Intermediate 1-2 hours

Migrate from Elastic APM to TraceKit

Replace your Elastic APM Server and Elasticsearch cluster with TraceKit's managed tracing. No cluster sizing, no index management, no shard tuning -- just traces.

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Replace Elastic APM Agent with TraceKit SDK

Remove the Elastic APM language agent and install the TraceKit SDK. Elastic APM agents auto-instrument frameworks; TraceKit SDKs provide similar auto-instrumentation hooks.

Category	Elastic APM	TraceKit	Notes
Package	go.elastic.co/apm (Go agent)	github.com/tracekit/go-sdk	Go agent replacement
Package	elastic-apm-node (npm)	@tracekit/node-apm (npm)	Node.js agent replacement
Package	elastic-apm (pip)	tracekit-apm (pip)	Python agent replacement

Map APM Server Configuration

Replace Elastic APM Server connection settings with TraceKit endpoint configuration. The APM Server URL and secret token map to TraceKit's endpoint and API key.

Category	Elastic APM	TraceKit	Notes
Connection	ELASTIC_APM_SERVER_URL (http://apm-server:8200)	TRACEKIT_ENDPOINT	Managed endpoint replaces self-hosted APM Server
Authentication	ELASTIC_APM_SECRET_TOKEN	TRACEKIT_API_KEY	API key for authentication
Authentication	ELASTIC_APM_API_KEY	TRACEKIT_API_KEY	Alternative auth method also maps to API key
Service Identity	ELASTIC_APM_SERVICE_NAME	TRACEKIT_SERVICE_NAME	Service name for trace grouping
Service Identity	ELASTIC_APM_ENVIRONMENT	TRACEKIT_ENVIRONMENT	Environment tagging (production, staging)

Migrate Custom Instrumentation

Replace Elastic APM's transaction and span API with TraceKit equivalents. Elastic APM distinguishes between transactions (entry points) and spans (operations within a transaction); TraceKit uses spans throughout with parent-child linking.

Category	Elastic APM	TraceKit	Notes
Initialization	elasticapm.DefaultTracer (Go)	tracekit.Init(apiKey)	SDK initialization
Transactions	apm.StartTransaction(name, type)	tracekit.StartSpan(ctx, name)	Transactions become root spans
Spans	tx.StartSpan(name, spanType, parent)	tracekit.StartSpan(ctx, name)	Context carries parent reference
Labels	tx.Context.SetLabel(key, value)	span.SetAttribute(key, value)	Labels become span attributes
Errors	apm.CaptureError(err)	span.RecordError(err)	Errors attached to current span

Update Sampling and Filter Configuration

Map Elastic APM's sampling and filtering settings to TraceKit. Elastic APM uses transaction sample rate and central configuration; TraceKit uses SDK-level configuration.

Category	Elastic APM	TraceKit	Notes
Sampling	ELASTIC_APM_TRANSACTION_SAMPLE_RATE (0-1.0)	TRACEKIT_SAMPLE_RATE (0.0-1.0)	Same range, direct mapping
Filtering	ELASTIC_APM_TRANSACTION_IGNORE_URLS	tracekit.WithIgnoreEndpoints(patterns)	SDK init option for URL filtering
Stack Traces	ELASTIC_APM_STACK_TRACE_LIMIT	tracekit.WithStackTraceDepth(n)	Control stack trace capture depth

Verify Traces and Decommission APM Server

Confirm traces appear in TraceKit, then decommission the Elastic APM Server and (if used solely for APM) the associated Elasticsearch indices. Kibana APM views are replaced by TraceKit's built-in dashboard.

Category	Elastic APM	TraceKit	Notes
Verification	Kibana > APM > Services	TraceKit Dashboard > Services	Verify service list and health
Verification	Kibana > APM > Traces	TraceKit Dashboard > Traces	Verify trace waterfall and span detail
Decommission	APM Server process (port 8200)	(not needed)	Remove APM Server from infrastructure

Code Examples

Before (Elastic APM)

import (
    "go.elastic.co/apm"
)

func main() {
    // Configure via ELASTIC_APM_* environment variables
    tracer := apm.DefaultTracer

    tx := tracer.StartTransaction("process-order", "request")
    defer tx.End()

    span, _ := apm.StartSpan(tx.TraceContext(), "fetch-inventory")
    span.Context.SetLabel("order.id", "12345")
    // ... business logic
    span.End()
}

After (TraceKit)

import "github.com/tracekit/go-sdk/tracekit"

func main() {
    tracekit.Init("tk_your_api_key",
        tracekit.WithService("order-service"),
        tracekit.WithEnvironment("production"),
    )
    defer tracekit.Shutdown(context.Background())

    ctx, span := tracekit.StartSpan(context.Background(), "process-order")
    defer span.End()

    _, child := tracekit.StartSpan(ctx, "fetch-inventory")
    child.SetAttribute("order.id", "12345")
    // ... business logic
    child.End()
}

Before (Elastic APM)

const apm = require('elastic-apm-node').start({
  serviceName: 'order-service',
  serverUrl: 'http://apm-server:8200',
  secretToken: 'your-secret-token',
  environment: 'production',
});

const trans = apm.startTransaction('process-order', 'request');
const span = trans.startSpan('fetch-inventory');
span.setLabel('order.id', '12345');
// ... business logic
span.end();
trans.end();

After (TraceKit)

const tracekit = require('@tracekit/node-apm');

tracekit.init({
  apiKey: 'tk_your_api_key',
  service: 'order-service',
  environment: 'production',
});

const span = tracekit.startSpan('process-order');
const child = tracekit.startSpan('fetch-inventory', { parent: span });
child.setAttribute('order.id', '12345');
// ... business logic
child.end();
span.end();

Before (Elastic APM)

import elasticapm

client = elasticapm.Client(
    service_name='order-service',
    server_url='http://apm-server:8200',
    secret_token='your-secret-token',
    environment='production',
)

client.begin_transaction('request')
with elasticapm.capture_span('fetch-inventory'):
    elasticapm.label(order_id='12345')
    # ... business logic
client.end_transaction('process-order', 'success')

After (TraceKit)

import tracekit

tracekit.init(
    api_key='tk_your_api_key',
    service='order-service',
    environment='production',
)

with tracekit.start_span('process-order') as span:
    with tracekit.start_span('fetch-inventory') as child:
        child.set_attribute('order.id', '12345')
        # ... business logic

Related Resources

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Express Observability

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Go Distributed Tracing Guide

Learn distributed tracing patterns and best practices for Go

APM Implementation Checklist

Step-by-step APM implementation checklist covering SDK installation, instrumentation, alerting, and production rollout with OpenTelemetry best practices.

OTel Config Generator

Generate OpenTelemetry Collector configurations for your stack

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