Semantic Conventions for Database Client Calls

Status: Release Candidate, unless otherwise specified

Warning

Existing database instrumentations that are using v1.24.0 of this document (or prior):

• SHOULD NOT change the version of the database conventions that they emit by default until the database semantic conventions are marked stable. Conventions include, but are not limited to, attributes, metric and span names, and unit of measure.
• SHOULD introduce an environment variable OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN in the existing major version which is a comma-separated list of values. If the list of values includes:
  • database - emit the new, stable database conventions, and stop emitting the old experimental database conventions that the instrumentation emitted previously.
  • database/dup - emit both the old and the stable database conventions, allowing for a seamless transition.
  • The default behavior (in the absence of one of these values) is to continue emitting whatever version of the old experimental database conventions the instrumentation was emitting previously.
  • Note: database/dup has higher precedence than database in case both values are present
• SHOULD maintain (security patching at a minimum) the existing major version for at least six months after it starts emitting both sets of conventions.
• SHOULD drop the environment variable in the next major version.

Span kind: SHOULD be CLIENT. It MAY be set to INTERNAL on spans representing in-memory database calls. It’s RECOMMENDED to use CLIENT kind when database system being instrumented usually runs in a different process than its client or when database calls happen over instrumented protocol such as HTTP.

Span that describes database call SHOULD cover the duration of the corresponding call as if it was observed by the caller (such as client application). For example, if a transient issue happened and was retried within this database call, the corresponding span should cover the duration of the logical operation with all retries.

Name

Database spans MUST follow the overall guidelines for span names.

The span name SHOULD be {db.query.summary} if a summary is available.

If no summary is available, the span name SHOULD be {db.operation.name} {target} provided that a (low-cardinality) db.operation.name is available (see below for the exact definition of the {target} placeholder).

If a (low-cardinality) db.operation.name is not available, database span names SHOULD default to the {target}.

If neither {db.operation.name} nor {target} are available, span name SHOULD be {db.system}.

Semantic conventions for individual database systems MAY specify different span name format.

The {target} SHOULD describe the entity that the operation is performed against and SHOULD adhere to one of the following values, provided they are accessible:

• db.collection.name SHOULD be used for data manipulation operations or operations on a database collection.
• db.namespace SHOULD be used for operations on a specific database namespace.
• server.address:server.port SHOULD be used for other operations not targeting any specific database(s) or collection(s)

If a corresponding {target} value is not available for a specific operation, the instrumentation SHOULD omit the {target}. For example, for an operation describing SQL query on an anonymous table like SELECT * FROM (SELECT * FROM table) t, span name should be SELECT.

Status

Span Status Code MUST be left unset if the operation has ended without any errors.

Instrumentation SHOULD consider the operation as failed if any of the following is true:

• the db.response.status_code value indicates an error

  [!NOTE]

  The classification of status code as an error depends on the context. For example, a SQL STATE 02000 (no_data) indicates an error when the application expected the data to be available. However, it is not an error when the application is simply checking whether the data exists.

  Instrumentations that have additional context about a specific operation MAY use this context to set the span status more precisely. Instrumentations that don’t have any additional context MUST follow the guidelines in this section.

• an exception is thrown by the instrumented method call

• the instrumented method returns an error in another way

When the operation ends with an error, instrumentation:

• SHOULD set the span status code to Error

• SHOULD set the error.type attribute

• SHOULD set the span status description when it has additional information about the error which is not expected to contain sensitive details and aligns with Span Status Description definition.

  It’s NOT RECOMMENDED to duplicate db.response.status_code or error.type in span status description.

  When the operation fails with an exception, the span status description SHOULD be set to the exception message.

Recording exception events

Status: Experimental

When the operation fails with an exception, instrumentation SHOULD record an exception event by default if, and only if, the span being recorded is a local root span (does not have a local parent).

[!NOTE]

Exception stack traces could be very long and are expensive to capture and store. Exceptions which are not handled by instrumented libraries are likely to be handled and logged by the caller. Exceptions that are not handled will be recorded by the outermost (local root) instrumentation such as HTTP or gRPC server.

Instrumentation MAY provide a configuration option to record exceptions that escape the surface of the instrumented API.

Common attributes

These attributes will usually be the same for all operations performed over the same database connection.

