Other language-specific OpenTelemetry libraries

Propagators convert between vendor-specific trace correlation headers and the OpenTelemetry trace context. If an incoming HTTP request contains the proprietary Instana trace correlation headers (that is, X-INSTANA-T and X-INSTANA-S), the Instana OpenTelemetry propagator creates an OpenTelemetry trace context with the trace ID and span ID from those headers. The OpenTelemetry tracer can continue the trace from that trace context. Also, if an OpenTelemetry trace context exists, the Instana OpenTelemetry propagator uses it to inject the proprietary Instana trace correlation headers into the outgoing requests.

When an OpenTelemetry sampler makes a sampling decision, it decides whether the tracing data is captured for a particular request. Instana OpenTelemetry samplers make a sampling decision based on the sampled flag of the trace context. If the value of the sampled flag is not false, then the sampler captures the request.