Configure Datadog APM trace retention filters and ingestion control
domain: docs.datadoghq.com · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Review the default head-based sampling rates applied by the Datadog Agent and adjust them per service using the ingestion configuration
Create custom retention filters in the Datadog APM settings to keep specific traces beyond the default retention period based on tags or attributes
Use the Datadog remote configuration feature to update ingestion sampling rates without redeploying the Agent
Monitor the ingested and indexed span volumes in the APM Ingestion Control page to stay within budget
Enable error and rare trace samplers to ensure low-traffic or erroring traces are retained even under aggressive sampling
Known gotchas
Retention filters apply to already-ingested spans; they do not affect what is ingested at the Agent level, so high ingestion costs require tuning at the Agent sampling layer
Custom retention filters with broad match criteria can unexpectedly retain large volumes of spans and increase indexing costs
The error sampler and rare sampler are enabled by default; disabling them to save cost risks losing the only copy of errors or low-traffic service traces
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