Attribute	Type	Description	Examples	Requirement Level	Stability
db.system	string	The database management system (DBMS) product as identified by the client instrumentation. [1]	other_sql; adabas; cache	Required
db.collection.name	string	The name of a collection (table, container) within the database. [2]	public.users; customers	Conditionally Required [3]
db.namespace	string	The name of the database, fully qualified within the server address and port. [4]	customers; test.users	Conditionally Required If available.
db.operation.name	string	The name of the operation or command being executed. [5]	findAndModify; HMSET; SELECT	Conditionally Required [6]
db.response.status_code	string	Database response status code. [7]	102; ORA-17002; 08P01; 404	Conditionally Required [8]
error.type	string	Describes a class of error the operation ended with. [9]	timeout; java.net.UnknownHostException; server_certificate_invalid; 500	Conditionally Required If and only if the operation failed.
server.port	int	Server port number. [10]	80; 8080; 443	Conditionally Required [11]
db.operation.batch.size	int	The number of queries included in a batch operation. [12]	2; 3; 4	Recommended
db.query.summary	string	Low cardinality representation of a database query text. [13]	SELECT wuser_table; INSERT shipping_details SELECT orders; get user by id	Recommended [14]
db.query.text	string	The database query being executed. [15]	SELECT * FROM wuser_table where username = ?; SET mykey ?	Recommended [16]
db.response.returned_rows	int	Number of rows returned by the operation.	10; 30; 1000	Recommended
network.peer.address	string	Peer address of the database node where the operation was performed. [17]	10.1.2.80; /tmp/my.sock	Recommended If applicable for this database system.
network.peer.port	int	Peer port number of the network connection.	65123	Recommended if and only if network.peer.address is set.
server.address	string	Name of the database host. [18]	example.com; 10.1.2.80; /tmp/my.sock	Recommended
db.operation.parameter.<key>	string	A database operation parameter, with <key> being the parameter name, and the attribute value being a string representation of the parameter value. [19]	someval; 55	Opt-In

[1] db.system: The actual DBMS may differ from the one identified by the client. For example, when using PostgreSQL client libraries to connect to a CockroachDB, the db.system is set to postgresql based on the instrumentation’s best knowledge. This attribute has stability level RELEASE CANDIDATE.

[2] db.collection.name: It is RECOMMENDED to capture the value as provided by the application without attempting to do any case normalization.

The collection name SHOULD NOT be extracted from db.query.text, unless the query format is known to only ever have a single collection name present.

For batch operations, if the individual operations are known to have the same collection name then that collection name SHOULD be used.

This attribute has stability level RELEASE CANDIDATE.

[3] db.collection.name: If readily available and if a database call is performed on a single collection. The collection name MAY be parsed from the query text, in which case it SHOULD be the single collection name in the query.

[4] db.namespace: If a database system has multiple namespace components, they SHOULD be concatenated (potentially using database system specific conventions) from most general to most specific namespace component, and more specific namespaces SHOULD NOT be captured without the more general namespaces, to ensure that “startswith” queries for the more general namespaces will be valid. Semantic conventions for individual database systems SHOULD document what db.namespace means in the context of that system. It is RECOMMENDED to capture the value as provided by the application without attempting to do any case normalization. This attribute has stability level RELEASE CANDIDATE.

[5] db.operation.name: It is RECOMMENDED to capture the value as provided by the application without attempting to do any case normalization.

The operation name SHOULD NOT be extracted from db.query.text, unless the query format is known to only ever have a single operation name present.

For batch operations, if the individual operations are known to have the same operation name then that operation name SHOULD be used prepended by BATCH , otherwise db.operation.name SHOULD be BATCH or some other database system specific term if more applicable.

This attribute has stability level RELEASE CANDIDATE.

[6] db.operation.name: If readily available and if there is a single operation name that describes the database call. The operation name MAY be parsed from the query text, in which case it SHOULD be the single operation name found in the query.

[7] db.response.status_code: The status code returned by the database. Usually it represents an error code, but may also represent partial success, warning, or differentiate between various types of successful outcomes. Semantic conventions for individual database systems SHOULD document what db.response.status_code means in the context of that system. This attribute has stability level RELEASE CANDIDATE.

[8] db.response.status_code: If the operation failed and status code is available.

[9] error.type: The error.type SHOULD match the db.response.status_code returned by the database or the client library, or the canonical name of exception that occurred. When using canonical exception type name, instrumentation SHOULD do the best effort to report the most relevant type. For example, if the original exception is wrapped into a generic one, the original exception SHOULD be preferred. Instrumentations SHOULD document how error.type is populated.

[10] server.port: When observed from the client side, and when communicating through an intermediary, server.port SHOULD represent the server port behind any intermediaries, for example proxies, if it’s available.

[11] server.port: If using a port other than the default port for this DBMS and if server.address is set.

[12] db.operation.batch.size: Operations are only considered batches when they contain two or more operations, and so db.operation.batch.size SHOULD never be 1. This attribute has stability level RELEASE CANDIDATE.

