Semantic Conventions for Database Metrics

Status: Experimental

The conventions described in this section are specific to SQL and NoSQL clients.

Disclaimer: These are initial database client metric instruments and attributes but more may be added in the future.

Warning

Existing database instrumentations that are using v1.24.0 of this document (or prior):

• SHOULD NOT change the version of the database conventions that they emit until the database semantic conventions are marked stable. Conventions include, but are not limited to, attributes, metric and span names, and unit of measure.
• SHOULD introduce an environment variable OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN in the existing major version which is a comma-separated list of values. If the list of values includes:
  • database - emit the new, stable database conventions, and stop emitting the old experimental database conventions that the instrumentation emitted previously.
  • database/dup - emit both the old and the stable database conventions, allowing for a seamless transition.
  • The default behavior (in the absence of one of these values) is to continue emitting whatever version of the old experimental database conventions the instrumentation was emitting previously.
  • Note: database/dup has higher precedence than database in case both values are present
• SHOULD maintain (security patching at a minimum) the existing major version for at least six months after it starts emitting both sets of conventions.
• SHOULD drop the environment variable in the next major version.

Database operation

Metric: db.client.operation.duration

Status: Experimental

This metric is required.

When this metric is reported alongside a database operation span, the metric value SHOULD be the same as the database operation span duration.

This metric SHOULD be specified with ExplicitBucketBoundaries of [ 0.001, 0.005, 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 1, 5, 10 ].

Name	Instrument Type	Unit (UCUM)	Description	Stability
db.client.operation.duration	Histogram	s	Duration of database client operations.

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level	Stability
db.system	string	The database management system (DBMS) product as identified by the client instrumentation. [1]	other_sql; mssql; mssqlcompact	Required
db.collection.name	string	The name of a collection (table, container) within the database. [2]	public.users; customers	Conditionally Required [3]
db.namespace	string	The name of the database, fully qualified within the server address and port. [4]	customers; test.users	Conditionally Required If available.
db.operation.name	string	The name of the operation or command being executed. [5]	findAndModify; HMSET; SELECT	Conditionally Required [6]
error.type	string	Describes a class of error the operation ended with. [7]	timeout; java.net.UnknownHostException; server_certificate_invalid; 500	Conditionally Required If and only if the operation failed.
server.port	int	Server port number. [8]	80; 8080; 443	Conditionally Required [9]
network.peer.address	string	Peer address of the database node where the operation was performed. [10]	10.1.2.80; /tmp/my.sock	Recommended If applicable for this database system.
network.peer.port	int	Peer port number of the network connection.	65123	Recommended If and only if network.peer.address is set.
server.address	string	Name of the database host. [11]	example.com; 10.1.2.80; /tmp/my.sock	Recommended

[1]: The actual DBMS may differ from the one identified by the client. For example, when using PostgreSQL client libraries to connect to a CockroachDB, the db.system is set to postgresql based on the instrumentation’s best knowledge.

[2]: If the collection name is parsed from the query, it SHOULD match the value provided in the query and may be qualified with the schema and database name. It is RECOMMENDED to capture the value as provided by the application without attempting to do any case normalization.

[3]: If readily available. Otherwise, if the instrumentation library parses db.query.text to capture db.collection.name, then it SHOULD be the first collection name found in the query.

[4]: If a database system has multiple namespace components, they SHOULD be concatenated (potentially using database system specific conventions) from most general to most specific namespace component, and more specific namespaces SHOULD NOT be captured without the more general namespaces, to ensure that “startswith” queries for the more general namespaces will be valid. 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.

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

[6]: If readily available. Otherwise, if the instrumentation library parses db.query.text to capture db.operation.name, then it SHOULD be the first operation name found in the query.

[7]: The error.type SHOULD match the error code returned by the database or the client library, the canonical name of exception that occurred, or another low-cardinality error identifier. Instrumentations SHOULD document the list of errors they report.

[8]: 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.

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

[10]: Semantic conventions for individual database systems SHOULD document whether network.peer.* attributes are applicable. Network peer address and port are useful when the application interacts with individual database nodes directly. If a database operation involved multiple network calls (for example retries), the address of the last contacted node SHOULD be used.

[11]: 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.

db.system 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.

Value	Description	Stability
other_sql	Some other SQL database. Fallback only. See notes.
mssql	Microsoft SQL Server
mssqlcompact	Microsoft SQL Server Compact
mysql	MySQL
oracle	Oracle Database
db2	IBM Db2
postgresql	PostgreSQL
redshift	Amazon Redshift
hive	Apache Hive
cloudscape	Cloudscape
hsqldb	HyperSQL DataBase
progress	Progress Database
maxdb	SAP MaxDB
hanadb	SAP HANA
ingres	Ingres
firstsql	FirstSQL
edb	EnterpriseDB
cache	InterSystems Caché
adabas	Adabas (Adaptable Database System)
firebird	Firebird
derby	Apache Derby
filemaker	FileMaker
informix	Informix
instantdb	InstantDB
interbase	InterBase
mariadb	MariaDB
netezza	Netezza
pervasive	Pervasive PSQL
pointbase	PointBase
sqlite	SQLite
sybase	Sybase
teradata	Teradata
vertica	Vertica
h2	H2
coldfusion	ColdFusion IMQ
cassandra	Apache Cassandra
hbase	Apache HBase
mongodb	MongoDB
redis	Redis
couchbase	Couchbase
couchdb	CouchDB
cosmosdb	Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
dynamodb	Amazon DynamoDB
neo4j	Neo4j
geode	Apache Geode
elasticsearch	Elasticsearch
memcached	Memcached
cockroachdb	CockroachDB
opensearch	OpenSearch
clickhouse	ClickHouse
spanner	Cloud Spanner
trino	Trino

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.

