AWS X-Ray SDK for .NET and .NET Core

Upcoming Maintenance Mode on February 25, 2026

The AWS X-Ray SDKs will enter maintenance mode on February 25, 2026. During maintenance mode, the X-Ray SDKs and Daemon will only receive critical bug fixes and security updates, and will not be updated to support new features.

We recommend that you migrate to AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry (ADOT) or OpenTelemetry Instrumentation to generate traces (through manual or zero-code instrumentation) from your application and send them to AWS X-Ray. OpenTelemetry is the industry-wide standard for tracing instrumentation and observability. It has a large open-source community for support and provides more instrumentations and updates. By adopting an OpenTelemetry solution, developers can leverage the latest services and innovations from AWS CloudWatch.

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OpenTelemetry .NET with AWS X-Ray

AWS X-Ray supports using OpenTelemetry .NET and the AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry (ADOT) Collector to instrument your application and send trace data to X-Ray. The OpenTelemetry SDKs are an industry-wide standard for tracing instrumentation. They provide more instrumentations and have a larger community for support, but may not have complete feature parity with the X-Ray SDKs. See choosing between the ADOT and X-Ray SDKs for more help with choosing between the two.

If you want additional features when tracing your .NET applications, please open an issue on the OpenTelemetry .NET Instrumentation repository.

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Installing

The AWS X-Ray SDK for .NET and .NET Core (.netstandard 2.0 and above) is in the form of Nuget packages. You can install the packages from Nuget gallery or from Visual Studio editor. Search AWSXRayRecorder* to see various middlewares available.

Getting Help

Use the following community resources for getting help with the SDK. We use the GitHub issues for tracking bugs and feature requests.

• Ask a question in the AWS X-Ray Forum.
• Open a support ticket with AWS Support.
• If you think you may have found a bug, open an issue.

Opening Issues

If you encounter a bug with the AWS X-Ray SDK for .NET/.NET Core, we want to hear about it. Before opening a new issue, search the existing issues to see if others are also experiencing the issue. Include platform (.NET/ .NET Core). In addition, include the repro case when appropriate.

The GitHub issues are intended for bug reports and feature requests. For help and questions about using the AWS X-Ray SDK for .NET and .NET Core, use the resources listed in the Getting Help section. Keeping the list of open issues lean helps us respond in a timely manner.

Documentation

The developer guide provides in-depth guidance about using the AWS X-Ray service. Following API reference documentation provides guidance for using the SDK and module-level documentation.

• The API Reference for .NET
• The API Reference for .NET Core
• AWS X-Ray SDK Documentation for .NET SDK
• Sample Apps

Quick Start

1. Configuration
2. ASP.NET Core Framework
3. ASP.NET Framework
4. Trace AWS SDK request
5. Trace out-going HTTP requests
6. Trace Query to SQL Server
7. Trace SQL Query through Entity Framework
8. Multithreaded Execution
9. Trace custom methods
10. Creating custom Segment/Subsegment
11. Adding metadata/annotations
12. AWS Lambda support (.NET Core)
13. ASP.NET Core on AWS Lambda
14. Logging
15. Enabling X-Ray on Elastic Beanstalk
16. Enabling X-Ray on AWS Lambda

Configuration

.NET

You can configure X-Ray in the appsettings of your App.config or Web.config file.

<configuration>
  <appSettings>
    <add key="DisableXRayTracing" value="false"/>
    <add key="AWSXRayPlugins" value="EC2Plugin, ECSPlugin, ElasticBeanstalkPlugin"/>
    <add key="SamplingRuleManifest" value="JSONs\DefaultSamplingRules.json"/>
    <add key="AwsServiceHandlerManifest" value="JSONs\AWSRequestInfo.json"/>
    <add key="UseRuntimeErrors" value="false"/>
    <add key="CollectSqlQueries" value="false"/>
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

.NET Core

Following are the steps to configure your .NET Core project with X-Ray.

