Trace data exports overview

This page provides a conceptual overview of exporting trace data using Cloud Trace. You might want to export trace data for the following reasons:

  • To store trace data for a period longer than the default retention period of 30 days.

  • To let you use BigQuery tools to analyze your trace data. For example, using BigQuery, you can identify span counts and quantiles. For information on the query used to generate the following table, see HipsterShop query.

    Display the response to the previous query.

How exports work

Exporting involves creating a sink for a Google Cloud project. A sink defines a BigQuery dataset as the destination.

You can create a sink by using the Cloud Trace API or by using the Google Cloud CLI.

Sink properties and terminology

Sinks are defined for a Google Cloud project and have the following properties:

  • Name: A name for the sink. For example, a name might be:

    "projects/PROJECT_NUMBER/traceSinks/my-sink"

    where PROJECT_NUMBER is the sink's Google Cloud project number and my-sink is the sink identifier.