Semantic Conventions for Database Client Calls

Status: Experimental

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.

Span kind: MUST always be CLIENT.

Span that describes database call SHOULD cover the duration of the corresponding call as if it was observed by the caller (such as client application). For example, if a transient issue happened and was retried within this database call, the corresponding span should cover the duration of the logical operation with all retries.

Name

Database spans MUST follow the overall guidelines for span names.

The span name SHOULD be {db.operation.name} {target} if there is a (low-cardinality) db.operation.name available (see below for the exact definition of the {target} placeholder).

If there is no (low-cardinality) db.operation.name available, database span names SHOULD be {target}.

Semantic conventions for individual database systems MAY specify different span name format.

The {target} SHOULD adhere to one of the following values, arranged in prioritized order, provided they are accessible:

• db.collection.name
• db.namespace
• server.address:server.port
• db.system

Common attributes

These attributes will usually be the same for all operations performed over the same database connection.

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]
db.query.text	string	The database query being executed.	SELECT * FROM wuser_table where username = ?; SET mykey "WuValue"	Recommended [10]
network.peer.address	string	Peer address of the database node where the operation was performed. [11]	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. [12]	example.com; 10.1.2.80; /tmp/my.sock	Recommended
db.query.parameter.<key>	string	The query parameters used in db.query.text, with <key> being the parameter name, and the attribute value being the parameter value. [13]	someval; 55	Opt-In

[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]: SHOULD be collected by default only if there is sanitization that excludes sensitive information.

[11]: 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.

[12]: 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.

[13]: Query parameters should only be captured when db.query.text is parameterized with placeholders. If a parameter has no name and instead is referenced only by index, then <key> SHOULD be the 0-based index.

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.

Notes and well-known identifiers for db.system

The list above is a non-exhaustive list of well-known identifiers to be specified for db.system.

If a value defined in this list applies to the DBMS to which the request is sent, this value MUST be used. If no value defined in this list is suitable, a custom value MUST be provided. This custom value MUST be the name of the DBMS in lowercase and without a version number to stay consistent with existing identifiers.

It is encouraged to open a PR towards this specification to add missing values to the list, especially when instrumentations for those missing databases are written. This allows multiple instrumentations for the same database to be aligned and eases analyzing for backends.

The value other_sql is intended as a fallback and MUST only be used if the DBMS is known to be SQL-compliant but the concrete product is not known to the instrumentation. If the concrete DBMS is known to the instrumentation, its specific identifier MUST be used.

Back ends could, for example, use the provided identifier to determine the appropriate SQL dialect for parsing the db.query.text.

When additional attributes are added that only apply to a specific DBMS, its identifier SHOULD be used as a namespace in the attribute key as for the attributes in the sections below.

Semantic Conventions for specific database technologies

More specific Semantic Conventions are defined for the following database technologies:

• AWS DynamoDB: Semantic Conventions for AWS DynamoDB.
• Cassandra: Semantic Conventions for Cassandra.
• Cosmos DB: Semantic Conventions for Microsoft Cosmos DB.
• CouchDB: Semantic Conventions for CouchDB.
• Elasticsearch: Semantic Conventions for Elasticsearch.
• HBase: Semantic Conventions for HBase.
• MongoDB: Semantic Conventions for MongoDB.
• MSSQL: Semantic Conventions for MSSQL.
• Redis: Semantic Conventions for Redis.
• SQL: Semantic Conventions for SQL databases.