a) In appsettings.json file, configure items under XRay key

{
  "XRay": {
    "DisableXRayTracing": "false",
    "SamplingRuleManifest": "SamplingRules.json",
    "AWSXRayPlugins": "EC2Plugin, ECSPlugin, ElasticBeanstalkPlugin",
    "AwsServiceHandlerManifest": "JSONs\AWSRequestInfo.json",
    "UseRuntimeErrors":"false",
    "CollectSqlQueries":"false"
  }
}

b) Register IConfiguration instance with X-Ray:

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core;
AWSXRayRecorder.InitializeInstance(configuration); // pass IConfiguration object that reads appsettings.json file

Note:

1. You should configure this before initialization of AWSXRayRecorder instance and using any AWS X-Ray methods.
2. If you manually need to configure IConfiguration object refer: Link
3. For more information on configuration, please refer : Link

Programmatic Configuration (.NET and .NET Core)

Alternatively, you can also set up the AWSXRayRecorder instance programmatically by using the AWSXRayRecorderBuilder class instead of a configuration file. For initializing an AWSXRayRecorder instance with default configurations, simply do the following.

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core;

AWSXRayRecorder recorder = new AWSXRayRecorderBuilder().Build();
AWSXRayRecorder.InitializeInstance(recorder: recorder);

The following code initializes an AWSXRayRecorder instance with a custom IStreamingStrategy and a custom ISamplingStrategy.

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core;

AWSXRayRecorder recorder = new AWSXRayRecorderBuilder().WithStreamingStrategy(new CustomStreamingStrategy()).WithSamplingStrategy(CustomSamplingStrategy()).Build();
AWSXRayRecorder.InitializeInstance(recorder: recorder);

Note:

1. CustomStreamingStrategy and CustomSamplingStrategy must implement IStreamingStrategy and ISamplingStrategy before being used to build the recorder.
2. recorder must be instantiated using AWSXRayRecorder.InitializeInstance(recorder: recorder) before being used in the program.

How to Use

Incoming Requests

ASP.NET Core Framework (.NET Core) : Nuget

You can instrument X-Ray for your ASP.NET Core App in the Configure() method of Startup.cs file of your project.
Note :

1. For .Net Core 2.1 and above, use app.UseXRay() middleware before any other middleware to trace incoming requests. For .Net Core 2.0 place the app.UseXRay() middleware after the app.UseExceptionHandler("/Error") in order to catch exceptions. You would be able to see any runtime exception with its stack trace, however, the status code might show 200 due to a known limitation of the ExceptionHandler middleware in .Net Core 2.0.
2. You need to install AWSXRayRecorder.Handlers.AspNetCore nuget package. This package adds extension methods to the IApplicationBuilder to make it easy to register AWS X-Ray to the ASP.NET Core HTTP pipeline.

A) With default configuration:

• For .Net Core 2.1 and above:

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env)
{
    app.UseXRay("SampleApp"); // name of the app
    app.UseExceptionHandler("/Error");
    app.UseStaticFiles(); // rest of the middlewares
    app.UseMVC();
}

• For .Net Core 2.0:

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env)
{
    app.UseExceptionHandler("/Error");
    app.UseXRay("SampleApp"); // name of the app
    app.UseStaticFiles(); // rest of the middlewares
    app.UseMVC();
}

B) With custom X-Ray configuration

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env)
{
    app.UseExceptionHandler("/Error");
    app.UseXRay("SampleApp",configuration); // IConfiguration object is not required if you have used "AWSXRayRecorder.InitializeInstance(configuration)" method
    app.UseStaticFiles(); // rest of the middlewares
    app.UseMVC();    
}

Instead of name you can also pass SegmentNamingStrategy in the above two ways. Please refer: Link

ASP.NET Framework (.NET) : Nuget

HTTP Message handler for ASP.NET framework
Register your application with X-Ray in the Init() method of Global.asax file

