Migrate Traces/APM from Datadog

Overview

This guide walks you through migrating distributed tracing and APM from Datadog to SigNoz. You will:

1. Check your Datadog services and trace sources
2. Replace Datadog APM libraries with OpenTelemetry instrumentation
3. Validate traces are flowing correctly to SigNoz

SigNoz is built natively on OpenTelemetry, so migration involves replacing Datadog tracing libraries with OTel instrumentation.

Key Differences: Datadog vs SigNoz

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

• A SigNoz account (Cloud) or a running SigNoz instance (Self-Hosted)
• Access to your Datadog account to review current APM services
• Access to your application source code and deployment configuration

Step 1: Assess Your Current Tracing Setup

Before migrating, inventory what you're collecting in Datadog.

List Your Instrumented Services

1. Navigate to APM → Services in Datadog.
2. List all services sending traces.
3. Note the language/runtime for each service.

Categorize Your Services

Group services by how they're instrumented:

Step 2: Migrate Each Service

Work through each service from your inventory.

From dd-trace-java

Step 1: Remove the Datadog agent

• Remove the -javaagent:/path/to/dd-java-agent.jar JVM argument
• Remove Datadog-specific environment variables (DD_*)

Step 2: Add the OpenTelemetry Java agent

Download the agent:

curl -L -o opentelemetry-javaagent.jar \
  https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java-instrumentation/releases/latest/download/opentelemetry-javaagent.jar

Step 3: Configure and run

java -javaagent:/path/to/opentelemetry-javaagent.jar \
     -Dotel.service.name=your-service-name \
     -Dotel.exporter.otlp.endpoint=https://ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443 \
     -Dotel.exporter.otlp.headers=signoz-ingestion-key=<SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY> \
     -jar your-application.jar

Replace:

• <region>: Your SigNoz Cloud region (us, eu, or in)
• <SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY>: Your ingestion key from Settings → Ingestion Settings

For detailed configuration options, see Java Instrumentation.

From dd-trace-js (Node.js)

Step 1: Remove the Datadog tracer

npm uninstall dd-trace

Remove require('dd-trace').init() from your application entry point and delete any DD_* environment variables.

Step 2: Add OpenTelemetry

npm install @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node

Step 3: Configure and run

export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=your-service-name
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS=signoz-ingestion-key=<SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY>
export NODE_OPTIONS="--require @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node/register"

node app.js

For detailed configuration, see Node.js Instrumentation.

From dd-trace-py (Python)

Step 1: Remove the Datadog tracer

pip uninstall ddtrace

Remove ddtrace-run from your startup command and delete any DD_* environment variables.

Step 2: Add OpenTelemetry

pip install opentelemetry-distro opentelemetry-exporter-otlp
opentelemetry-bootstrap -a install

Step 3: Configure and run

export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=your-service-name
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS=signoz-ingestion-key=<SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY>

opentelemetry-instrument python app.py

For detailed configuration, see Python Instrumentation.

From dd-trace-dotnet

Step 1: Remove the Datadog tracer

• Uninstall the Datadog .NET tracer from your system
• Remove DD_* environment variables

Step 2: Add OpenTelemetry

For automatic instrumentation, download the OpenTelemetry .NET automatic instrumentation:

# Linux
curl -L -o otel-dotnet-install.sh https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-dotnet-instrumentation/releases/latest/download/otel-dotnet-auto-install.sh
chmod +x otel-dotnet-install.sh
./otel-dotnet-install.sh

Step 3: Configure and run

export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=your-service-name
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS=signoz-ingestion-key=<SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY>

# Source the instrumentation script
. $HOME/.otel-dotnet-auto/instrument.sh

dotnet run

For detailed configuration, see .NET Instrumentation.

From dd-trace-go

Step 1: Remove the Datadog tracer

Remove gopkg.in/DataDog/dd-trace-go.v1 imports and delete tracer initialization code:

// Remove this
import "gopkg.in/DataDog/dd-trace-go.v1/ddtrace/tracer"
tracer.Start()
defer tracer.Stop()

Step 2: Install OpenTelemetry packages

go get go.opentelemetry.io/otel \
  go.opentelemetry.io/otel/sdk \
  go.opentelemetry.io/otel/exporters/otlp/otlptrace/otlptracegrpc \
  go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttp

Step 3: Set environment variables

export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="https://ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443"
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS="signoz-ingestion-key=<SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY>"
export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME="your-service-name"

Step 4: Initialize and instrument

See Go Instrumentation for complete setup including:

• Tracer initialization code
• Framework-specific instrumentation (Gin, Echo, Chi, Fiber, Gorilla)
• Database instrumentation (GORM, MongoDB, Redis)
• gRPC instrumentation

From dd-trace-rb (Ruby)

Step 1: Remove the Datadog tracer

Remove from your Gemfile:

# Remove this line
gem 'ddtrace'

Run bundle install and remove Datadog configuration.

Step 2: Add OpenTelemetry

Add to your Gemfile:

gem 'opentelemetry-sdk'
gem 'opentelemetry-exporter-otlp'
gem 'opentelemetry-instrumentation-all'

Run bundle install.

Step 3: Configure

Create an initializer config/initializers/opentelemetry.rb:

require 'opentelemetry/sdk'
require 'opentelemetry/exporter/otlp'
require 'opentelemetry/instrumentation/all'

OpenTelemetry::SDK.configure do |c|
  c.service_name = 'your-service-name'
  c.use_all
end

Set environment variables:

export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS=signoz-ingestion-key=<SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY>

For detailed configuration, see Ruby Instrumentation.

From dd-trace-php

Step 1: Remove the Datadog tracer

Disable or uninstall the Datadog PHP extension from your PHP configuration.

Step 2: Add OpenTelemetry

Install the OpenTelemetry PHP extension and SDK following the PHP Instrumentation guide.

Step 3: Configure

export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=your-service-name
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://ingest.<region>.signoz.cloud:443
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS=signoz-ingestion-key=<SIGNOZ_INGESTION_KEY>

Other Languages and Frameworks

For languages not covered above or specific frameworks, see the complete Instrumentation Guide which covers:

• All supported languages and frameworks
• Framework-specific auto-instrumentation
• Manual instrumentation options

Validate

Verify traces are flowing correctly by comparing against your service inventory.

Check Services Are Reporting

1. In SigNoz, navigate to Services in the left sidebar.
2. Verify each service from your inventory appears in the list.
3. Click a service to see its metrics (latency, error rate, throughput).

Verify Traces

1. Navigate to Traces in the left sidebar.
2. Select a service and time range.
3. Verify spans appear with expected attributes.
4. Check that trace context propagates across service boundaries (parent-child relationships).

Next Steps

Once your traces are flowing to SigNoz:

• Create dashboards with trace-based panels
• Set up trace-based alerts for latency and errors
• Correlate traces with logs for debugging
• Explore the Service Map to understand dependencies
• Migrate your logs next