gabrielmoreira New Relic
Monitor applications and infrastructure with New Relic's observability platform.
When to Use This Skill
Use this skill when:
- Implementing full-stack observability
- Setting up APM for applications
- Monitoring infrastructure health
- Creating custom dashboards and alerts
- Implementing distributed tracing
Prerequisites
- New Relic account and license key
- Application access for APM agents
- Infrastructure access for host agents
Infrastructure Agent
Linux Installation
# Add repository and install
curl -Ls https://download.newrelic.com/install/newrelic-cli/scripts/install.sh | bash
# Configure license key
sudo NEW_RELIC_API_KEY=<YOUR_API_KEY> NEW_RELIC_ACCOUNT_ID=<ACCOUNT_ID> /usr/local/bin/newrelic install
# Or manual configuration
echo "license_key: YOUR_LICENSE_KEY" | sudo tee -a /etc/newrelic-infra.yml
sudo systemctl start newrelic-infra
Docker
# docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'
services:
newrelic-infra:
image: newrelic/infrastructure:latest
cap_add:
- SYS_PTRACE
privileged: true
pid: "host"
network_mode: "host"
environment:
- NRIA_LICENSE_KEY=${NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY}
- NRIA_DISPLAY_NAME=docker-host
volumes:
- /:/host:ro
- /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
Kubernetes
# Using Helm
helm repo add newrelic https://helm-charts.newrelic.com
helm install newrelic-bundle newrelic/nri-bundle \
--namespace newrelic \
--create-namespace \
--set global.licenseKey=${NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY} \
--set global.cluster=my-cluster \
--set newrelic-infrastructure.privileged=true \
--set ksm.enabled=true \
--set kubeEvents.enabled=true \
--set logging.enabled=true
APM Agents
Node.js
// At the very start of your application
require('newrelic');
// newrelic.js configuration
exports.config = {
app_name: ['My Application'],
license_key: process.env.NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY,
distributed_tracing: {
enabled: true
},
logging: {
level: 'info'
},
error_collector: {
enabled: true,
ignore_status_codes: [404]
},
transaction_tracer: {
enabled: true,
transaction_threshold: 'apdex_f',
record_sql: 'obfuscated'
}
};
# Install agent
npm install newrelic
# Run application
NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY=xxx node -r newrelic app.js
Python
# newrelic.ini
[newrelic]
license_key = YOUR_LICENSE_KEY
app_name = My Application
distributed_tracing.enabled = true
transaction_tracer.enabled = true
error_collector.enabled = true
browser_monitoring.auto_instrument = true
# Install agent
pip install newrelic
# Generate config file
newrelic-admin generate-config YOUR_LICENSE_KEY newrelic.ini
# Run application
NEW_RELIC_CONFIG_FILE=newrelic.ini newrelic-admin run-program python app.py
# Or with gunicorn
NEW_RELIC_CONFIG_FILE=newrelic.ini newrelic-admin run-program gunicorn app:app
Java
# Download agent
curl -O https://download.newrelic.com/newrelic/java-agent/newrelic-agent/current/newrelic-java.zip
unzip newrelic-java.zip
# Configure newrelic.yml
# license_key: YOUR_LICENSE_KEY
# app_name: My Application
# Run with agent
java -javaagent:/path/to/newrelic.jar -jar myapp.jar
Go
package main
import (
"github.com/newrelic/go-agent/v3/newrelic"
"net/http"
)
func main() {
app, err := newrelic.NewApplication(
newrelic.ConfigAppName("My Application"),
newrelic.ConfigLicense("YOUR_LICENSE_KEY"),
newrelic.ConfigDistributedTracerEnabled(true),
)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
http.HandleFunc(newrelic.WrapHandleFunc(app, "/", indexHandler))
http.ListenAndServe(":8080", nil)
}
func indexHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
txn := newrelic.FromContext(r.Context())
txn.AddAttribute("user_id", "12345")
w.Write([]byte("Hello, World!"))
