opencensus: Disable by default

[phlax]

Opencensus has been archived for some time upstream, i believe because it was folded in to opentelemetry.

The plan was to remove opencensus and opentracing altogether in the 1.31 release cycle, and both were set to deprecated.

Only opentracing had the disabled_by_default set in time for the release cycle, so this sets it for opencensus.

Original tracking issue is #9958 bu there have been quite a few conversations around this since

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[repokitteh-read-only]

CC @envoyproxy/api-shepherds: Your approval is needed for changes made to (api/envoy/|docs/root/api-docs/).
envoyproxy/api-shepherds assignee is @lizan
CC @envoyproxy/api-watchers: FYI only for changes made to (api/envoy/|docs/root/api-docs/).

🐱

Caused by: #33912 was opened by phlax.

see: more, trace.

[phlax]

cc @kyessenov

[zirain]

@kyessenov we can/need remove this from istio?

[kyessenov]

@zirain @lei-tang

I think we should remove opencensus-based code from OSS. We are capable of keeping it in Google-vendored Istio builds only, but we probably need to improve our internal CI to handle it.

[kyessenov]

As part of the move from upstream/OSS, we probably want to revert some of these deprecation warnings on the protos as well.

[zirain]

BTW, the c-ares problem may related any grpc service with dns:xxxxxx(not sure this is the right way to use), we just found it on opencensus.

[adisuissa]

Can you please add comments stating the tracking issue/doc that explains why this is no longer supported by default, and how should one migrate?
Please also add a release-note as this is user-facing change.

[phlax]

changelog add and description updated

[adisuissa]

changelog add and description updated

The link to the tracking should be part of the api-doc.
My goal is for some user that detects their old-config is now broken, to look at the field's docs and get a better understanding of what are the steps they should take.

[phlax]

My goal is for some user that detects their old-config is now broken, to look at the field's docs and get a better understanding of what are the steps they should take.

happy to add that but in 3 months it wont appear at all - wondering if it would be better to just add the link in the changelog

[phlax]

/docs

[repokitteh-read-only]

Docs for this Pull Request will be rendered here:

https://storage.googleapis.com/envoy-pr/33912/docs/index.html

The docs are (re-)rendered each time the CI envoy-presubmit (precheck docs) job completes.

🐱

Caused by: a #33912 (comment) was created by @phlax.

see: more, trace.

[phlax]

annoyingly deprecation and even default disable are totally ignored https://storage.googleapis.com/envoy-pr/678383c/docs/api-v3/config/trace/v3/opencensus.proto.html

[adisuissa]

happy to add that but in 3 months it wont appear at all - wondering if it would be better to just add the link in the changelog

I need more context. I thought that the api (proto) stays but is no longer implemented (and if that's the case, then the docs will stay, no?)

annoyingly deprecation and even default disable are totally ignored

Aside from the docs there's what happens when running an Envoy and receiving such config (in the bootstrap or dynamically). This will probably break people that use the feature, and I think we need to give them a way to translate their configs. This could probably be in a github issue.

[kyessenov]

@adisuissa This is a case when the library is simply gone and there's no nice way around it. Breakage is imminent, so we're trying to warn developers to do something about it. This should be a lesson not to promote extensions with unstable governance structure - OpenCensus OSS was unilaterally shut down by Google, and all maintenance for legacy use of the library should be deferred back to Google into vendor (closed) code.

[adisuissa]

@adisuissa This is a case when the library is simply gone and there's no nice way around it. Breakage is imminent, so we're trying to warn developers to do something about it. This should be a lesson not to promote extensions with unstable governance structure - OpenCensus OSS was unilaterally shut down by Google, and all maintenance for legacy use of the library should be deferred back to Google into vendor (closed) code.

Sure, and I agree that support will disappear.
What I'm saying is:

1. give a way for users to migrate to something else (better to write this up in a github issue).
2. add the link in the fields' comments, so if my config no longer works, I can go to the docs, click the link, and follow the instructions.

There may be some context that I'm missing, and if so feel free to correct me. WDYT?

[kyessenov]

1. give a way for users to migrate to something else (better to write this up in a github issue).

In general, that something else equivalent doesn't exist. They have to go and buy a solution from a vendor (e.g. Google) to get an extended support for Stackdriver, for example. OpenTelemetry and collector are quite distinct and not easy to migrate to/from.

[adisuissa]

In general, that something else equivalent doesn't exist. They have to go and buy a solution from a vendor (e.g. Google) to get an extended support for Stackdriver, for example. OpenTelemetry and collector are quite distinct and not easy to migrate to/from.

Thanks for clarifying this.
What I'm trying to avoid is unhappy users claiming that Envoy is now broken (bad PR), and us receiving many issues around this (burden on the maintainers).
In other words, put yourself in the user's shoes, and consider if we can make things a bit better (maybe not having a list of steps to solve the issue, but at least have some guidance on what alternatives exist, and where can one find more information about them).

[kyessenov]

@phlax Let's add a release note saying that:

1. OpenCensus has been sunset, link to https://opentelemetry.io/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus/.
2. Prescribe users to migrate to OpenTelemetry tracer instead, and use an OpenTelemetry collector to convert traces.

[adisuissa]

@phlax Let's add a release note saying that:

1. OpenCensus has been sunset, link to https://opentelemetry.io/blog/2023/sunsetting-opencensus/.
2. Prescribe users to migrate to OpenTelemetry tracer instead, and use an OpenTelemetry collector to convert traces.

That would be great. Thanks for finding this Kuat!