Value	Description	Stability
_OTHER	A fallback error value to be used when the instrumentation doesn’t define a custom value.

Connection pools

The following metric instruments describe database client connection pool operations.

Metric: db.client.connection.count

This metric is required.

Name	Instrument Type	Unit (UCUM)	Description	Stability
db.client.connection.count	UpDownCounter	{connection}	The number of connections that are currently in state described by the state attribute

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level	Stability
db.client.connections.pool.name	string	The name of the connection pool; unique within the instrumented application. In case the connection pool implementation doesn’t provide a name, instrumentation should use a combination of server.address and server.port attributes formatted as server.address:server.port.	myDataSource	Required
db.client.connections.state	string	The state of a connection in the pool	idle	Required

db.client.connections.state 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.

Value	Description	Stability
idle	idle
used	used

Metric: db.client.connection.idle.max

This metric is recommended.

Name	Instrument Type	Unit (UCUM)	Description	Stability
db.client.connection.idle.max	UpDownCounter	{connection}	The maximum number of idle open connections allowed

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level	Stability
db.client.connections.pool.name	string	The name of the connection pool; unique within the instrumented application. In case the connection pool implementation doesn’t provide a name, instrumentation should use a combination of server.address and server.port attributes formatted as server.address:server.port.	myDataSource	Required

Metric: db.client.connection.idle.min

This metric is recommended.

Name	Instrument Type	Unit (UCUM)	Description	Stability
db.client.connection.idle.min	UpDownCounter	{connection}	The minimum number of idle open connections allowed

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level	Stability
db.client.connections.pool.name	string	The name of the connection pool; unique within the instrumented application. In case the connection pool implementation doesn’t provide a name, instrumentation should use a combination of server.address and server.port attributes formatted as server.address:server.port.	myDataSource	Required

Metric: db.client.connection.max

This metric is recommended.

Name	Instrument Type	Unit (UCUM)	Description	Stability
db.client.connection.max	UpDownCounter	{connection}	The maximum number of open connections allowed

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level	Stability
db.client.connections.pool.name	string	The name of the connection pool; unique within the instrumented application. In case the connection pool implementation doesn’t provide a name, instrumentation should use a combination of server.address and server.port attributes formatted as server.address:server.port.	myDataSource	Required

Metric: db.client.connection.pending_requests

This metric is recommended.

Name	Instrument Type	Unit (UCUM)	Description	Stability
db.client.connection.pending_requests	UpDownCounter	{request}	The number of pending requests for an open connection, cumulative for the entire pool

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level	Stability
db.client.connections.pool.name	string	The name of the connection pool; unique within the instrumented application. In case the connection pool implementation doesn’t provide a name, instrumentation should use a combination of server.address and server.port attributes formatted as server.address:server.port.	myDataSource	Required

Metric: db.client.connection.timeouts

This metric is recommended.

Name	Instrument Type	Unit (UCUM)	Description	Stability
db.client.connection.timeouts	Counter	{timeout}	The number of connection timeouts that have occurred trying to obtain a connection from the pool

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level	Stability
db.client.connections.pool.name	string	The name of the connection pool; unique within the instrumented application. In case the connection pool implementation doesn’t provide a name, instrumentation should use a combination of server.address and server.port attributes formatted as server.address:server.port.	myDataSource	Required

Metric: db.client.connection.create_time

This metric is recommended.

Name	Instrument Type	Unit (UCUM)	Description	Stability
db.client.connection.create_time	Histogram	s	The time it took to create a new connection

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level	Stability
db.client.connections.pool.name	string	The name of the connection pool; unique within the instrumented application. In case the connection pool implementation doesn’t provide a name, instrumentation should use a combination of server.address and server.port attributes formatted as server.address:server.port.	myDataSource	Required

Metric: db.client.connection.wait_time

This metric is recommended.

Name	Instrument Type	Unit (UCUM)	Description	Stability
db.client.connection.wait_time	Histogram	s	The time it took to obtain an open connection from the pool

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level	Stability
db.client.connections.pool.name	string	The name of the connection pool; unique within the instrumented application. In case the connection pool implementation doesn’t provide a name, instrumentation should use a combination of server.address and server.port attributes formatted as server.address:server.port.	myDataSource	Required

Metric: db.client.connection.use_time

This metric is recommended.

Name	Instrument Type	Unit (UCUM)	Description	Stability
db.client.connection.use_time	Histogram	s	The time between borrowing a connection and returning it to the pool

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level	Stability
db.client.connections.pool.name	string	The name of the connection pool; unique within the instrumented application. In case the connection pool implementation doesn’t provide a name, instrumentation should use a combination of server.address and server.port attributes formatted as server.address:server.port.	myDataSource	Required