// This assembly is included in the following assemblies:
//
// configuring/configuring.adoc

[id='assembly-distributed-tracing-{context}']
= Introducing distributed tracing

[role="_abstract"]
Distributed tracing allows you to track the progress of transactions between applications in a distributed system. 
In a microservices architecture, tracing tracks the progress of transactions between services. 
Trace data is useful for monitoring application performance and investigating issues with target systems and end-user applications.

In Strimzi, distributed tracing facilitates end-to-end tracking of messages: from source systems to Kafka, and then from Kafka to target systems and applications. 
This complements the monitoring of metrics in Grafana dashboards and component loggers.

Strimzi provides built-in support for tracing for the following Kafka components:

* MirrorMaker to trace messages from a source cluster to a target cluster
* Kafka Connect to trace messages consumed and produced by Kafka Connect
* Kafka Bridge to trace messages between Kafka and HTTP client applications

Tracing is not supported for Kafka brokers.

include::../../modules/tracing/con-overview-tracing.adoc[leveloffset=+1]

include::../../modules/tracing/ref-tracing-environment-variables.adoc[leveloffset=+1]

include::assembly-distributed-tracing-procedures.adoc[leveloffset=+1]

