● Covered by 1 source · 1 reportMedium impact1 neutral
Grafana Tempo 3.1 Introduces Query-Based Trace Redaction and Sampling-Aware Metrics
Key points
- Tempo 3.1 adds TLS and multiple SASL mechanisms to the Kafka client.
- Trace redaction now uses TraceQL queries instead of trace IDs.
- An experimental hint corrects TraceQL metrics for sampled data.
- vParquet5 is now the default block format, improving query speed.
Kafka Client Enhancements
Grafana Tempo 3.1 introduces significant updates to its Kafka client, addressing limitations found in the 3.0 release. The client now supports TLS, including optional mTLS, and additional SASL mechanisms such as SCRAM-SHA-256, SCRAM-SHA-512, OAUTHBEARER, and AWS_MSK_IAM. This expansion allows the client to connect to Kafka brokers requiring TLS, making services like Azure Event Hubs usable as a backend.
A new client_rack option enables rack-aware fetching, allowing block-builders, live-stores, and metrics-generators to read from replicas within their own availability zones, reducing cross-zone transfer costs. Additionally, a producer_compression option has been added, supporting 'none', 'gzip', 'snappy', 'lz4', or 'zstd', with 'snappy' as the default.
Query-Based Trace Redaction
Tempo 3.1 enhances trace redaction capabilities by allowing operators to redact traces using TraceQL queries. Previously, redaction required enumerating individual trace IDs, which was impractical for sensitive data appearing across many traces. The new command supports a --dry-run option to count matches without modifying blocks and uses equality comparisons on resource.* and span.* attributes with '&&' and '||' operators. The --start and --end flags narrow the time range for redaction.
Sampling-Aware TraceQL Metrics
The release introduces an experimental query-time hint designed to correct TraceQL metrics for sampled data. This feature aims to provide more accurate metrics when dealing with traces that have undergone sampling, which can otherwise skew analytical results.
Performance and Architecture Updates
Tempo 3.1 makes vParquet5 the default block format, which Grafana states nearly doubles the speed of simple metrics queries. This release builds on the Tempo 3.0 architecture, which made the Kafka-compatible 'Project Rhythm' the default for microservices deployments. This architecture replaces ingesters and compactors with a backend scheduler and workers, and reduces storage requirements by dropping replication factor 3.
✨ This summary was generated by AI from the outlets' reporting listed below. It is not independently verified and may contain errors — check the original sources. How BrevFeed works →
The daily brief
One email each morning: the day's tech stories, clustered across outlets and summarized. No account needed.
One email a day. Unsubscribe in one click, any time.
Today's brief
Spend a few minutes, get the whole day. Every topic's top stories in one hands-free rundown — listen, watch, or read the transcript.
▶ Play today's brief
New every morning, and the back catalogue is archived by date.
Reporting from
Grafana Tempo 3.1 has been released, adding TLS and more SASL mechanisms to its Kafka client, enabling trace redaction via TraceQL queries, and introducing an experimental hint for sampling-aware TraceQL metrics. These updates improve security, operational flexibility, and data accuracy for Tempo users, particularly those utilizing its Kafka-compatible architecture.