How do you implement a distributed tracing system in microservices?

Distributed tracing systems monitor request paths between microservices, track transactions through unique identifiers, and enhance system observability. They are crucial for simplifying troubleshooting and performance optimization, applied in error diagnosis and real-time monitoring scenarios for e-commerce and payment systems.

Core components include Trace (the overall request chain), Span (individual operations), and context propagation mechanisms (such as B3 headers). Features encompass low-overhead data collection and high scalability, implemented through standards like OpenTelemetry. Practical applications involve analyzing call chains, identifying service bottlenecks, and influencing SLA improvements.

Implementation steps: Select a platform such as Jaeger or Zipkin; integrate SDKs (e.g., OpenTelemetry) in services to automatically propagate context; configure agents to collect data; set up a visualization UI. Business values include shortening mean time to recovery (MTTR reduction) and optimizing user response, typically in order processing flow monitoring.