Add troubleshooting guide for trace context propagation in OpenTelemetry#4724
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alexandra5000 wants to merge 6 commits intoelastic:mainfrom
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Add troubleshooting guide for trace context propagation in OpenTelemetry#4724alexandra5000 wants to merge 6 commits intoelastic:mainfrom
alexandra5000 wants to merge 6 commits intoelastic:mainfrom
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theletterf
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Jan 30, 2026
troubleshoot/ingest/opentelemetry/edot-collector/telemetry-export-errors.md
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| * Parent–child relationships between spans are missing when traffic crosses between: | ||
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| * OpenTelemetry-instrumented services and Elastic {{product.apm}} agents. | ||
| * New and very old Elastic {{product.apm}} agents in the same call chain. |
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Suggested change
| * New and very old Elastic {{product.apm}} agents in the same call chain. | |
| * Different versions of {{product.apm}} agents in the same call chain. |
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| Propagation problems typically occur when: | ||
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| * Very old Elastic {{apm-agent}} versions (pre‑W3C) are still present. |
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| * Very old Elastic {{apm-agent}} versions (pre‑W3C) are still present. | |
| * Old Elastic {{apm-agent}} versions (pre‑W3C) are still present. |
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| | Agent | Minimum version | | ||
| | -------- | --------------- | | ||
| | Java | 1.14.0 | | ||
| | .NET | 1.3.0 | | ||
| | Node.js | 3.4.0 | | ||
| | Python | 5.4.0 | | ||
| | Go | 1.6.0 | | ||
| | Ruby | 3.5.0 | | ||
| | PHP | 1.0.0 | | ||
| | RUM (JS) | 5.0.0 | |
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These are APM Agents or EDOT SDKs? We might want to clarify this, "Agent" is not specific enough.
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Author
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Hey @theletterf, like I mentioned on Slack, seems like I unwittingly dragged an older commit into this branch. Let's stop for now while I undo whatever it is that has happened here - this is a very old draft unfit for review 😉 |
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Vale Linting ResultsSummary: 2 warnings, 1 suggestion found
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| File | Line | Rule | Message |
|---|---|---|---|
| troubleshoot/ingest/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/trace-context-propagation.md | 30 | Elastic.DontUse | Don't use 'very'. |
| troubleshoot/ingest/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/trace-context-propagation.md | 48 | Elastic.DontUse | Don't use 'Very'. |
💡 Suggestions (1)
| File | Line | Rule | Message |
|---|---|---|---|
| troubleshoot/ingest/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/trace-context-propagation.md | 164 | Elastic.WordChoice | Consider using 'deactivate, deselect, hide, turn off' instead of 'disable', unless the term is in the UI. |
The Vale linter checks documentation changes against the Elastic Docs style guide.
To use Vale locally or report issues, refer to Elastic style guide for Vale.
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Author
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Closing this PR to have a clean history. I applied Fabri's comments along with some other improvements on a new PR here. |
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Summary
This PR introduces a new troubleshooting page focused on trace context header propagation issues when using OpenTelemetry with Elastic APM agents. It includes symptoms, causes, supported mixing patterns, and best practices to ensure proper trace continuity.
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Tool(s) and model(s) used: Claude Sonnet 4.5 via Cursor