Connect to a Tempo data source

Tempo is a high-volume, minimal dependency trace storage, OSS tracing solution from Grafana Labs.

Adding the data source

To access Tempo settings, choose the Configuration (gear) icon, then choose Data Sources, and then choose Tempo.

Name	Description
Name	The name using which you will refer to the data source in panels, queries, and Explore.
Default	Default data source means that it will be pre-selected for new panels.
URL	The URL of the Tempo instance; e.g., http://tempo.
Basic Auth	Enable basic authentication to the Tempo data source.
User	User name for basic authentication.
Password	Password for basic authentication.

Trace to logs

This is a configuration for the trace to logs feature. The target data source currently must be Loki. For more information, see Tracing integration.

• Data source – Target data source.

• Tags – The tags that will be used in the Loki query. The default is 'cluster', 'hostname', 'namespace', pod'

• Span start time shift – Shift in the start time for the Loki query based on the span start time. In order to extend to the past, you need to use a negative value. Time units can be used here, for example, 5s, 1m, 3h. The default is 0.

• Span end time shift – Shift in the end time for the Loki query based on the span end time. Time units can be used here, for example, 5s, 1m, 3h. The default is 0.

Query traces

You can query and display traces from Tempo via Explore. You can search for traces if you set up the trace to logs setting in the data source configuration page. To find traces to visualize, use the Loki query editor. To get search results, you must have derived fields configured, which point to this data source.

To query a particular trace, select the TraceID query type, and then put the ID into the Trace ID field.

Linking to the trace ID from logs

You can link to Tempo trace from logs in Loki or Elastic by configuring an internal link. For more information, see Derived fields.