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.AspNet;

public class MvcApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
     public override void Init()
     {
        base.Init();
        AWSXRayASPNET.RegisterXRay(this, "ASPNETTest"); // default name of the web app
     }
}

At the start of each Http request, a segment is created and stored in the context (Key : AWSXRayASPNET.XRayEntity) of HttpApplication instance. If users write their custom error handler for ASP.NET framework, they can access segment for the current request by following way :

<%@ Import Namespace="Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.AspNet" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core.Internal.Entities" %>
<script runat="server">
  protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
     var context = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.ApplicationInstance.Context;
     var segment = (Segment) context.Items[AWSXRayASPNET.XRayEntity]; // get segment from the context
     segment.AddMetadata("Error","404");
  }
</script>

Trace AWS SDK request (.NET and .NET Core) : Nuget

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.AwsSdk;

AWSSDKHandler.RegisterXRayForAllServices(); //place this before any instantiation of AmazonServiceClient
AmazonDynamoDBClient client = new AmazonDynamoDBClient(RegionEndpoint.USWest2); // AmazonDynamoDBClient is automatically registered with X-Ray

Methods of AWSSDKHandler class:

AWSSDKHandler.RegisterXRayForAllServices(); // all instances of AmazonServiceClient created after this line are registered

AWSSDKHandler.RegisterXRay<IAmazonDynamoDB>(); // Registers specific type of AmazonServiceClient : All instances of IAmazonDynamoDB created after this line are registered

AWSSDKHandler.RegisterXRayManifest(String path); // To configure custom AWS Service Manifest file. This is optional, if you have followed "Configuration" section

Trace out-going HTTP requests (.NET and .NET Core) : Nuget

Using System.Net.HttpWebRequest

Synchronous request

An extension method GetResponseTraced() is provided to trace GetResponse() in System.Net.HttpWebRequest class. If you want to trace the out-going HTTP request, call the GetResponseTraced() instead of GetResponse(). The extension method will generate a trace subsegment, inject the trace header to the out-going HTTP request header and collect trace information.

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.System.Net;

HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest) WebRequest.Create(URL); // enter desired url

// Any other configuration to the request

request.GetResponseTraced();

for query parameter stripped http requests in trace

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.System.Net;

HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest) WebRequest.Create(URL); // enter desired url

// Any other configuration to the request

request.GetResponseTraced(true);

Asynchronous request

An extension method GetAsyncResponseTraced() is provided to trace GetResponseAsync() in System.Net.HttpWebRequest class. If you want to trace the out-going HTTP request, call the GetAsyncResponseTraced() instead of GetResponseAsync(). The extension method will generate a trace subsegment, inject the trace header to the out-going HTTP request header and collect trace information.

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.System.Net;

HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest) WebRequest.Create(URL); // enter desired url

// Any other configuration to the request

request.GetAsyncResponseTraced();

for query parameter stripped http requests in trace

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.System.Net;

HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest) WebRequest.Create(URL); // enter desired url

// Any other configuration to the request

request.GetAsyncResponseTraced(true);

Using System.Net.HttpClient

A handler derived from DelegatingHandler is provided to trace the HttpMessageHandler.SendAsync method

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.System.Net;

var httpClient = new HttpClient(new HttpClientXRayTracingHandler(new HttpClientHandler()));

// Any other configuration to the client

httpClient.GetAsync(URL);

If you want to santize the Http request tracing then define the Tracing Handler as -

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.System.Net;

var httpClient = new HttpClient(new HttpClientXRaySanitizedTracingHandler(new HttpClientHandler()));

// Any other configuration to the client

httpClient.GetAsync(URL);

Using System.Net.Http.HttpClientFactory (.Net Core 2.1 and above)

The Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.System.Net package includes a delegate that can be used to trace outbound requests without the need to specifically wrap outbound requests from that class.

