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 <!-- security-allowlist: curl-pipe-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'}
)

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