Repair OpenTelemetry Tail Sampler Trace Retention Drift

Repair OpenTelemetry Tail Sampler Trace Retention Drift — SYNTHETIC EVIDENCE-LIMITED REVIEW

Case received

Critical error traces disappear despite an explicit retention rule.

Evidence register

• S1: OpenTelemetry tail sampling policies and collector batch receipts — PARTIAL / UNVERIFIED.
• S2: approved operating baseline / documented policy — NOT PROVIDED; REQUIRED TO VERIFY.
• S3: timestamped revision or change record — NOT PROVIDED; REQUIRED TO VERIFY.
• S4: accountable reviewer and approval evidence — NOT PROVIDED; REQUIRED TO VERIFY.

Investigation checks

1. Establish the identity, timestamp basis and revision lineage of OpenTelemetry tail sampling policies and collector batch receipts; document missing or contradictory records. — PENDING CORROBORATION.
2. Reconstruct the event sequence surrounding decision cache evicts error spans before late root span arrival, citing exact record identifiers and independent checks. — PENDING CORROBORATION.
3. Compare the evidence with the approved baseline; test the competing explanations for: Critical error traces disappear despite an explicit retention rule. — PENDING CORROBORATION.
4. Draft a non-executing, owner-approved validation sequence and rejection criteria for trace retention replay and policy conformance fixtures. — PENDING CORROBORATION.

Deliverables

• time-aligned evidence index for OpenTelemetry tail sampling policies and collector batch receipts: DRAFT / INCOMPLETE until inputs are validated.
• exceptions and alternative hypotheses for decision cache evicts error spans before late root span arrival: DRAFT / INCOMPLETE until inputs are validated.
• approval-gated trace retention replay and policy conformance fixtures and verification criteria: DRAFT / INCOMPLETE until inputs are validated.

Decision gate

INCOMPLETE — HUMAN REVIEW REQUIRED. Sources, scope, time basis and sign-off remain unverified. No live change or approval has occurred.