Register the HttpClientXRayTracingHandler as a middleware for your http client.

services.AddHttpClient<IFooClient, FooClient>()
        .AddHttpMessageHandler<HttpClientXRayTracingHandler>();

or

services.AddHttpClient("foo")
        .ConfigurePrimaryHttpMessageHandler(() =>
        {
            return new HttpClientXRayTracingHandler(new HttpClientHandler());
        });

And to get sanitized http requests in tracing

services.AddHttpClient<IFooClient, FooClient>()
        .AddHttpMessageHandler<HttpClientXRaySanitizedTracingHandler>();

or

services.AddHttpClient("foo")
        .ConfigurePrimaryHttpMessageHandler(() =>
        {
            return new HttpClientXRaySanitizedTracingHandler(new HttpClientHandler());
        });

Use the above client factory to create clients with outgoing requests traced.

var client = _clientFactory.CreateClient("foo");
var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "https://www.foobar.com");
var response = await client.SendAsync(request);

Trace Query to SQL Server (.NET and .NET Core) : Nuget

The SDK provides a wrapper class for System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand. The wrapper class can be used interchangable with SqlCommand class. By replacing instance of SqlCommand to TraceableSqlCommand, synchronized/asynchronized method will automatically generate subsegment for the SQL query.

Following examples illustrate the use of TraceableSqlCommand to automatically trace SQL Server queries using Synchronous/Asynchronous methods:

Synchronous query

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.SqlServer;

using (var connection = new SqlConnection("fake connection string"))
using (var command = new TraceableSqlCommand("SELECT * FROM products", connection))
{
    command.ExecuteNonQuery();
}

Asynchronous query

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.SqlServer;

using (var connection = new SqlConnection(ConnectionString))
{
    var command = new TraceableSqlCommand("SELECT * FROM Products FOR XML AUTO, ELEMENTS", connection);
    command.Connection.Open();
    await command.ExecuteXmlReaderAsync();
}

Capture SQL Query text in the traced SQL calls to SQL Server

You can also opt in to capture the SqlCommand.CommandText as part of the subsegment created for your SQL query. The collected SqlCommand.CommandText will appear as sanitized_query in the subsegment JSON. By default, this feature is disabled due to security reasons. If you want to enable this feature, it can be done in two ways. First, by setting the CollectSqlQueries to true in the global configuration for your application as follows:

For .Net (In appsettings of your App.config or Web.config file)

<configuration>
  <appSettings>
    <add key="CollectSqlQueries" value="true">
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

For .Net Core (In appsettings.json file, configure items under XRay key)

{
  "XRay": {
    "CollectSqlQueries":"true"
  }
}

This will enable X-Ray to collect all the sql queries made to SQL Server by your application.

Secondly, you can set the collectSqlQueries parameter in the TraceableSqlCommand instance as true to collect the SQL query text for SQL Server query calls made using this instance. If you set this parameter as false, it will disable the CollectSqlQuery feature for this TraceableSqlCommand instance.

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.SqlServer;

using (var connection = new SqlConnection("fake connection string"))
using (var command = new TraceableSqlCommand("SELECT * FROM products", connection, collectSqlQueries: true))
{
    command.ExecuteNonQuery();
}

NOTE:

1. You should not enable either of these properties if you are including sensitive information as clear text in your SQL queries.
2. Parameterized values will appear in their tokenized form and will not be expanded.
3. The value of collectSqlQueries in the TraceableSqlCommand instance overrides the value set in the global configuration using the CollectSqlQueries property.

Trace SQL Query through Entity Framework (.NET and .NET Core) : Nuget

Setup

.NET Core

AWS XRay SDK for .NET Core provides interceptor for tracing SQL query through Entity Framework Core (>=3.0).

For how to start with Entity Framework Core in an ASP.NET Core web app, please take reference to Link

NOTE:

• You need to install AWSXRayRecorder.Handlers.EntityFramework nuget package. This package adds extension methods to the DbContextOptionsBuilder to make it easy to register AWS X-Ray interceptor.
• Not all database provider support Entity Framework Core 3.0 and above, please make sure that you are using the Nuget package with a compatible version (EF Core >= 3.0).

