> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.chronosphere.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Ingest, query, and control your trace data

[Distributed tracing](/overview/concepts/distributed-tracing) is the process of
mapping and analyzing requests as they flow through a distributed system. Use the
following documentation to learn about how to interact with trace data in
Chronosphere Observability Platform.

## Ingest

Observability Platform supports ingesting trace data with both the Chronosphere
Collector and the OpenTelemetry Collector. An added benefit of using the
OpenTelemetry Collector is configuring [head sampling](/control/shaping/sample-traces/head-sampling),
which is a powerful control mechanism for managing your tracing costs.

<Card title="Ingest data" color="#a63923" icon="send" href="/ingest/metrics-traces" horizontal />

## Control

Use the Chronosphere Trace Control Plane to narrow your focus to only a
representative sample of your data and drop everything else. Identify and evaluate
data, and then sample the overall dataset to eliminate waste, unnecessary noise, and
cost.

<Card title="Control data" color="#a63923" icon="shapes" href="/control/shaping/sample-traces" horizontal />

## Query

Learn how to construct queries in Trace Explorer to search for traces and spans to
help identify, triage, and understand the root cause of problems. See the
[features overview](/investigate/querying/traces/features) to learn more about the
capabilities that Trace Explorer provides.

<Card title="Query data" color="#a63923" icon="zoom-in" href="/investigate/querying/traces" horizontal />

## Observe

Create standard dashboards query and
[visualize log data](/investigate/querying/dashboard-query) queries. You can also
create [alerts](/investigate/alerts/monitors) to watch time series data that's
specified in a monitor query, and receive notifications when the query matches
specified logs.

<Card title="Observe data" color="#a63923" icon="monitor" href="/observe/dashboards" horizontal />

## Analyze

Analyze your trace data to gain insights, understand the value of your data
semantics, and highlight changes and their impacts. Use
[differential diagnosis](/investigate/analyze/differential-diagnosis/traces)
to identify issues behind suspicious trends.

<Card title="Analyze data" color="#a63923" icon="chart-bar" href="/investigate/analyze/trace-analyzer" horizontal />

## Connect

Create links to related data from other parts of Observability Platform, such as
linking to logs from traces and linking to traces from dashboards.

<Card title="Create links" color="#a63923" icon="link" href="/investigate/querying/create-links" horizontal />