Requirements

  • The full Step Function execution length must be less than 6 hours for full traces.

How it works

AWS Step Functions is a fully managed service, and the Datadog Agent cannot be directly installed on Step Functions. However, Datadog can monitor Step Functions through Cloudwatch metrics and logs.

Datadog collects Step Functions metrics from Cloudwatch through the AWS Step Functions integration. Datadog collects Step Functions logs from Cloudwatch through one of the following:

Datadog uses these ingested logs to generate enhanced metrics and traces for your Step Function executions.

A diagram explaining how Step Functions telemetry is ingested and used in Datadog

Setup

Ensure that the AWS Step Functions integration is installed.

Then, to send your Step Functions logs to Datadog:

For developers using Serverless Framework to deploy serverless applications, use the Datadog Serverless Framework Plugin.

  1. If you have not already, install the Datadog Serverless Framework Plugin v5.40.0+:

    serverless plugin install --name serverless-plugin-datadog
    
  2. Ensure you have deployed the Datadog Lambda Forwarder, a Lambda function that ships logs from AWS to Datadog, and that you are using v3.121.0+. You may need to update your Forwarder.

    Take note of your Forwarder’s ARN.

  3. Add the following to your serverless.yml:

    custom:
      datadog:
        site: <DATADOG_SITE>
        apiKeySecretArn: <DATADOG_API_KEY_SECRET_ARN>
        forwarderArn: <FORWARDER_ARN>
        enableStepFunctionsTracing: true
    
    • Replace <DATADOG_SITE> with (ensure the correct SITE is selected on the right).
    • Replace <DATADOG_API_KEY_SECRET_ARN> with the ARN of the AWS secret where your Datadog API key is securely stored. The key needs to be stored as a plaintext string (not a JSON blob). The secretsmanager:GetSecretValue permission is required. For quick testing, you can instead use apiKey and set the Datadog API key in plaintext.
    • Replace <FORWARDER_ARN> with the ARN of your Datadog Lambda Forwarder, as noted previously.

    For additional settings, see Datadog Serverless Framework Plugin - Configuration parameters.

  1. If you have not already, install the Datadog CLI v2.18.0+.

    npm install -g @datadog/datadog-ci
    
  2. Ensure you have deployed the Datadog Lambda Forwarder, a Lambda function that ships logs from AWS to Datadog, and that you are using v3.121.0+. You may need to update your Forwarder.

    Take note of your Forwarder’s ARN.

  3. Instrument your Step Function.

    datadog-ci stepfunctions instrument \
     --step-function <STEP_FUNCTION_ARN> \
     --forwarder <FORWARDER_ARN> \
     --env <ENVIRONMENT> 
    
    • Replace <STEP_FUNCTION_ARN> with the ARN of your Step Function. Repeat the --step-function flag for each Step Function you wish to instrument.
    • Replace <FORWARDER_ARN> with the ARN of your Datadog Lambda Forwarder, as noted previously.
    • Replace <ENVIRONMENT> with the environment tag you would like to apply to your Step Functions.

    For more information about the datadog-ci stepfunctions command, see the Datadog CLI documentation.

  1. Enable all logging for your Step Function. In your AWS console, open your state machine. Click Edit and find the Logging section. There, set Log level to ALL and enable the Include execution data checkbox.

    AWS UI, Logging section, showing log level set to ALL.
  2. Ensure you have deployed the Datadog Lambda Forwarder, a Lambda function that ships logs from AWS to Datadog, and that you are using v3.121.0+. You may need to update your Forwarder. When deploying the Forwarder on v3.121.0+, you can also set the DdStepFunctionsTraceEnabled parameter in CloudFormation to enable tracing for all your Step Functions at the Forwarder-level.

    Take note of your Forwarder’s ARN.

  3. Subscribe CloudWatch logs to the Datadog Lambda Forwarder. To do this, you have two options:

    • Datadog-AWS integration (recommended)

      1. Ensure that you have set up the Datadog-AWS integration.
      2. In Datadog, open the AWS integration tile, and view the Configuration tab.
      3. On the left, select the AWS account where your Step Function is running. Open the Log Collection tab.
      4. In the Log Autosubscription section, under Autosubscribe Forwarder Lambda Functions, enter the ARN of your Datadog Lambda Forwarder, as noted previously. Click Add.
      5. Toggle on Step Functions CloudWatch Logs. Changes take 15 minutes to take effect.

      Note: Log Autosubscription requires your Lambda Forwarder and Step Function to be in the same region.

    • Manual

      1. Ensure that your log group name has the prefix /aws/vendedlogs/states.
      2. Open your AWS console and go to your Datadog Lambda Forwarder. In the Function overview section, click on Add trigger.
      3. Under Add trigger, in the Trigger configuration section, use the Select a source dropdown to select CloudWatch Logs.
      4. Under Log group, select the log group for your state machine. For example, /aws/vendedlogs/states/my-state-machine.
      5. Enter a filter name. You can choose to name it “empty filter” and leave the Filter pattern box blank.
If you are using a different instrumentation method, such as Serverless Framework or datadog-ci, enabling autosubscription may create duplicated logs. To avoid this behavior, choose only one configuration method.
  1. Set up tags. Open your AWS console and go to your Step Functions state machine. Open the Tags section and add env:<ENV_NAME>, service:<SERVICE_NAME>, and version:<VERSION> tags. The env tag is required to see traces in Datadog, and it defaults to dev. The service tag defaults to the state machine’s name. The version tag defaults to 1.0.

Enable tracing

To see Step Functions spans and Lambda spans connected in the same trace, see Merge Step Functions with your AWS Lambda traces.

Datadog generates traces from collected Cloudwatch logs. To enable this, add a DD_TRACE_ENABLED tag to each of your Step Functions and set the value to true. Alternatively, to enable tracing for all your Step Functions, add a DD_STEP_FUNCTIONS_TRACE_ENABLED environment variable to the Datadog Forwarder and set the value to true.

Enhanced metrics are automatically enabled if you enable tracing.

If you enable enhanced metrics without enabling traces, you are only billed for Serverless Workload Monitoring. If you enable tracing (which automatically includes enhanced metrics), you are billed for both Serverless Workload Monitoring and Serverless APM. See Pricing.

Merge Step Functions with your AWS Lambda traces

See Merge Step Functions traces with Lambda traces. Ensure that you have also set up Serverless Monitoring for AWS Lambda.

Sample traces

To manage the APM traced invocation sampling rate for serverless functions, set the DD_TRACE_SAMPLE_RATE environment variable on the function to a value between 0.000 (no tracing of Step Function invocations) and 1.000 (trace all Step Function invocations).

The dropped traces are not ingested into Datadog.

Enable enhanced metrics (without tracing)

Datadog generates enhanced metrics from collected Cloudwatch logs. Enhanced metrics are automatically enabled if you enable traces.

To enable enhanced metrics without enabling tracing, add a DD_ENHANCED_METRICS tag to each of your Step Functions and set the value to true.

See your Step Function metrics, logs, and traces in Datadog

After you have invoked your state machine, go to the Serverless app in Datadog. Search for service:<YOUR_STATE_MACHINE_NAME> to see the relevant metrics, logs, and traces associated with that state machine. If you set the service tag on your state machine to a custom value, search for service:<CUSTOM_VALUE>.

An AWS Step Function side panel view.

If you cannot see your traces, see Troubleshooting.

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