// Module included in the following assemblies:
//
// assembly-distributed-tracing.adoc

[id='con-overview-tracing-{context}']
= Tracing options

[role="_abstract"]
Use OpenTelemetry with the Jaeger tracing system.

OpenTelemetry provides an API specification that is independent from the tracing or monitoring system.

You use the APIs to instrument application code for tracing. 

* Instrumented applications generate _traces_ for individual requests across the distributed system.

* Traces are composed of _spans_ that define specific units of work over time.

Jaeger is a tracing system for microservices-based distributed systems.

* The Jaeger user interface allows you to query, filter, and analyze trace data.

.The Jaeger user interface showing a simple query
image:image_con-overview-distributed-tracing.png[The Jaeger user interface showing a simple query]

[role="_additional-resources"]
.Additional resources

* {JaegerDocs}
* {OpenTelemetryDocs}