Known Limitation (as of 12-03-2020): If you’re using another DbCommandInterceptor implementation along with the AddXRayInterceptor in the DbContext, it may not work as expected and you may see a “EntityNotAvailableException” from the XRay EFCore interceptor. This is due to AsyncLocal not being able to maintain context across the ReaderExecutingAsync and ReaderExecutedAsync methods. Ref here for more details on the issue.

In order to trace SQL query, you can register your DbContext with AddXRayInterceptor() accordingly in the ConfigureServices method in startup.cs file.

For instance, when dealing with MySql server using Nuget: Pomelo.EntityFrameworkCore.MySql (V 3.1.1).

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{ 
    services.AddDbContext<your_DbContext>(options => options.UseMySql(your_connectionString).AddXRayInterceptor());
}

Alternatively, you can register AddXRayInterceptor() in the Onconfiguring method in your DbContext class. Below we are using Nuget: Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Sqlite (V 3.1.2)

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;

public class your_DbContext : DbContext 
{
    protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder options)
    => options.UseSqlite(your_connectionString).AddXRayInterceptor();
}

The connection string can be either hard coded or configured from appsettings.json file.

.NET

AWS XRay SDK for .NET provides interceptor for tracing SQL query through Entity Framework 6 (>= 6.2.0).

For how to start with Entity Framework 6 in an ASP.NET web app, please take reference to link.

For instrumentation, you will need to install AWSXRayRecorder.Handlers.EntityFramework nuget package and call AWSXRayEntityFramework6.AddXRayInterceptor() in your code. Make sure to call it only once to avoid duplicate tracing.

For instance, you can call AddXRayInterceptor() in the Application_Start method of Global.asax file.

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.EntityFramework;

protected void Application_Start()
{
    AWSXRayEntityFramework6.AddXRayInterceptor();
}

Or you can call it in the DbConfiguration class if there is one in your application to configure execution policy.

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.EntityFramework;

public class YourDbConfiguration : DbConfiguration
{
    public YourDbConfiguration()
    {
        AWSXRayEntityFramework6.AddXRayInterceptor();
    }
}

Capture SQL Query text in the traced SQL calls to SQL Server

You can also opt in to capture the DbCommand.CommandText as part of the subsegment created for your SQL query. The collected DbCommand.CommandText will appear as sanitized_query in the subsegment JSON. By default, this feature is disabled due to security reasons.

.NET Core

If you want to enable this feature, it can be done in two ways. First, by setting the CollectSqlQueries to true in the appsettings.json file as follows:

{
  "XRay": {
    "CollectSqlQueries":"true"
  }
}

Secondly, you can set the collectSqlQueries parameter in the AddXRayInterceptor() as true to collect the SQL query text. If you set this parameter as false, it will disable the collectSqlQueries feature for this AddXRayInterceptor(). Opting in AddXRayInterceptor() has the highest execution priority, which will override the configuration item in appsettings.json mentioned above.

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    services.AddDbContext<your_DbContext>(options => options.UseMySql(your_connectionString).AddXRayInterceptor(true));
}

Or

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;

public class your_DbContext : DbContext 
{
    protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder options)
    => options.UseSqlite(your_connectionString).AddXRayInterceptor(true);
}

.NET

You can enable tracing SQL query text for EF 6 interceptor in the Web.config file.

<configuration>
  <appSettings>
    <add key="CollectSqlQueries" value="true"/>
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

You can also pass true to AddXRayInterceptor() to collect SQL query text, otherwise pass false to disable. Opting in AddXRayInterceptor() has the highest execution priority, which will override the configuration item in Web.config mentioned above.

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Handlers.EntityFramework;

AWSXRayEntityFramework6.AddXRayInterceptor(true);

Multithreaded Execution (.NET and .NET Core) : Nuget

In multithreaded execution, X-Ray context from current to its child thread is automatically set.

