SAMPLING-STRATEGIES

Trace sampling for storage savings.

Definition

Head-based: decides at first span (fast, simple, risks missing rare errors). Tail-based: keeps all traces then filters after response (Tempo, Honeycomb Refinery). Probabilistic: 1% of traces (TraceID hash). Rate-Limited: N traces/sec max. Dynamic: 100% errors, 1% normal.

Origin

Concepts inherited from Google Dapper (2010) ; formalised by OpenTelemetry Sampling SIG.

Example in context

An SRE team configures tail-based sampling 100% errors + 5% successful via OTel Collector tail_sampling processor.

Related terms

• Tempo — tail sampling support.