Troubleshooting Agent, Telemetry, and Alerting Issues in New Relic

Details: Category: DevOps Tools; By Mindful Chase; 05.Apr; Hits: 2

New Relic is a powerful observability platform offering application performance monitoring (APM), infrastructure monitoring, and digital experience management. However, large-scale deployments often encounter complex issues such as agent connection failures, delayed telemetry data, dashboard inconsistencies, and alert misconfigurations. Efficient troubleshooting is crucial to maintain full-stack visibility, ensure proactive incident response, and optimize platform performance across dynamic environments.

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Background: How New Relic Works

Core Components

New Relic collects telemetry data (metrics, events, logs, traces) through agents installed on hosts, containers, and applications. Data is streamed to New Relic's Telemetry Data Platform, where it powers APM dashboards, alerting systems, and integrations via NRQL (New Relic Query Language).

Common Enterprise-Level Challenges

Agent installation or connectivity failures
Data ingestion delays or gaps in metrics
Dashboard widget failures or stale visualizations
Alert noise or missed critical incidents due to misconfigured conditions

Architectural Implications of Failures

Observability Blind Spots

Agent failures or telemetry delays lead to blind spots across services, delaying detection of outages or performance regressions.

Operational Inefficiencies

Poorly tuned dashboards and alerting rules cause either information overload (alert fatigue) or silent service degradations.

Diagnosing New Relic Failures

Step 1: Verify Agent Status and Logs

Check the agent status, connectivity to New Relic's collector endpoints, and inspect log files for registration, network, or authentication errors.

sudo newrelic-infra-ctl status
sudo cat /var/log/newrelic-infra/newrelic-infra.log

Step 2: Monitor Data Ingestion Health

Use New Relic's "Data Explorer" to validate incoming telemetry, check timestamp freshness, and spot ingestion gaps.

NRQL Query: SELECT count(*) FROM Transaction SINCE 30 minutes ago TIMESERIES

Step 3: Inspect Dashboard Query Errors

Audit NRQL queries for dashboard widgets that fail to load or display outdated data due to syntax errors or API rate limits.

Dashboards -> Inspect Widget -> View Query

Step 4: Review Alert Policies and Conditions

Evaluate alert thresholds, conditions, and notification channels to troubleshoot false positives, false negatives, or alert delivery failures.

Alerts & AI -> Policies -> View Conditions -> Audit notification history

Common Pitfalls and Misconfigurations

Firewall or Proxy Restrictions

Agents failing to connect due to corporate firewalls or proxy misconfigurations blocking outbound traffic to New Relic's endpoints.

Overcomplicated Dashboards

Dashboards overloaded with complex queries and widgets can increase load times and API call consumption, degrading user experience.

Step-by-Step Fixes

1. Ensure Network Access to New Relic Domains

Whitelist New Relic collector and API endpoints in firewall or proxy configurations to enable seamless agent communication.

*.newrelic.com
*.nr-data.net

2. Restart or Reinstall Agents

Restart agents after configuration changes or reinstall them to resolve corrupted installations or failed upgrades.

sudo systemctl restart newrelic-infra

3. Simplify and Optimize Dashboards

Aggregate related metrics, limit widget complexity, and optimize NRQL queries for faster dashboard loading and reduced API consumption.

4. Fine-Tune Alert Thresholds

Set realistic thresholds, add incident preferences like "By Condition and Entity," and use dynamic baselines for more intelligent alerting.

5. Monitor API Usage and Rate Limits

Track New Relic API call quotas to prevent query throttling impacting dashboards or automated workflows.

Account Settings -> API Usage Dashboard

Best Practices for Long-Term Stability

Automate agent deployments via configuration management tools (Ansible, Terraform)
Tag telemetry data consistently for easier queries and alert scoping
Use distributed tracing to correlate application and infrastructure issues
Review and update alert policies quarterly to match current service architectures
Implement Synthetics monitoring to simulate and catch user-facing issues proactively

Conclusion

Troubleshooting New Relic involves systematic validation of agent connectivity, telemetry ingestion, dashboard health, and alert policies. By proactively monitoring system health, optimizing observability pipelines, and aligning alerting strategies with business priorities, organizations can maximize the value and effectiveness of their New Relic observability investments.

FAQs

1. Why is my New Relic agent not reporting data?

Check network connectivity, agent configuration, log files, and ensure required endpoints are accessible from the host.

2. How can I fix slow or broken dashboards?

Optimize NRQL queries, reduce the number of widgets, and check for API rate limit issues. Simplify dashboards for critical views.

3. What causes alert noise in New Relic?

Overly sensitive thresholds, missing baseline conditions, or redundant alerting rules. Fine-tune alert policies and use dynamic baselines where possible.

4. How do I troubleshoot missing logs or traces?

Verify that log forwarding or APM tracing is correctly configured on agents and check telemetry pipeline health in the New Relic UI.

5. Is it necessary to update New Relic agents regularly?

Yes, agent updates provide performance improvements, bug fixes, and support for new telemetry types or API changes. Regularly schedule updates.

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