Add "Sunsetting OpenCensus" blog post #2629

aabmass · 2023-04-24T16:59:06Z

Please publish on Monday, May 1

https://deploy-preview-2629--opentelemetry.netlify.app/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus/

aabmass

Feedback from SIG:

Add justification of why python repo is expempted
Mention that the OC compat spec will be stable in the next release (pending release of Mark OpenCensus compatibility spec as stable opentelemetry-specification#3425)

content/en/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus.md

aabmass · 2023-04-24T17:38:35Z

content/en/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus.md

+package repositories like NPM and PyPI. **We encourage all OpenCensus users to
+migrate to OpenTelemetry as soon as possible.**
+
+One exception to this is the [census-instrumentation/opencensus-python], which


@jeremydvoss @lzchen I'd like to mention the reason for exempting python for now. Can you suggest some wording?

Maybe something along the lines of:

"A number of projects within this repository are still being used as recommended production solutions. These projects will continue to be maintained. Please reach out to the individual maintainers for the projects for details regarding maintenance timeline, next steps for migration and general support questions."

Added as a footnote

static/refcache.json

aabmass · 2023-04-25T20:51:13Z

Thanks for the help on this. I will be out until Monday, @damemi can address any minor comments, or maintainers feel free to push suggestions.

damemi · 2023-04-27T13:50:57Z

Bumping this, is there any more feedback to be addressed today or tomorrow? Want to make sure this is on track to publish Monday

content/en/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus.md

reyang · 2023-04-27T16:44:22Z

content/en/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus.md

+outlined in the
+[OpenCensus Compatibility specification](/docs/reference/specification/compatibility/opencensus#migration-path)[^spec-next-release].
+
+## What to Expect After July 31st, 2023


Is there intention to mention the support lifecycle for shims or we want to separate the concern?

LTS and support plans would be good to share - see my comment above.

The Shims are in OpenTelemetry and subject to https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/main/specification/versioning-and-stability.md#long-term-support.

Currently, that's one year support (from OTEL's side).

added this in a footnote

content/en/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus.md

reyang · 2023-04-27T16:47:32Z

content/en/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus.md

@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+---
+title: Sunsetting OpenCensus


Is there any announcement from the OpenCensus official site? It'll be great to have the cross reference.

We're planning to update the banner on the OpenCensus website to announce the date and point with a link to this blog post.

Co-authored-by: Reiley Yang <reyang@microsoft.com>

mattmccleary · 2023-04-27T18:23:11Z

content/en/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus.md

+
+To help ease the migration path, we have provided backward compatibility bridges
+in [Go][go shim], [Java][java shim], [JavaScript][js shim][^shim-next-release],
+and [Python][python shim][^shim-next-release]. Installing these bridges allows


Can we be clear about the current status of these shims and if/when they will be stable?

Agree. Would be good to provide a current status of these bridges and how long they will be maintained (whats the LTS plan).

LTS is under https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/main/specification/versioning-and-stability.md#long-term-support.

As far as stability, now that the specification is marked as stable, we can get each component to be marked as stable.

added a footnote re: stability and support, linking to the docs Josh provided

mattmccleary · 2023-04-27T18:26:54Z

content/en/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus.md

+the OpenTelemetry project. From the start, we considered OpenTelemetry
+[to be the next major version of both OpenTracing and OpenCensus](https://www.cncf.io/blog/2019/05/21/a-brief-history-of-opentelemetry-so-far/).
+
+We are excited to announce that OpenTelemetry has reached feature parity with


Doesn't OpenCensus have a stable logging story?

Otel's logging data model is stable, could you give an example of what you mean in opencensus?

If you go to OTel-Python repo the logs API and SDK files both have underscores before them. In the OTel-Spec, the Logs/Events API (if/when it comes into being) is not stable. Just a having a stable data model doesn't guarantee customers won't be broken in the future. We should be up front that there is a caveat about this "feature parity" claim. Customers could take a bet on OpenCensus Logging, whereas I don't see that same level of confidence with OTel logging yet.

OpenCensus does not include any logging API whatsoever. It was just "stats(metrics) + traces".

If OTel would make the same decision and call it done, then I'd feel comfortable with the "feature parity" claim. IMO, we should make customers aware that the OTel logging pillar is still WIP.

@mattmccleary maybe I'm misunderstanding your point, but if OC only supported metrics and traces then doesn't feature parity with OTel only rely on metrics and traces? I am confused how the addition of logging in OTel isn't compatible with OC

Exactly. OpenCensus users don't need to migrate OC logging because there was nothing to migrate, it didn't exist. We're asking OC users to migrate their metrics + traces to OpenTelemetry.

I don't understand the point you're making at all.

Azure customers have taken a production dependency on an Azure-specific OpenCensus Logs Exporter:
https://github.com/census-instrumentation/opencensus-python#log-exporter

If they migrate to OTLP Python Exporter for Logging, are you guaranteeing it's stable and they will not be broken in the future?

I just want to make sure we're properly setting customer expectations for this cohort.

I see. OpenCensus extensions are NOT part of this transition plan, nor will we be transitioning existing OpenCensus exporters. The module you list would be considered both.

