Get Started

Resolve an Incident

Use Lightstep to quickly create a hypothesis about the root cause of a performance incident.

Auto-Instrument Your Framework

Auto-instrumentation provides out-of-the-box tracing of popular frameworks (such as Django and Spring), common protocols (HTTP, gRPC) and data store drivers (MySQL, MongoDB). You can see traces in Lightstep almost immediately.

C#/.NET Instrumentation

Use C#/.NET to instrument your app for distributed tracing using OpenTracing.

C#/.NET Quick Start

If your app is written in .NET, you can get started quickly with Lightstep. Download the Auto-Installer, then configure it to communicate with your Lightstep Satellites. When you deploy your app, all supported libraries will begin sending trace data to Lightstep.

C++ Quick Start

This Quick Start will have you configure your tracer to communicate with the Lightstep Satellites and create a single span on your C++ service. You install both the OpenTracing API and Lightstep tracer and then use the OpenTracing and Lightstep APIs to instrument your code.

Create Lightstep Users

Lightstep offers role-based access control (RBAC) to features and functionality. You can add users manually or automatically via domain whitelisting, allowing any user at the domain access without an explicit invitation.

Create Projects for Your Environments

You can have several projects in Lightstep. For example, you might have one project for your development environment and one for production. Or you may have projects for different areas of your application while they're in development.

Get Support From Customer Success

Contact Customer Success at Lightstep.

Golang Quick Start

This Quick Start will have you configure your tracer to communicate with the Lightstep Satellites and create a single span on your Go service. You install both the OpenTracing API and Lightstep tracer and then use the OpenTracing and Lightstep APIs to instrument your code.

How Lightstep Works

Lightstep analyzes 100 percent of unsampled transaction data from highly distributed, large-scale production software to produce complete end-to-end traces and robust metrics that explain performance behaviors and accelerate root cause analysis. Four main components make that happen---tracers, Satellites, the Lightstep SaaS Engine, and the web application.

Install and Configure Satellites

Lightstep Satellites are straightforward to deploy using a Docker image, AWS/AMI, or a Debian package.

Instrument with Istio as Your Service Mesh

Lightstep works with many service meshes, and Lightstep + Istio is an easy way to get quick visibility into service performance and availability from the perspective of the service mesh.

Java Quick Start

If your app is written in Java, you can get started quickly with Lightstep. Download the Java SpecialAgent, then configure it to communicate with your Lightstep Satellites. When you deploy your app, all supported third-party framework libraries (like the Elasticsearch client, RxJava, or the Kafka client) will begin sending trace data to Lightstep.

JavaScript/Node Quick Start

If your app is written in Node.js, you can get started quickly with Lightstep. Download the Auto-Installer, then configure it to communicate with your Lightstep Satellites. When you deploy your app, all supported libraries will begin sending trace data to Lightstep.

Lightstep Integrations

Lightstep integrates with leading cloud-native technologies, service meshes for microservices, and enterprise data visualization and collaboration tools. These turnkey integrations make it easy to deploy Lightstep across large-scale production systems so users get the unrivaled performance insights it provides when they need it and as part of their standard, established workflows.

Manage Your Developer Satellite

When you are in Developer Mode, your Satellite runs on your machine, allowing you to collect and see only data that you create locally. You can start, stop, and configure your Satellite.

Objective-C and Swift Quick Start

This Quick Start will have you configure your tracer to communicate with the Lightstep Satellites and create a single span on your Objective C/Swift service. You install both the Lightstep tracer and then use the Lightstep API to instrument your code.

Observe Mobile Device Behavior

Learn how Lightstep handles mobile devices

PHP Quick Start

This Quick Start will have you configure your tracer to communicate with the Lightstep Satellites and create a single span on your PHP service. You install the Lightstep tracer and then use the Lightstep API to instrument your code.

Python Manual Instrumentation with OpenTracing

Configure your tracer to communicate with the Lightstep Satellites and create a single span on your Python service. You install both the OpenTracing API and Lightstep tracer and then use the OpenTracing and Lightstep APIs to instrument your code.

Python Quick Start

If your app is written in Python, you can get started quickly with Lightstep. Download the Auto-Installer, then configure it to communicate with your Lightstep Satellites. When you deploy your app, all supported frameworks, data stores, and libraries will begin sending trace data to Lightstep.

Quick Start: Instrumentation

Learn how to instrument your app for distributed tracing using OpenTracing and Lightstep.

Ruby Quick Start

If your app is written in Ruby, you can get started quickly with Lightstep. Download the Auto-Installer, then configure it to communicate with your Lightstep Satellites. When you deploy your app, all supported libraries will begin sending trace data to Lightstep.

Troubleshoot Developer Mode

Troubleshoot your Developer Mode Satellite in Lightstep.

Typical Workflows Using Lightstep

Learn how to use Lightstep for many of your daily activities

Understand Distributed Tracing

Distributed tracing provides a view of the life of a request as it travels across multiple hosts and services communicating over various protocols. With distributed tracing implemented, you have a window into performance at every step in the request.

Use Developer Mode

Developer Mode allows you to run a Satellite locally to view traces generated from your instrumented code as you write it. Reliable feedback helps build confidence that your code is correct, by quickly verifying your instrumentation using a console-like output.

Use Zipkin with Lightstep

If you're currently using Zipkin for tracing, you can configure it to send that data directly to Lightstep Satellites with little change. This is a great way to reuse your existing instrumentation architecture either directly in production or to quickly try out Lightstep for the first time.

Welcome to Lightstep Docs

Learn all you need to know about using Lightstep! These topics cover everything from getting started and instrumenting your system, to finding root causes and resolution hypotheses quickly, monitoring for behavior anomalies, and installing and load balancing on-premise Satellites to keep Lightstep running smoothly.

Lightstep Product Overview – See what you can do with Lightstep!

Lightstep's Service Diagrams – How to Quickly Investigate Critical Issues and Service Dependencies