Container Networking Misconfiguration Blocking Span Reception
criticalconfigurationUpdated Jan 8, 2026
Network namespace issues prevent spans from reaching Jaeger collectors, manifesting as zero spans received despite applications generating traces. Common in Docker/Kubernetes deployments.
Sources
Technologies:
How to detect:
Monitor for zero or very low span reception rates (jaeger_collector_spans_received_total or otelcol_receiver_accepted_spans not increasing). Verify collector ports are exposed and reachable from application namespace.
Recommended action:
Verify Jaeger hostname is resolvable from application pods/containers. Ensure port 4317 (OTLP gRPC) or 4318 (OTLP HTTP) is exposed and accessible. In Docker, use --link or shared network namespace. In Kubernetes, verify Service and NetworkPolicy configuration. Listen on 0.0.0.0 not localhost in containers.