Share traces and spans

You can share trace data, heatmaps, or specific span details from the Trace Explorer page with colleagues to collaborate on investigating performance anomalies, latency spikes, and errors.

As you filter, search, or inspect trace data on the Trace Explorer page, your browser URL updates automatically to reflect your current settings.

When a recipient opens the shared URL, the Trace Explorer page uses the settings in the URL, overriding any default settings. However, the displayed data depends on the recipient's Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles on the projects referenced by the URL.

Before you begin

To get the permissions that you need to view trace data by using the Google Cloud console, ask your administrator to grant you the Cloud Trace User (roles/cloudtrace.user) IAM role on the projects that store trace data. For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

You might also be able to get the required permissions through custom roles or other predefined roles.

Share trace data

To share trace data, do the following:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Trace explorer page:

    Go to Trace explorer

    You can also find this page by using the search bar.

  2. In the toolbar of the Google Cloud console, select your Google Cloud project. For App Hub configurations, select the App Hub host project or management project.

  3. Configure the Trace Explorer page to show the data that you want to share.

    For example, you can add filters, update the time-range selector, or change the Scope element; the scope controls which resources are searched for trace data. Your project is searched for trace data if the first menu of this element is set to Project or _Default. For more information, see Create and manage trace scopes.

    The Trace Explorer page displays only the data that you have permission to view. A banner similar to the following indicates that you don't have the permissions needed to view all trace data that was found:

    You don't have the required permissions to view trace data for one or more projects listed in the trace scope. Only data stored in projects where you have the required permissions is shown.

    To resolve this failure, identify the projects where you don't have the required permissions and ask an administrator to grant you the Cloud Trace User role.

  4. To share the URL for the Trace Explorer page, go to the toolbar, select Copy link, and then share the URL.

  5. To share the URL for a trace or span, do the following:

    1. Open the Details flyout for that trace or span.

      You can select a span to open its details view. For traces, enter the trace ID in the Search for trace field.

    2. In the toolbar, click Share, and then share the URL.

Troubleshoot

For information about how to resolve problems like a trace missing spans or not seeing any data in the Trace Explorer page, see Troubleshoot.

What's next