Semantic conventions for Cassandra client operations

Status: Development

The Semantic Conventions for Cassandra extend and override the Database Semantic Conventions.

Spans

Status: Development

Spans representing calls to a Cassandra database adhere to the general Semantic Conventions for Database Client Spans.

db.system.name MUST be set to "cassandra" and SHOULD be provided at span creation time.

Span name SHOULD follow the general database span name convention

Span kind SHOULD be CLIENT.

Span status SHOULD follow the Recording Errors document.

AttributeTypeDescriptionExamplesRequirement LevelStability
db.collection.namestringThe name of the Cassandra table that the operation is acting upon. [1]public.users; customersConditionally Required [2]Stable
db.namespacestringThe keyspace associated with the session. [3]mykeyspaceConditionally Required If available.Stable
db.operation.namestringThe name of the operation or command being executed. [4]findAndModify; HMSET; SELECTConditionally Required [5]Stable
db.response.status_codestringCassandra protocol error code represented as a string. [6]102; 40020Conditionally Required [7]Stable
error.typestringDescribes a class of error the operation ended with. [8]timeout; java.net.UnknownHostException; server_certificate_invalid; 500Conditionally Required If and only if the operation failed.Stable
server.portintServer port number. [9]80; 8080; 443Conditionally Required [10]Stable
cassandra.consistency.levelstringThe consistency level of the query. Based on consistency values from CQL.all; each_quorum; quorumRecommendedDevelopment
cassandra.coordinator.dcstringThe data center of the coordinating node for a query.us-west-2RecommendedDevelopment
cassandra.coordinator.idstringThe ID of the coordinating node for a query.be13faa2-8574-4d71-926d-27f16cf8a7afRecommendedDevelopment
cassandra.page.sizeintThe fetch size used for paging, i.e. how many rows will be returned at once.5000RecommendedDevelopment
cassandra.query.idempotentbooleanWhether or not the query is idempotent.RecommendedDevelopment
cassandra.speculative_execution.countintThe number of times a query was speculatively executed. Not set or 0 if the query was not executed speculatively.0; 2RecommendedDevelopment
db.operation.batch.sizeintThe number of queries included in a batch operation. [11]2; 3; 4RecommendedStable
db.query.summarystringLow cardinality summary of a database query. [12]SELECT wuser_table; INSERT shipping_details SELECT orders; get user by idRecommended [13]Stable
db.query.textstringThe database query being executed. [14]SELECT * FROM wuser_table where username = ?; SET mykey ?Recommended [15]Stable
db.response.returned_rowsintNumber of rows returned by the operation.10; 30; 1000RecommendedDevelopment
network.peer.addressstringPeer address of the database node where the operation was performed. [16]10.1.2.80; /tmp/my.sockRecommendedStable
network.peer.portintPeer port number of the network connection.65123Recommended if and only if network.peer.address is set.Stable
server.addressstringName of the database host. [17]example.com; 10.1.2.80; /tmp/my.sockRecommendedStable
db.query.parameter.<key>stringA database query parameter, with <key> being the parameter name, and the attribute value being a string representation of the parameter value. [18]someval; 55Opt-InDevelopment

[1] db.collection.name: It is RECOMMENDED to capture the value as provided by the application without attempting to do any case normalization.

For batch operations, if the individual operations are known to have the same collection name then that collection name SHOULD be used.

[2] db.collection.name: If readily available and if a database call is performed on a single collection.

[3] db.namespace: If a database system has multiple namespace components, they SHOULD be concatenated from the most general to the most specific namespace component, using | as a separator between the components. Any missing components (and their associated separators) SHOULD be omitted. Semantic conventions for individual database systems SHOULD document what db.namespace means in the context of that system. It is RECOMMENDED to capture the value as provided by the application without attempting to do any case normalization.

[4] db.operation.name: It is RECOMMENDED to capture the value as provided by the application without attempting to do any case normalization.

The operation name SHOULD NOT be extracted from db.query.text, when the database system supports query text with multiple operations in non-batch operations.

If spaces can occur in the operation name, multiple consecutive spaces SHOULD be normalized to a single space.