}
Custom Instrumentation
Custom Events
import newrelic.agent
# Record custom event
newrelic.agent.record_custom_event('OrderPlaced', {
'order_id': '12345',
'amount': 99.99,
'customer_id': 'cust_001'
})
Custom Metrics
import newrelic.agent
# Record custom metric
newrelic.agent.record_custom_metric('Custom/OrderValue', 99.99)
# With attributes
newrelic.agent.record_custom_metric('Custom/ProcessingTime',
processing_time,
{'unit': 'milliseconds'}
)
Custom Spans
import newrelic.agent
@newrelic.agent.function_trace(name='process_payment')
def process_payment(order_id, amount):
# This creates a custom span in the trace
pass
# Manual span creation
with newrelic.agent.FunctionTrace(name='custom_operation'):
# Traced code
pass
NRQL Queries
Basic Queries
-- Transaction throughput
SELECT rate(count(*), 1 minute) FROM Transaction
WHERE appName = 'My Application'
SINCE 1 hour ago
-- Average response time
SELECT average(duration) FROM Transaction
WHERE appName = 'My Application'
SINCE 1 hour ago
-- Error rate
SELECT percentage(count(*), WHERE error IS true) FROM Transaction
WHERE appName = 'My Application'
SINCE 1 hour ago
-- Apdex score
SELECT apdex(duration, t: 0.5) FROM Transaction
WHERE appName = 'My Application'
SINCE 1 hour ago
Advanced Queries
-- Slowest transactions
SELECT average(duration) FROM Transaction
WHERE appName = 'My Application'
FACET name
SINCE 1 hour ago
ORDER BY average(duration) DESC
LIMIT 10
-- Error breakdown
SELECT count(*) FROM TransactionError
WHERE appName = 'My Application'
FACET error.class
SINCE 1 hour ago
-- Percentile response times
SELECT percentile(duration, 50, 90, 95, 99) FROM Transaction
WHERE appName = 'My Application'
SINCE 1 hour ago TIMESERIES
-- Custom event analysis
SELECT average(amount), count(*) FROM OrderPlaced
FACET customer_id
SINCE 1 day ago
Dashboards
Dashboard JSON
{
"name": "Application Dashboard",
"pages": [
{
"name": "Overview",
"widgets": [
{
"title": "Throughput",
"visualization": {"id": "viz.line"},
"configuration": {
"nrqlQueries": [
{
"accountId": 12345,
"query": "SELECT rate(count(*), 1 minute) FROM Transaction WHERE appName = 'My Application' SINCE 1 hour ago TIMESERIES"
}
]
}
},
{
"title": "Error Rate",
"visualization": {"id": "viz.billboard"},
"configuration": {
"nrqlQueries": [
{
"accountId": 12345,
"query": "SELECT percentage(count(*), WHERE error IS true) FROM Transaction WHERE appName = 'My Application' SINCE 1 hour ago"
}
]
}
}
]
}
]
}
Alerts
Alert Condition (NRQL)
{
"name": "High Error Rate",
"type": "static",
"nrql": {
"query": "SELECT percentage(count(*), WHERE error IS true) FROM Transaction WHERE appName = 'My Application'"
},
"valueFunction": "single_value",
"terms": [
{
"threshold": 5,
"thresholdOccurrences": "all",
"thresholdDuration": 300,
"operator": "above",
"priority": "critical"
},
{
"threshold": 2,
"thresholdOccurrences": "all",
"thresholdDuration": 300,
"operator": "above",
"priority": "warning"
}
]
}
Alert Policy
{
"name": "Application Alerts",
"incident_preference": "PER_CONDITION_AND_TARGET",
"conditions": [
{
"name": "High Response Time",
"type": "apm_app_metric",
"entities": ["My Application"],
"metric": "response_time_web",
"condition_scope": "application",
"terms": [
{
"duration": "5",
"operator": "above",
"threshold": "1",
"priority": "critical"
}
]
}
]
}
Logs in Context
Python Configuration
# newrelic.ini
[newrelic]
application_logging.enabled = true
application_logging.forwarding.enabled = true
application_logging.metrics.enabled = true
application_logging.local_decorating.enabled = true
Log Forwarding
# newrelic-infra.yml
log:
- name: application-logs
file: /var/log/myapp/*.log
attributes:
service: myapp
environment: production
Common Issues
Issue: No Data Appearing
Problem: Agent not reporting to New Relic Solution: Verify license key, check network connectivity, review agent logs
Issue: Missing Transactions
Problem: Some transactions not captured Solution: Check instrumentation coverage, verify framework support
Issue: High Overhead
Problem: APM agent impacting performance Solution: Adjust sampling rate, disable unnecessary features
Best Practices
- Use meaningful application names
- Implement distributed tracing across services
- Set up service maps for dependency visualization
- Configure appropriate alert thresholds
- Use custom attributes for business context
- Implement logs in context for correlation
- Set up workloads for service grouping
- Regular review of unused dashboards and alerts
Related Skills
- datadog - Alternative monitoring platform
- prometheus-grafana - Open source monitoring
- alerting-oncall - Alert management