For the extension you mention, I'd suggest Azure could provide such a module to an OpenTelemetry Contrib component. From what I can tell, it's very Azure specific (and does not even require the user to interact with OpenCensus to install it). Additionally, you could still recommend Azure customers use that log exporter while they transition Metrics/Traces to OpenTelemetry via the OpenCesnus shim and I bet nothing breaks.

There are other extensions/contrib in opencensus, e.g. https://github.com/census-instrumentation/opencensus-java/tree/master/contrib/log_correlation/log4j2. These will not break when using the OpenCensus-shim.

OpenCensus extensions are NOT part of this transition plan, nor will we be transitioning existing OpenCensus exporters.

Awesome. As long as this is clear to customers, great. It wasn't to me. Many of the customers I work with are not deeply versed in the communities like we are. They do not understand (or care to understand) the difference between extensions vs core components. It's all OpenCensus to them.

mattmccleary · 2023-04-27T18:54:41Z

content/en/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus.md

+and [Python][python shim][^shim-next-release]. Installing these bridges allows
+OpenCensus and OpenTelemetry instrumentation to smoothly interoperate, with all
+of your telemetry flowing out of OpenTelemetry exporters. This lets OpenCensus
+users incrementally transition all of their instrumentation from OpenCensus to


Can we expand out the steps of how/why we consider this incremental?
For example, what if customers want to leave their opencensus data flows as-is and temporarily emit OpenTelemetry side-by-side so they can compare their charts, etc. before removing OpenCensus? Is this a recommended/available incremental approach?

Details about migration plans are included in the compatibility specification linked below this https://opentelemetry.io/docs/reference/specification/compatibility/opencensus/#migration-plans, as well as language-specific outlines in the documentation for each shim.

@mattmccleary given the overhead you'd find from double-o11y solutions, side-by-side running would not be recommended. Far better to A:B test different configurations in different running binaries. Even then, it's an expensive user proposition. As @damemi points out, the justification behind the incremental approach is in the migration plan.

mattmccleary · 2023-04-27T18:55:54Z

content/en/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus.md

+
+While OpenTelemetry was never intended to be a strict superset of OpenCensus,
+most of the APIs and data models are compatible. Migration should be considered
+a "major version bump" and you may notice some changes in your telemetry.


mattmccleary · 2023-04-27T18:56:56Z

content/en/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus.md

+
+## What to Expect After July 31st, 2023
+
+After July 31st, 2023, the OpenCensus project will no longer be maintained. This


except Python, right? Can we be consistent with langauge above?

That is included in this section, https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry.io/pull/2629/files#diff-3f663d56dad3c82fc67e741b0ed70e07ed18d2ac9661fd947d562b8d1be4db54R64-R65

I see it now...just didn't catch my eye because it seemed separate.

content/en/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus.md

Co-authored-by: Matt McCleary <43887470+mattmccleary@users.noreply.github.com>

reyang

Congratulations!! 👏 🥳 As a former OpenCensus member I'm super glad to see this big step forward, another big milestone for OpenTelemetry!!!

svrnm · 2023-04-28T08:39:49Z

All, as discussed on Monday's SIG call with @aabmass & @austinlparker we will merge & publish this blog post on May 1th. I think it is in a good shape and noting should stop us doing so. If you think otherwise please call out any flaws that need to be fixed before publishing.

Thanks everyone for taking the effort on writing & editing this, this will be a great announcment! Like everyone else I am super excited about this!

damemi · 2023-05-01T14:41:18Z

Bump, is this still planned to merge today?

svrnm · 2023-05-01T15:47:00Z

Bump, is this still planned to merge today?

Yes. Thanks for the bump, I didn't anticipate that it's a public holiday for me today.

Merged. Will be available in a few minutes.

damemi · 2023-05-01T15:49:53Z

@svrnm no problem, thanks!

aabmass · 2023-05-01T15:54:06Z

Thanks everyone for your review and input!

aabmass requested review from a team as code owners April 24, 2023 16:59

aabmass commented Apr 24, 2023

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aabmass requested a review from lzchen April 24, 2023 17:35

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aabmass added 2 commits April 25, 2023 14:09

Add "Sunsetting OpenCensus" blog post

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fix initial comments from SIG meeting

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aabmass force-pushed the sunsetting-opencensus branch from c5ed412 to 684d80a Compare April 25, 2023 14:21

aabmass added 2 commits April 25, 2023 14:31

add back missing deep link

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remove entry from refcache and regen

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aabmass mentioned this pull request Apr 25, 2023

Mark OpenCensus compatibility spec as stable open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification#3425

Merged

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Merge branch 'main' into sunsetting-opencensus

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Update content/en/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus.md

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Co-authored-by: Reiley Yang <reyang@microsoft.com>

Address feedback

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Co-authored-by: Matt McCleary <43887470+mattmccleary@users.noreply.github.com>

reyang approved these changes Apr 27, 2023

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Merge branch 'main' into sunsetting-opencensus

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svrnm merged commit 7eac895 into open-telemetry:main May 1, 2023
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aabmass deleted the sunsetting-opencensus branch May 1, 2023 15:54


		## What to Expect After July 31st, 2023

		After July 31st, 2023, the OpenCensus project will no longer be maintained. This

Add "Sunsetting OpenCensus" blog post #2629

Add "Sunsetting OpenCensus" blog post #2629

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