New Relic

monitoring platformAPMobservabilityperformance monitoringapplication monitoringinfrastructure monitoring

Monitoring Platform

New Relic

Overview

New Relic is a cloud-based observability platform that provides a comprehensive solution integrating Application Performance Monitoring (APM), infrastructure monitoring, and digital experience monitoring. As a veteran in the APM field, it maintains a stable position with high ratings for UI usability and easy setup, particularly popular among mid-sized enterprises.

Details

New Relic leads the industry as a pioneer in Application Performance Monitoring (APM), particularly excelling in deep code-level diagnostics and unified user interface design that correlates user experience with backend performance.

Key Features

APM (Application Performance Monitoring): Deep code-level diagnostics and performance analysis
Infrastructure Monitoring: Comprehensive monitoring of servers, containers, and cloud services
Browser Monitoring: Real User Monitoring (RUM) and frontend performance
Synthetic Monitoring: Automated website and API availability monitoring
Mobile Monitoring: iOS/Android app performance and crash analysis
AI/Machine Learning: Anomaly detection and incident correlation
Distributed Tracing: Detailed transaction tracking across microservices

Technical Features

Unified Platform: Single-pane-of-glass operation with all features integrated
Easy Deployment: Simple agent-based setup process
Predictable Pricing: Usage-based yet predictable pricing structure
Rich Query Capabilities: Flexible data analysis with NRQL (New Relic Query Language)
Dashboards: Customizable real-time dashboards

Pros and Cons

Pros

Rich track record and mature functionality in APM field
Intuitive and user-friendly interface
Quick and easy setup process
Unified platform managing all features
Predictable pricing structure
Powerful query language (NRQL)
Correlation analysis between user experience and backend performance

Cons

Limited infrastructure monitoring compared to Datadog
Cost escalation in large-scale environments
Somewhat limited customization capabilities
Slower adoption of newer technologies
Data retention period limitations

References

Setup and Monitoring Examples

Basic Setup

# New Relic agent setup for Ruby applications
gem 'newrelic_rpm'

# Manual start (if needed)
NewRelic::Agent.manual_start

Metrics Collection

# Custom metrics submission in Python
import newrelic.agent

# Record custom metrics
newrelic.agent.record_custom_metric('Custom/Users/SignupCount', 1)

# Transaction tracing
@newrelic.agent.function_trace(name='Custom/MyFunction')
def my_function():
    # Business logic
    pass

# Background task monitoring
@newrelic.agent.background_task(name='Custom/BackgroundTask')
def background_task():
    # Background processing
    pass

Alerting Configuration

// Create alert condition via New Relic API
const alertCondition = {
  "condition": {
    "type": "apm_app_metric",
    "name": "High Response Time",
    "enabled": true,
    "entities": ["12345"],
    "metric": "response_time_web",
    "condition_scope": "application",
    "terms": [
      {
        "duration": "5",
        "operator": "above",
        "priority": "critical",
        "threshold": "0.5",
        "time_function": "all"
      }
    ]
  }
};

Dashboard Creation

// New Relic One Dashboard creation
const dashboard = {
  "dashboard": {
    "title": "Application Performance Dashboard",
    "description": "Monitor application key metrics",
    "permissions": "PUBLIC_READ_WRITE",
    "pages": [
      {
        "name": "Application Overview",
        "widgets": [
          {
            "title": "Response Time",
            "visualization": {
              "id": "viz.line"
            },
            "rawConfiguration": {
              "nrqlQueries": [
                {
                  "query": "SELECT average(duration) FROM Transaction WHERE appName = 'MyApp' TIMESERIES"
                }
              ]
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
};

Log Analysis

# New Relic Logs configuration
# Using fluentd plugin example
<match **>
  @type newrelic
  license_key YOUR_LICENSE_KEY
  <buffer>
    @type file
    path /var/log/fluentd-buffers/newrelic.buffer
    flush_mode interval
    flush_interval 5s
  </buffer>
</match>

Integration Setup

# New Relic Infrastructure Agent configuration
# /etc/newrelic-infra/integrations.d/nginx-config.yml
integration_name: com.newrelic.nginx

instances:
  - name: nginx-server-metrics
    command: status_url
    arguments:
      status_url: http://127.0.0.1/nginx_status
      remote_monitoring: true
    labels:
      env: production
      role: load_balancer
      
  - name: nginx-server-inventory
    command: inventory
    arguments:
      config_path: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
    labels:
      env: production
      role: load_balancer

NRQL Query Examples

-- Monitor application error rate
SELECT percentage(count(*), WHERE error IS true) 
FROM Transaction 
WHERE appName = 'MyApp' 
SINCE 1 hour ago 
TIMESERIES

-- Database query performance
SELECT average(duration) 
FROM DatabaseSample 
WHERE provider = 'MySQL' 
FACET query 
SINCE 1 day ago 
LIMIT 10

-- Infrastructure resource utilization
SELECT average(cpuPercent), average(memoryUsedPercent) 
FROM SystemSample 
WHERE hostname LIKE 'web-%' 
SINCE 30 minutes ago 
TIMESERIES