otel k8s operator - auto instrumentation for java application doesn't inject traceid, spanid into logs

[srujan63]

Describe the bug

we've deployed opentelemetry Kubernetes operator, auto instrumentation for java application. we've annotated java application pod to enable tracing and able to view traces in tempo. we've set OTEL_LOGS_INCLUDE_TRACE_CONTEXT=true to inject traceid into logs but traceid, spanid are either null or 0.

Steps to reproduce

1.Deploy opentelemetry Kubernetes operator, collector, auto instrumentation for java application.
2.Annotate java application pod to enable tracing.
3.Set OTEL_LOGS_INCLUDE_TRACE_CONTEXT=true in auto instrumentation for java.
4.Added trace_id=%mdc{trace_id} span_id=%mdc{span_id} and trace_id=%X{trace_id} span_id=%X{span_id} in log4j2.xml
5.View traceid, spanid in appliaction logs

Expected behavior

View traceid, spanid in appliaction logs

Actual behavior

traceid, spanid in appliaction logs are either null or 0
"2025-07-30 12:17:39 [main] INFO - trace_id= span_id= - spring.quartz.job-store-type ---jdbc---
"2025-07-30T12:17:39.731Z INFO 'spring.quartz.properties.org.quartz.jobStore.clusterCheckinInterval ---20000---' : 00000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000 [scopeInfo: :] {}

Javaagent or library instrumentation version

ghcr.io/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator/autoinstrumentation-java:1.33.6

Environment

JDK: Java 17.0.13
OS: Alpine Linux v3.21
Hibernate Validator 8.0.2.Final

Additional context

No response

[jaydeluca]

as far as I know OTEL_LOGS_INCLUDE_TRACE_CONTEXT is not a valid configuration property.

ghcr.io/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator/autoinstrumentation-java:1.33.6

This is a really old version of the agent, are you able to test with a newer one? Latest is currently 2.18.1

Are you seeing spans / traces working in general, and you just can't get them into your logs? Or is the agent not working at all?

[srujan63]

@jaydeluca Able to view instrumented application traces, spans in tempo but unable to inject traceid, spanid into application logs to correlate.

[srujan63]

@jaydeluca I've tested with ghcr.io/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator/autoinstrumentation-java:2.18.1, still unable to inject traceid, spanid into application logs

[laurit]

For the log to contain trace/span id there must be an active trace. In the sample log you provided you are looking at a log statement from either spring or quartz. Without the context I can only guess that this is probably logged during application start? If you look at our instrumentation for quartz you'll see that span is created around the job execution. The only place you should expect to see trace/span id is inside the executed job.

[github-actions]

This has been automatically marked as stale because it has been marked as needing author feedback and has not had any activity for 7 days. It will be closed automatically if there is no response from the author within 7 additional days from this comment.

[github-actions]

This has been automatically marked as stale because it has been marked as needing author feedback and has not had any activity for 7 days. It will be closed automatically if there is no response from the author within 7 additional days from this comment.