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core;

private static void TestMultiThreaded()
{
    int numThreads = 3;
    AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.BeginSegment("MainThread");
    Thread[] t= new Thread[numThreads];
 
    for(int i = 0; i < numThreads; i++)
    {
        t[i] = new Thread(()=>MakeHttpRequest(i)); 
        t[i].Start();
    }
    for (int i = 0; i < numThreads; i++)
    {
        t[i].Join();
    }

    AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.EndSegment();
}

private static void MakeHttpRequest(int i)
{
    AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.TraceMethodAsync("Thread "+i, CreateRequestAsync<HttpResponseMessage>).Wait();
}

private static async Task<HttpResponseMessage> CreateRequestAsync <TResult>()
{
    var request = new HttpClient();
    var result = await request.GetAsync(URL); // Enter desired url
    return result;
}

Note:

1. Context used to save traces in .NET : CallContext
2. Context used to save traces in .NET Core : AsyncLocal

Trace custom methods (.NET and .NET Core)

It may be useful to further decorate portions of an application for which performance is critical. Generating subsegments around these hot spots will help in understanding their impact on application performance.

Synchronous method

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core;

AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.TraceMethod("custom method", () => DoSomething(arg1, arg2, arg3));

Asynchronous method

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core;

var response = await AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.TraceMethodAsync("AddProduct", () => AddProduct<Document>(product));

private async Task<Document> AddProduct <TResult>(Product product)
{
    var document = new Document();
    document["Id"] = product.Id;
    document["Name"] = product.Name;
    document["Price"] = product.Price;
    return await LazyTable.Value.PutItemAsync(document);
}

Creating custom Segment/Subsegment (.NET and .NET Core)

Segment

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core;

AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.BeginSegment("segment name"); // generates `TraceId` for you
try
{
    DoSometing();
    // can create custom subsegments
}
catch (Exception e)
{
    AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.AddException(e);
}
finally
{
    AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.EndSegment();
}

If you want to pass custom TraceId:

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core;

String traceId = TraceId.NewId(); // This function is present in : Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core.Internal.Entities
AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.BeginSegment("segment name",traceId); // custom traceId used while creating segment
try
{
    DoSometing();
    // can create custom subsegments
}
catch (Exception e)
{
    AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.AddException(e);
}
finally
{
    AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.EndSegment();
}

Subsegment

Note: This should only be used after BeginSegment() method.

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core;

AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.BeginSubsegment("subsegment name");
try
{
    DoSometing();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
    AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.AddException(e);
}
finally
{
    AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.EndSubsegment();
}

Adding metadata/annotations (.NET and .NET Core)

using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core;
AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.AddAnnotation("mykey", "my value");
AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.AddMetadata("my key", "my value");

AWS Lambda support (.NET Core)

The AWS Lambda execution environment by default creates a Segment before each Lambda function invocation and sends it to the X-Ray service. AWS X-Ray .NET/Core SDK will make sure there will be a FacadeSegment inside the lambda context so that you can instrument your application successfully through subsegments only. Subsegments generated inside a Lambda function are attached to this FacadeSegment and only subsegments are streamed by the SDK. In addition to the custom subsegments, the middlewares would generate subsegments for outgoing HTTP calls, SQL queries, and AWS SDK calls within the lambda function the same way they do in a normal application.

