# Instrumenting startup code
<a name="scorekeep-startup"></a>

**Note**  
X-Ray SDK/Daemon Maintenance Notice – On February 25th, 2026, the AWS X-Ray SDKs/Daemon will enter maintenance mode, where AWS will limit X-Ray SDK and Daemon releases to address security issues only. For more information on the support timeline, see [X-Ray SDK and Daemon Support timeline](xray-sdk-daemon-timeline.md). We recommend to migrate to OpenTelemetry. For more information on migrating to OpenTelemetry, see [Migrating from X-Ray instrumentation to OpenTelemetry instrumentation ](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/xray/latest/devguide/xray-sdk-migration.html).

The X-Ray SDK for Java automatically creates segments for incoming requests. As long as a request is in scope, you can use instrumented clients and record subsegments without issue. If you try to use an instrumented client in startup code, though, you'll get a [SegmentNotFoundException](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/xray-sdk-for-java/latest/javadoc/com/amazonaws/xray/exceptions/SegmentNotFoundException.html).

Startup code runs outside of the standard request/response flow of a web application, so you need to create segments manually to instrument it. Scorekeep shows the instrumentation of startup code in its `WebConfig` files. Scorekeep calls an SQL database and Amazon SNS during startup.

![\[Diagram showing client requests to Scorekeeper-init, which connects to SQL database and SNS.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/xray/latest/devguide/images/scorekeep-servicemap-init.png)


The default `WebConfig` class creates an Amazon SNS subscription for notifications. To provide a segment for the X-Ray SDK to write to when the Amazon SNS client is used, Scorekeep calls `beginSegment` and `endSegment` on the global recorder.

**Example [https://github.com/awslabs/eb-java-scorekeep/tree/xray/src/main/java/scorekeep/WebConfig.java#L49](https://github.com/awslabs/eb-java-scorekeep/tree/xray/src/main/java/scorekeep/WebConfig.java#L49) – Instrumented AWS SDK client in startup code**  

```
AWSXRay.beginSegment("Scorekeep-init");
if ( System.getenv("NOTIFICATION_EMAIL") != null ){
  try { Sns.createSubscription(); }
  catch (Exception e ) {
    logger.warn("Failed to create subscription for email "+  System.getenv("NOTIFICATION_EMAIL"));
  }
}
AWSXRay.endSegment();
```

In `RdsWebConfig`, which Scorekeep uses when an Amazon RDS database is connected, the configuration also creates a segment for the SQL client that Hibernate uses when it applies the database schema during startup.

**Example [https://github.com/awslabs/eb-java-scorekeep/tree/xray/src/main/java/scorekeep/RdsWebConfig.java#L83](https://github.com/awslabs/eb-java-scorekeep/tree/xray/src/main/java/scorekeep/RdsWebConfig.java#L83) – Instrumented SQL database client in startup code**  

```
@PostConstruct
public void schemaExport() {
  EntityManagerFactoryImpl entityManagerFactoryImpl = (EntityManagerFactoryImpl) localContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.getNativeEntityManagerFactory();
  SessionFactoryImplementor sessionFactoryImplementor = entityManagerFactoryImpl.getSessionFactory();
  StandardServiceRegistry standardServiceRegistry = sessionFactoryImplementor.getSessionFactoryOptions().getServiceRegistry();
  MetadataSources metadataSources = new MetadataSources(new BootstrapServiceRegistryBuilder().build());
  metadataSources.addAnnotatedClass(GameHistory.class);
  MetadataImplementor metadataImplementor = (MetadataImplementor) metadataSources.buildMetadata(standardServiceRegistry);
  SchemaExport schemaExport = new SchemaExport(standardServiceRegistry, metadataImplementor);

  AWSXRay.beginSegment("Scorekeep-init");
  schemaExport.create(true, true);
  AWSXRay.endSegment();
}
```

`SchemaExport` runs automatically and uses an SQL client. Since the client is instrumented, Scorekeep must override the default implementation and provide a segment for the SDK to use when the client is invoked.