Introducing Tempo and the TraceQL query language

Tempo and TraceQL are the newest of the tools and query languages we will explore in depth in this book. Like LogQL, TraceQL was built using PromQL as an inspiration and offers developers and operators a familiar set of filtering, aggregation, and mathematical tools that aid in the observability flow between metrics, logs, and traces.

Let’s have a quick look at how Tempo sees trace data:

• Trace collection: Introduced in Chapter 2, a trace (or distributed trace) is a collection of data that represents a request propagating through a system. Traces are often collected from multiple applications. Spans are sent by each application to some form of collection architecture and, ultimately, to Tempo for storage and querying.
• Trace fields: The following diagram introduces a simplified structure of a trace, similar to the simplified structure of logs, seen in Chapter 4, and traces, seen in Chapter 5:

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