4. 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.

Cleanup

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

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

2. If you are not planning to explore any follow-on tasks, refer to the Bookinfo cleanup instructions to shutdown the application.