Managed Service for OpenTelemetry:Trace NGINX requests with Jaeger

Install NGINX

1. Download and extract the NGINX source code:

      wget http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.14.2.tar.gz
      tar -xzvf nginx-1.14.2.tar.gz

2. Compile and install NGINX with dynamic module support: NGINX is installed to /usr/local/nginx/.

      cd nginx-1.14.2
      ./configure --with-compat
      make
      sudo make install

Install the OpenTracing module

1. Download and extract the OpenTracing dynamic module:

      wget https://github.com/opentracing-contrib/nginx-opentracing/releases/download/v0.7.0/linux-amd64-nginx-1.14.0-ngx_http_module.so.tgz
      tar -xzvf linux-amd64-nginx-1.14.0-ngx_http_module.so.tgz

2. Copy the module to the NGINX modules directory:

      sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/nginx/modules
      sudo cp ngx_http_opentracing_module.so /usr/local/nginx/modules/ngx_http_opentracing_module.so

Configure Jaeger tracing

1. Download the Jaeger client plugin:

      wget https://github.com/jaegertracing/jaeger-client-cpp/releases/download/v0.4.2/libjaegertracing_plugin.linux_amd64.so
      sudo cp /usr/local/lib/libjaegertracing_plugin.so /usr/local/lib/libjaegertracing.so

2. Edit /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf to load the OpenTracing module and enable tracing: The following table describes the key directives:

   Note

   For the full directive reference, see the nginx-opentracing documentation.

   Directive	Description
   opentracing on	Enables the OpenTracing module globally
   opentracing_load_tracer	Loads the Jaeger plugin and its configuration file
   opentracing_operation_name $uri	Sets the span name to the request URI
   opentracing_trace_locations off	Disables tracing for internal NGINX redirects
   opentracing_propagate_context	Forwards trace context headers to the upstream service

      load_module modules/ngx_http_opentracing_module.so;
      events {}
      http {
        opentracing on;
        opentracing_load_tracer /usr/local/lib/libjaegertracing_plugin.so /etc/jaeger-config.json;
        server {
          error_log /var/log/nginx/debug.log debug;
          listen 80;
          location  ~ {
            opentracing_operation_name $uri;
            opentracing_trace_locations off;
            # Replace with your upstream service address.
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8081;
            opentracing_propagate_context;
          }
        }
      }

3. Create the Jaeger configuration file at /etc/jaeger-config.json:

   Parameter	Description
   service_name	The service name displayed in the tracing console
   sampler.type	Sampling strategy. const with param: 1 samples every request
   sampler.param	Sampling parameter. 1 = sample all; 0 = sample none
   reporter.localAgentHostPort	Address of the local Jaeger agent

      {
        "service_name": "nginx",
        "sampler": {
          "type": "const",
          "param": 1
        },
        "reporter": {
          "localAgentHostPort": "localhost:6831"
        }
      }

Start the Jaeger agent

Choose one of the following methods based on your Jaeger setup:

Option A: Self-managed Jaeger

Download the native Jaeger agent and start it with your collector endpoint:

nohup ./jaeger-agent --collector.host-port=<collector-host>:<port> 1>1.log 2>2.log &

Option B: Managed Service for OpenTelemetry (recommended)

Download the Tracing Analysis agent and start it with the endpoint from Prerequisites. Remove /api/traces from the end of the endpoint before using it here.

nohup ./tracing-analysis-agent-linux-amd64 \
  --collector.host-port=<endpoint> 1>1.log 2>2.log &

Start NGINX and test

1. Start NGINX:

      sudo /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx

2. Send a test request:

      curl "http://localhost"

3. Verify the results.

No trace data in the console

• Check the agent process. Confirm the Jaeger agent or Tracing Analysis agent is running. Review the agent logs (1.log, 2.log) for connection errors.

• Verify the endpoint. The endpoint must match the region where your application is deployed. For the managed agent, remove /api/traces from the endpoint.

• Check NGINX error logs. Look for OpenTracing module errors in /var/log/nginx/debug.log. Common causes include an incorrect path to the Jaeger plugin .so file.

• Confirm network connectivity. For VPC endpoints, the ECS instance and the Managed Service for OpenTelemetry backend must be in the same VPC. For public endpoints, verify outbound access on port 1883 (gRPC).

Traces appear but spans are missing

• Check sampling configuration. In /etc/jaeger-config.json, confirm sampler.param is set to 1 to sample all requests during testing.

• Verify context propagation. The opentracing_propagate_context directive must be present in the NGINX location block to forward trace context headers to upstream services.