Choose receiver

Receiver is a concept in SkyWalking backend. All modules, which are responsible for receiving telemetry or tracing data from other being monitored system, are all being called Receiver. Although today, most of receivers are using gRPC or HTTPRestful to provide service, actually, whether listening mode or pull mode could be receiver. Such as a receiver could base on pull data from remote, like Kakfa MQ.

We have following receivers, and default implementors are provided in our Apache distribution.

1. receiver-trace. gRPC and HTTPRestful services to accept SkyWalking format traces.
2. receiver-register. gRPC and HTTPRestful services to provide service, service instance and endpoint register.
3. service-mesh. gRPC services accept data from inbound mesh probes.
4. receiver-jvm. gRPC services accept JVM metrics data.
5. istio-telemetry. Istio telemetry is from Istio official bypass adaptor, this receiver match its gRPC services.
6. envoy-metric. Envoy metrics_service and ALS(access log service) supported by this receiver. OAL script support all GAUGE type metrics.
7. receiver_zipkin. See details.
8. receiver_jaeger. See details.

The sample settings of these receivers should be already in default application.yml, and also list here

receiver-register:
  default:
receiver-trace:
  default:
    bufferPath: ../trace-buffer/  # Path to trace buffer files, suggest to use absolute path
    bufferOffsetMaxFileSize: 100 # Unit is MB
    bufferDataMaxFileSize: 500 # Unit is MB
    bufferFileCleanWhenRestart: false
    sampleRate: ${SW_TRACE_SAMPLE_RATE:1000} # The sample rate precision is 1/10000. 10000 means 100% sample in default.
receiver-jvm:
  default:
service-mesh:
  default:
    bufferPath: ../mesh-buffer/  # Path to trace buffer files, suggest to use absolute path
    bufferOffsetMaxFileSize: 100 # Unit is MB
    bufferDataMaxFileSize: 500 # Unit is MB
    bufferFileCleanWhenRestart: false
istio-telemetry:
  default:
envoy-metric:
  default:
receiver_zipkin:
  default:
    host: 0.0.0.0
    port: 9411
    contextPath: /

gRPC/HTTP server for receiver

In default, all gRPC/HTTP services should be served at core/gRPC and core/rest. But the receiver-sharing-server module provide a way to make all receivers serving at different ip:port, if you set them explicitly.

receiver-sharing-server:
  default:
    restHost: ${SW_SHARING_SERVER_REST_HOST:0.0.0.0}
    restPort: ${SW_SHARING_SERVER_REST_PORT:12800}
    restContextPath: ${SW_SHARING_SERVER_REST_CONTEXT_PATH:/}
    gRPCHost: ${SW_SHARING_SERVER_GRPC_HOST:0.0.0.0}
    gRPCPort: ${SW_SHARING_SERVER_GRPC_PORT:11800}

Notice, if you add these settings, make sure they are not as same as core module, because gRPC/HTTP servers of core are still used for UI and OAP internal communications.

Zipkin receiver

Zipkin receiver could work in two different mode.

1. Tracing mode(default). Tracing mode is that, skywalking OAP acts like zipkin collector, fully supports Zipkin v1/v2 formats through HTTP service, also provide persistence and query in skywalking UI. But it wouldn't analysis metrics from them. In most case, I suggest you could use this feature, when metrics come from service mesh. Notice, in this mode, Zipkin receiver requires zipkin-elasticsearch storage implementation active. Read this to know how to active.

Use following config to active.

receiver_zipkin:
  default:
    host: ${SW_RECEIVER_ZIPKIN_HOST:0.0.0.0}
    port: ${SW_RECEIVER_ZIPKIN_PORT:9411}
    contextPath: ${SW_RECEIVER_ZIPKIN_CONTEXT_PATH:/}

2. Analysis mode(Not production ready), receive Zipkin v1/v2 formats through HTTP service. Transform the trace to skywalking native format, and analysis like skywalking trace. This feature can‘t work in production env right now, because of Zipkin tag/endpoint value unpredictable, we can’t make sure it fits production env requirements.

Active analysis mode, you should set needAnalysis config.

receiver_zipkin:
  default:
    host: ${SW_RECEIVER_ZIPKIN_HOST:0.0.0.0}
    port: ${SW_RECEIVER_ZIPKIN_PORT:9411}
    contextPath: ${SW_RECEIVER_ZIPKIN_CONTEXT_PATH:/}
    needAnalysis: true

Jaeger receiver

Jaeger receiver right now only works in Tracing Mode, and no analysis. Jaeger receiver provides extra gRPC host/port, if absent, sharing-server host/port will be used, then core gRPC host/port. Receiver requires jaeger-elasticsearch storage implementation active. Read this to know how to active.

Right now, you need jaeger agent to batch send spans to SkyWalking oap server. Read Jaeger Architecture to get more details.

Active the receiver.

receiver_jaeger:
  default:
    gRPCHost: ${SW_RECEIVER_JAEGER_HOST:0.0.0.0}
    gRPCPort: ${SW_RECEIVER_JAEGER_PORT:14250}