8.1 Configure the Routing Connector

In this exercise, you will configure the routing connector in the gateway.yaml file. This setup enables the Gateway to route traces based on the deployment.environment attribute in the spans you send. By implementing this, you can process and handle traces differently depending on their attributes.

Exercise

Add the routing connector: In the Gateway terminal window edit gateway.yaml and add the following below the receivers: and processors: stanzas and above the exporters: stanza:

connectors:
  routing:
    default_pipelines: [traces/standard] # Default pipeline if no rule matches
    error_mode: ignore                   # Ignore errors in routing
    table:                               # Define routing rules
      # Routes spans to a target pipeline if the resourceSpan attribute matches the rule
      - statement: route() where attributes["deployment.environment"] == "security_applications"
        pipelines: [traces/security]     # Target pipeline

In OpenTelemetry configuration files, connectors have their own dedicated section, similar to receivers and processors. This approach also applies to metrics and logs, allowing them to be routed based on attributes in resourceMetrics or resourceLogs.

Configure file: exporters: The routing connector requires separate targets for routing. Add two file exporters, file/traces/security and file/traces/standard, to ensure data is directed correctly:

  file/traces/standard:                    # Exporter for regular traces
    path: "./gateway-traces-standard.out"  # Path for saving trace data
    append: false                          # Overwrite the file each time
  file/traces/security:                    # Exporter for security traces
    path: "./gateway-traces-security.out"  # Path for saving trace data
    append: false                          # Overwrite the file each time

With the routing configuration complete, the next step is to configure the pipelines to apply these routing rules.