Note: You can only create and close Subsegment inside a lambda function. Segment cannot be created inside the lambda function. All operations on Segment will throw an UnsupportedOperationException exception.

public string FunctionHandler(string input, ILambdaContext context)
{
    AWSXRayRecorder recorder = new AWSXRayRecorder();
    recorder.BeginSubsegment("UpperCase");
    recorder.BeginSubsegment("Inner 1");
    String result = input?.ToUpper();
    recorder.EndSubsegment();
    recorder.BeginSubsegment("Inner 2");
    recorder.EndSubsegment();
    recorder.EndSubsegment();
    return result;
}

Oversampling Mitigation

Oversampling mitigation allows you to ignore a parent segment/subsegment’s sampled flag and instead sets the subsegment’s sampled flag to false. This ensures that downstream calls are not sampled and this subsegment is not emitted.

using Amazon.Lambda.Core;
using Amazon.Lambda.SQSEvents;
using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core;
using Amazon.SQS;
using Amazon.SQS.Model;

[assembly: LambdaSerializer(typeof(Amazon.Lambda.Serialization.Json.JsonSerializer))]

namespace MyFunction;

public class Function
{
    public string HandleSQSEvent(SQSEvent sqsEvent, ILambdaContext context)
    {
        AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.BeginSubsegmentWithoutSampling("Processing Event");

        var client = new AmazonSQSClient();

        var request = new ListQueuesRequest();

        var response = client.ListQueuesAsync(request);

        foreach (var url in response.Result.QueueUrls)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(url);
        }

        AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.EndSubsegment();

        return "Success";
    }
}

The code below demonstrates overriding the sampled flag based on the SQS messages sent to Lambda.

using Amazon.Lambda.Core;
using Amazon.Lambda.SQSEvents;
using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core;
using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core.Lambda;

[assembly: LambdaSerializer(typeof(Amazon.Lambda.Serialization.Json.JsonSerializer))]

namespace MyFunction;

public class Function
{
    public string HandleSQSEvent(SQSEvent sqsEvent, ILambdaContext context)
    {

        foreach (SQSEvent.SQSMessage sqsMessage in sqsEvent.Records)
        {
            if (SQSMessageHelper.IsSampled(sqsMessage))
            {
                AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.BeginSubsegment("Processing Message");
            }
            else
            {
                AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.BeginSubsegmentWithoutSampling("Processing Message");
            }


            // Do my processing work here
            Console.WriteLine("Doing processing work");

            // End my subsegment
            AWSXRayRecorder.Instance.EndSubsegment();
        }

        return "Success";
    }
}

ASP.NET Core on AWS Lambda (.NET Core)

We support instrumenting ASP.NET Core web app on Lambda. Please follow the steps of ASP.NET Core instrumentation.

Logging (.NET)

The AWS X-Ray .NET SDK share the same logging mechanism as AWS .NET SDK. If the application had already configured logging for AWS .NET SDK, it should just work for AWS X-Ray .NET SDK. The recommended way to configure an application is to use the element in the project’s App.config or Web.config file.

<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="aws" type="Amazon.AWSSection, AWSSDK.Core"/>
  </configSections>
  <aws>
    <logging logTo="Log4Net"/>
  </aws>
</configuration>

Other ways to configure logging is to edit the element in the App.config or Web.config file, and set property values in the AWSConfig class. Refer to the following page for more details and example : Link

Logging (.NET Core)

The AWS X-Ray .NET SDK share the same logging mechanism as AWS .NET SDK. To configure logging for .NET Core application, pass one of these options to the AWSXRayRecorder.RegisterLogger method.

Following is the way to configure log4net with X-Ray SDK:

using Amazon;
using Amazon.XRay.Recorder.Core;

class Program
{
    static Program()
    {
         AWSXRayRecorder.RegisterLogger(LoggingOptions.Log4Net); // Log4Net instance should already be configured before this point
    }
}

log4net.config example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<log4net>
  <appender name="FileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender,log4net">
    <file value="c:\logs\sdk-log.txt" />
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
      <conversionPattern value="%date [%thread] %level %logger - %message%newline" />
    </layout>
  </appender>
  <logger name="Amazon">
    <level value="DEBUG" />
    <appender-ref ref="FileAppender" />
  </logger>
</log4net>

Note: For log4net configuration, refer : Link

License

The AWS X-Ray SDK for .NET and .NET Core is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. See LICENSE and NOTICE.txt for more information.