What is the purpose of the metric datadog.trace_agent.* in Datadog?

The metric datadog.trace_agent.* serves to monitor tracing by service within the Datadog platform. This metric provides visibility into the performance and behavior of various services being traced. By tracking this information, users can gain insights into how different services interact, identify bottlenecks in distributed applications, and analyze the overall request flow. This is particularly valuable for improving the performance and reliability of services.

Telemetry collected through this metric can help inform decisions regarding optimizing service performance, troubleshooting issues, and enhancing the user experience. Unlike other metrics that may focus on network performance, system resources, or configurations, the trace agent metrics specifically target the monitoring of traces, making it essential for observability in microservices architectures.