/CorrelationVector

Specification for the Correlation Vector - a protocol for tracing and correlation of events through a distributed system based on a light weight vector clock.

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 InternationalCC-BY-4.0

Correlation Vector

Background

Correlation Vector (a.k.a. cV) is a format and protocol standard for tracing and correlation of events through a distributed system based on a light weight vector clock. The standard is widely used internally at Microsoft for first party applications and services and supported across multiple logging libraries and platforms (Services, Clients - Native, Managed, JS, iOS, Android etc). The standard powers a variety of different data processing needs ranging from distributed tracing & debugging to system and business intelligence, in various business organizations.

Goals

  • Make the standard specification externally available for implementation by non-Microsoft components or Open Source Microsoft components
  • Support wire interop scenarios between Microsoft-internal and external tracing systems
  • Describe the benefits of vector based tracing formats and to provide an exemplar vector based format for future standardization efforts with similar protocols

Resources

  • Design Constraints and Scenarios for the Correlation Vector: Link
  • Protocol Specification:
    • v2.1
    • v3.0 [In Review]
      • Support interop with W3C Distributed Tracing Link
      • Support for vector reset semantics to support traces of arbitrary depth
      • Support for versioning

Reference Implementations

Future Roadmap

TBD

Contributing

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Legal Notices

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