[13] db.query.summary: db.query.summary provides static summary of the query text. It describes a class of database queries and is useful as a grouping key, especially when analyzing telemetry for database calls involving complex queries. Summary may be available to the instrumentation through instrumentation hooks or other means. If it is not available, instrumentations that support query parsing SHOULD generate a summary following Generating query summary section. This attribute has stability level RELEASE CANDIDATE.

[14] db.query.summary: if readily available or if instrumentation supports query summarization.

[15] db.query.text: For sanitization see Sanitization of db.query.text. For batch operations, if the individual operations are known to have the same query text then that query text SHOULD be used, otherwise all of the individual query texts SHOULD be concatenated with separator ; or some other database system specific separator if more applicable. Even though parameterized query text can potentially have sensitive data, by using a parameterized query the user is giving a strong signal that any sensitive data will be passed as parameter values, and the benefit to observability of capturing the static part of the query text by default outweighs the risk. This attribute has stability level RELEASE CANDIDATE.

[16] db.query.text: Non-parameterized query text SHOULD NOT be collected by default unless there is sanitization that excludes sensitive data, e.g. by redacting all literal values present in the query text. See Sanitization of db.query.text. Parameterized query text SHOULD be collected by default (the query parameter values themselves are opt-in, see db.operation.parameter.<key>).

[17] network.peer.address: Semantic conventions for individual database systems SHOULD document whether network.peer.* attributes are applicable. Network peer address and port are useful when the application interacts with individual database nodes directly. If a database operation involved multiple network calls (for example retries), the address of the last contacted node SHOULD be used.

[18] server.address: When observed from the client side, and when communicating through an intermediary, server.address SHOULD represent the server address behind any intermediaries, for example proxies, if it’s available.

[19] db.operation.parameter: If a parameter has no name and instead is referenced only by index, then <key> SHOULD be the 0-based index. If db.query.text is also captured, then db.operation.parameter.<key> SHOULD match up with the parameterized placeholders present in db.query.text. This attribute has stability level RELEASE CANDIDATE.

The following attributes can be important for making sampling decisions and SHOULD be provided at span creation time (if provided at all):

• db.collection.name
• db.namespace
• db.operation.name
• db.query.summary
• db.query.text
• db.system
• server.address
• server.port

db.system has the following list of well-known values. If one of them applies, then the respective value MUST be used; otherwise, a custom value MAY be used.

Value	Description	Stability
adabas	Adabas (Adaptable Database System)
cassandra	Apache Cassandra
clickhouse	ClickHouse
cockroachdb	CockroachDB
cosmosdb	Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
couchbase	Couchbase
couchdb	CouchDB
db2	IBM Db2
derby	Apache Derby
dynamodb	Amazon DynamoDB
edb	EnterpriseDB
elasticsearch	Elasticsearch
filemaker	FileMaker
firebird	Firebird
geode	Apache Geode
h2	H2
hanadb	SAP HANA
hbase	Apache HBase
hive	Apache Hive
hsqldb	HyperSQL DataBase
influxdb	InfluxDB
informix	Informix
ingres	Ingres
instantdb	InstantDB
interbase	InterBase
intersystems_cache	InterSystems Caché
mariadb	MariaDB (This value has stability level RELEASE CANDIDATE)
maxdb	SAP MaxDB
memcached	Memcached
mongodb	MongoDB
mssql	Microsoft SQL Server (This value has stability level RELEASE CANDIDATE)
mysql	MySQL (This value has stability level RELEASE CANDIDATE)
neo4j	Neo4j
netezza	Netezza
opensearch	OpenSearch
oracle	Oracle Database
other_sql	Some other SQL database. Fallback only. See notes.
pervasive	Pervasive PSQL
pointbase	PointBase
postgresql	PostgreSQL (This value has stability level RELEASE CANDIDATE)
progress	Progress Database
redis	Redis
redshift	Amazon Redshift
spanner	Cloud Spanner
sqlite	SQLite
sybase	Sybase
teradata	Teradata
trino	Trino
vertica	Vertica

error.type has the following list of well-known values. If one of them applies, then the respective value MUST be used; otherwise, a custom value MAY be used.

Value	Description	Stability
_OTHER	A fallback error value to be used when the instrumentation doesn’t define a custom value.

Notes and well-known identifiers for db.system

The list above is a non-exhaustive list of well-known identifiers to be specified for db.system.

If a value defined in this list applies to the DBMS to which the request is sent, this value MUST be used. If no value defined in this list is suitable, a custom value MUST be provided. This custom value MUST be the name of the DBMS in lowercase and without a version number to stay consistent with existing identifiers.

