Semantic Conventions for MySQL

Status: Release Candidate

The Semantic Conventions for MySQL extend and override the Database Semantic Conventions.

db.system MUST be set to "mysql" and SHOULD be provided at span creation time.

Attributes

AttributeTypeDescriptionExamplesRequirement LevelStability
db.namespacestringThe database associated with the connection. [1]products; customersConditionally Required If available without an additional network call.Experimental
db.response.status_codestringMySQL error number. [2]1005; MY-010016Conditionally Required If response has ended with warning or an error.Experimental
error.typestringDescribes a class of error the operation ended with. [3]timeout; java.net.UnknownHostException; server_certificate_invalid; 500Conditionally Required If and only if the operation failed.Stable
server.portintServer port number. [4]80; 8080; 443Conditionally Required [5]Stable
db.operation.batch.sizeintThe number of queries included in a batch operation. [6]2; 3; 4RecommendedExperimental
db.query.summarystringLow cardinality representation of a database query text. [7]SELECT wuser_table; INSERT shipping_details SELECT orders; get user by idRecommended [8]Experimental
db.query.textstringThe database query being executed. [9]SELECT * FROM wuser_table where username = ?; SET mykey ?Recommended [10]Experimental
db.response.returned_rowsintNumber of rows returned by the operation.10; 30; 1000RecommendedExperimental
server.addressstringName of the database host. [11]example.com; 10.1.2.80; /tmp/my.sockRecommendedStable
db.operation.parameter.<key>stringA database operation parameter, with <key> being the parameter name, and the attribute value being a string representation of the parameter value. [12]someval; 55Opt-InExperimental

[1] db.namespace: A connection’s currently associated database may change during its lifetime, e.g. from executing USE <database>.

If instrumentation is unable to capture the connection’s currently associated database on each query without triggering an additional query to be executed (e.g. SELECT DATABASE()), then it is RECOMMENDED to fallback and use the database provided when the connection was established.

Instrumentation SHOULD document if db.namespace reflects the database provided when the connection was established.

It is RECOMMENDED to capture the value as provided by the application without attempting to do any case normalization.

[2] db.response.status_code: SQL defines SQLSTATE as a database return code which is adopted by some database systems like PostgreSQL. See PostgreSQL error codes for the details.

Other systems like MySQL, Oracle, or MS SQL Server define vendor-specific error codes. Database SQL drivers usually provide access to both properties. For example, in Java, the SQLException class reports them with getSQLState() and getErrorCode() methods.

Instrumentations SHOULD populate the db.response.status_code with the the most specific code available to them.

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of databases that report vendor-specific codes with granularity higher than SQLSTATE (or don’t report SQLSTATE at all):

These systems SHOULD set the db.response.status_code to a known vendor-specific error code. If only SQLSTATE is available, it SHOULD be used.

When multiple error codes are available and specificity is unclear, instrumentation SHOULD set the db.response.status_code to the concatenated string of all codes with ‘/’ used as a separator.

For example, generic DB instrumentation that detected an error and has SQLSTATE "42000" and vendor-specific 1071 should set db.response.status_code to "42000/1071"."

[3] 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.

[4] 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.

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

[6] 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.

[7] 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.

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

[9] 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.

[10] 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>).

[11] 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.

[12] 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):


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.

ValueDescriptionStability
_OTHERA fallback error value to be used when the instrumentation doesn’t define a custom value.Stable