For batch operations, if the individual operations are known to have the same operation name then that operation name SHOULD be used prepended by BATCH , otherwise db.operation.name SHOULD be BATCH or some other database system specific term if more applicable.

[5] db.operation.name: If readily available and if there is a single operation name that describes the database call.

[6] db.response.status_code: All Cassandra protocol error codes SHOULD be considered errors.

[7] db.response.status_code: If the operation failed and status code is available.

[8] error.type: The error.type SHOULD match the db.response.status_code returned by the database or the client library, or the canonical name of exception that occurred. When using canonical exception type name, instrumentation SHOULD do the best effort to report the most relevant type. For example, if the original exception is wrapped into a generic one, the original exception SHOULD be preferred. Instrumentations SHOULD document how error.type is populated.

[9] server.port: When observed from the client side, and when communicating through an intermediary, server.port SHOULD represent the server port behind any intermediaries, for example proxies, if it’s available.

[10] server.port: If using a port other than the default port for this DBMS and if server.address is set.

[11] db.operation.batch.size: Operations are only considered batches when they contain two or more operations, and so db.operation.batch.size SHOULD never be 1.

[12] db.query.summary: The query summary describes a class of database queries and is useful as a grouping key, especially when analyzing telemetry for database calls involving complex queries.

Summary may be available to the instrumentation through instrumentation hooks or other means. If it is not available, instrumentations that support query parsing SHOULD generate a summary following Generating query summary section.

[13] db.query.summary: if available through instrumentation hooks or if the instrumentation supports generating a query summary.

[14] db.query.text: For sanitization see Sanitization of db.query.text. For batch operations, if the individual operations are known to have the same query text then that query text SHOULD be used, otherwise all of the individual query texts SHOULD be concatenated with separator ; or some other database system specific separator if more applicable. Parameterized query text SHOULD NOT be sanitized. Even though parameterized query text can potentially have sensitive data, by using a parameterized query the user is giving a strong signal that any sensitive data will be passed as parameter values, and the benefit to observability of capturing the static part of the query text by default outweighs the risk.

[15] db.query.text: Non-parameterized query text SHOULD NOT be collected by default unless there is sanitization that excludes sensitive data, e.g. by redacting all literal values present in the query text. See Sanitization of db.query.text. Parameterized query text SHOULD be collected by default (the query parameter values themselves are opt-in, see db.query.parameter.<key>).

[16] network.peer.address: If a database operation involved multiple network calls (for example retries), the address of the last contacted node SHOULD be used.

[17] server.address: When observed from the client side, and when communicating through an intermediary, server.address SHOULD represent the server address behind any intermediaries, for example proxies, if it’s available.

[18] db.query.parameter.<key>: If a query parameter has no name and instead is referenced only by index, then <key> SHOULD be the 0-based index.

db.query.parameter.<key> SHOULD match up with the parameterized placeholders present in db.query.text.

db.query.parameter.<key> SHOULD NOT be captured on batch operations.

Examples:

  • For a query SELECT * FROM users where username = %s with the parameter "jdoe", the attribute db.query.parameter.0 SHOULD be set to "jdoe".

  • For a query "SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = %(username)s; with parameter username = "jdoe", the attribute db.query.parameter.username SHOULD be set to "jdoe".

The following attributes can be important for making sampling decisions and SHOULD be provided at span creation time (if provided at all):


cassandra.consistency.level has the following list of well-known values. If one of them applies, then the respective value MUST be used; otherwise, a custom value MAY be used.

ValueDescriptionStability
allallDevelopment
anyanyDevelopment
each_quorumeach_quorumDevelopment
local_onelocal_oneDevelopment
local_quorumlocal_quorumDevelopment
local_seriallocal_serialDevelopment
oneoneDevelopment
quorumquorumDevelopment
serialserialDevelopment
threethreeDevelopment
twotwoDevelopment

error.type has the following list of well-known values. If one of them applies, then the respective value MUST be used; otherwise, a custom value MAY be used.

ValueDescriptionStability
_OTHERA fallback error value to be used when the instrumentation doesn’t define a custom value.Stable

Metrics

Cassandra client instrumentations SHOULD collect metrics according to the general Semantic Conventions for Database Client Metrics.

db.system.name MUST be set to "cassandra".