Enable Distributed Tracing for Dynatrace RUM Applications

KamilA — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 11:12:11 GMT

Summary: This post explains why distributed tracing may not appear for a RUM application. It covers requirements such as backend service detection, propagation headers, and where data will or will not show up in Dynatrace.

Our problem:

HTTP errors handled by the Dynatrace web application don’t have an assigned service, so we are not able to see distributed tracing

State of the matter is:

We have defined a web application in Dynatrace using the agentless RUM option (Injection format: JavaScript tag)
The frontend application is developed in Angular v17
Frontend communicates with backend via Apigee proxy and Istio, it looks like: HTPP request from Frontend app -> apigee proxy -> Istio -> backend service
Our one Dynatrace web application monitors 2 environments (test, prod), app URLs look like: https://app.test.group.example.com https://app.group.example.com
The frontend app is hosted on Amazon CloudFront
Our frontend app calls the backend via Apigee proxy, api urls look like https://api-test.example.com https://api.example.com
For backend, we have a separate service in Dynatrace for the test and prod environments
Cookies are included in XHR calls (we checked and backend service receives Dynatrace cookies send from frontend)
We checked and x-dtc header isn’t set when we have (https:\/\/)?[a-z|-]*\.example\.com\/?\S* regex in “Link cross-origin XHR actions and their distributed traces” option
In frontend Dynatrace web application we have defined request error rules and HTTP 400-499 and 500-599 errors are captured, they impact Apdex and are considered for Davis
Our Angular interceptor responsible for capturing HTTP errors using Dynatrace JavaScript API:

intercept(req: HttpRequest<unknown>, next: HttpHandler): Observable<HttpEvent<unknown>> { if (!window.dtrum) { return next.handle(req); } const xhrActionId: number = window.dtrum?.enterXhrAction(`HTTP ${req.method} request`, 1, req.url); return next.handle(req).pipe( tap({ next: (): void => {}, error: (error: HttpErrorResponse): void => { window.dtrum?.markXHRFailed(error.status, error.message, xhrActionId); } }), finalize((): void => { window?.dtrum?.leaveXhrAction(xhrActionId); }) );

In Dynatrace web application settings we have:
- In Capturing -> Async web requests and SPAs section: Angular toggle is off and Capture XmlHttpRequest (XHR), Use Proxy API for XHRs, Capture fetch() requests toggles are on
- In Capturing -> Custom configuration properties section we have cce=1 custom configuration property added
- Page group detection is default
- In Capturing -> Content capture section all toggles are on
Our backend services are monitored by OneAgent, developed using Spring boot 3.2.2 and Java 21, deployed on AWS using Kubernetes

What did we miss that distributed tracing doesn't work for our RUM application?

Re: Distributed tracing doesn’t work in RUM application

gbaudart — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 13:47:48 GMT

Hi @KamilA
In certain cases, if you use agentless and if you activate cross-origin, it may be necessary to pass the x-dtc header into CORS in order to be able to link user actions (or errors) to backend traces.

documentation link : https://docs.dynatrace.com/docs/platform-modules/digital-experience/web-applications/initial-setup/l...

Re: Distributed tracing doesn’t work in RUM application

KamilA — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 07:19:13 GMT

I've configured Access-Control-Allow-Headers: x-dtc header but still x-dtc header isn't set. Should it be added automatically by JavaScript API? Am I right?

Re: Distributed tracing doesn’t work in RUM application

gbaudart — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 07:42:29 GMT

Oui, mais il faut veiller à l'autoriser dans le CORS (peut-être sur API Gateway par exemple).

Re: Distributed tracing doesn’t work in RUM application

KamilA — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 12:46:27 GMT

But the CORS error will show up only when x-dtc header is added so in my opinion regex in Link cross-origin XHR actions and their distributed traces doesn't work because x-dtc header isn't added

topic Re: Distributed tracing doesn’t work in RUM application in Real User Monitoring

Enable Distributed Tracing for Dynatrace RUM Applications

Re: Distributed tracing doesn’t work in RUM application

Re: Distributed tracing doesn’t work in RUM application

Re: Distributed tracing doesn’t work in RUM application

Re: Distributed tracing doesn’t work in RUM application