It is encouraged to open a PR towards this specification to add missing values to the list, especially when instrumentations for those missing databases are written. This allows multiple instrumentations for the same database to be aligned and eases analyzing for backends.

The value other_sql is intended as a fallback and MUST only be used if the DBMS is known to be SQL-compliant but the concrete product is not known to the instrumentation. If the concrete DBMS is known to the instrumentation, its specific identifier MUST be used.

Back ends could, for example, use the provided identifier to determine the appropriate SQL dialect for parsing the db.query.text.

When additional attributes are added that only apply to a specific DBMS, its identifier SHOULD be used as a namespace in the attribute key as for the attributes in the sections below.

Sanitization of db.query.text

The db.query.text SHOULD be collected by default only if there is sanitization that excludes sensitive information. Sanitization SHOULD replace all literals with a placeholder value. Such literals include, but are not limited to, String, Numeric, Date and Time, Boolean, Interval, Binary, and Hexadecimal literals. The placeholder value SHOULD be ?, unless it already has a defined meaning in the given database system, in which case the instrumentation MAY choose a different placeholder.

Placeholders in a parameterized query SHOULD not be sanitized. E.g. where id = $1 can be captured as is.

IN-clauses MAY be collapsed during sanitization, e.g. from IN (?, ?, ?, ?) to IN (?), as this can help with extremely long IN-clauses, and can help control cardinality for users who choose to (optionally) add db.query.text to their metric attributes.

Generating a summary of the query text

The db.query.summary attribute captures a shortened representation of a query text which SHOULD have low-cardinality and SHOULD NOT contain any dynamic or sensitive data.

[!NOTE]

The db.query.text attribute is intended to identify individual queries. Even though it is sanitized if captured by default, it could still have high cardinality and might reach hundreds of lines.

The db.query.summary is intended to provide a less granular grouping key that can be used as a span name or a metric attribute in common cases. It SHOULD only contain information that has a significant impact on the query, database, or application performance.

Instrumentations that support query parsing SHOULD generate a query summary when one is not readily available from other sources.

The summary SHOULD preserve the following parts of query in the order they were provided:

• operations such as SQL SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and other commands
• operation targets such as collections and database names

Instrumentations that support query parsing SHOULD parse the query and extract a list of operations and targets from the query. It SHOULD set db.query.summary attribute to the value formatted in the following way:

{operation1} {target1} {operation2} {target2} {target3} ...

Instrumentations SHOULD capture the values of operations and targets as provided by the application without attempting to do any case normalization. If the operation and target value is populated on db.operation.name, db.collection.name, or other attributes, it SHOULD match the value used in the db.query.summary.

Examples:

• Query that consist of a single operation:

  SELECT *
  FROM   wuser_table
  WHERE  username = ?
  

  the corresponding db.query.summary is SELECT wuser_table.

• Query that performs multiple operations:

  INSERT INTO shipping_details
              (order_id,
              address)
  SELECT order_id,
         address
  FROM   orders
  WHERE  order_id = ?
  

  the corresponding db.query.summary is INSERT shipping_details SELECT orders.

• Query that performs an operation that’s applied to multiple collections:

  SELECT *
  FROM   songs,
         artists
  WHERE  songs.artist_id == artists.id
  

  the corresponding db.query.summary is SELECT songs artists.

• Query that performs an operation on an anonymous table:

  SELECT order_date
  FROM   (SELECT *
          FROM   orders o
                 JOIN customers c
                   ON o.customer_id = c.customer_id)
  

  the corresponding db.query.summary is SELECT SELECT orders customers.

• Query that performs an operation on multiple collections with double-quotes or other punctuation:

  SELECT *
  FROM   "song list",
         'artists'
  

  the corresponding db.query.summary is SELECT "songs list" 'artists'.

Semantic conventions for individual database systems or specialized instrumentations MAY specify a different db.query.summary format as long as produced summary remains relatively short and its cardinality remains low comparing to the db.query.text.

Semantic Conventions for specific database technologies

More specific Semantic Conventions are defined for the following database technologies:

• AWS DynamoDB: Semantic Conventions for AWS DynamoDB.
• Cassandra: Semantic Conventions for Cassandra.
• Cosmos DB: Semantic Conventions for Microsoft Cosmos DB.
• CouchDB: Semantic Conventions for CouchDB.
• Elasticsearch: Semantic Conventions for Elasticsearch.
• HBase: Semantic Conventions for HBase.
• MongoDB: Semantic Conventions for MongoDB.
• MSSQL: Semantic Conventions for MSSQL.
• Redis: Semantic Conventions for Redis.
• SQL: Semantic Conventions for SQL databases.