Troubleshooting New Relic: Fixing Agent Configuration, Tracing Gaps, Alert Failures, and Ingestion Delays

Details: Category: DevOps Tools; By Mindful Chase; 18.Apr; Hits: 4

New Relic is a comprehensive observability platform that provides real-time insights into application performance, infrastructure health, distributed tracing, and user experiences. While it integrates seamlessly with many environments, DevOps teams often face challenges such as missing data ingestion, agent misconfiguration, high latency in metrics reporting, dashboard anomalies, and alert noise. This article outlines advanced troubleshooting techniques to identify and resolve New Relic issues in enterprise monitoring setups.

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Understanding New Relic Architecture

Agent-Based and Telemetry API Models

New Relic collects data via language-specific agents (e.g., Java, Node.js, Python) or via Telemetry APIs and OpenTelemetry exporters. Incorrect configuration or version mismatches can block instrumentation or cause dropped spans.

NRQL, Dashboards, and Alerts

Data in New Relic is queried using NRQL (New Relic Query Language), which powers dashboards and alert conditions. Misconfigured queries, incorrect time ranges, or custom event delays often lead to inconsistent visualization and alerting issues.

Common New Relic Issues in Production Environments

1. No Data Appearing in the Dashboard

This issue is often related to agent misconfigurations, missing license keys, or blocked outbound network access.

"Agent not reporting" or "No data found for selected time range"

Ensure the New Relic agent is initialized at application startup.
Validate network connectivity to New Relic ingestion endpoints.

2. High Latency or Delayed Metrics

Data delay can stem from high sampling rates, misconfigured harvest intervals, or overloaded hosts throttling the agent’s ability to push data.

3. Inaccurate APM Transaction Tracing

Incomplete traces or missing services in distributed trace views often result from disabled cross-application tracing, unlinked services, or missing instrumentation in background tasks.

4. NRQL Alerts Triggering Unexpectedly

Alerts may fire due to misconfigured baselines, low thresholds, or incorrect use of FACET and WHERE clauses in alert conditions.

5. Excessive Log Ingestion or Billing Spikes

Improperly configured log forwarding (e.g., Fluent Bit or Logstash) can lead to unbounded ingestion and sudden cost increases.

Diagnostics and Debugging Techniques

Verify Agent Logs and Startup Output

Most New Relic agents produce logs that indicate connection status, errors, and harvest cycles. Check for key phrases like "connected" or "harvest failed".

Use the New Relic Diagnostics CLI

Install and run newrelic-diagnostics to check license key validity, config issues, and common agent problems across languages.

Inspect NRQL Query Builder

Test data visibility with ad hoc NRQL queries in New Relic Explorer. Use SELECT count(*) FROM Transaction to confirm APM event ingestion.

Monitor Network Egress and Firewall Logs

Validate that traffic to New Relic's IPs and domains (e.g., *.newrelic.com) is allowed through proxies or firewalls.

Step-by-Step Resolution Guide

1. Restore Missing Data to Dashboards

Ensure environment variables like NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY are correctly set. Restart the app after config changes. Use newrelic.config file where required.

2. Address Delayed Metric Reporting

Lower the harvest_interval setting if supported. Monitor CPU/memory of the host and check for rate limiting in agent logs.

3. Fix Distributed Tracing Gaps

Enable distributed tracing in all services and validate header propagation. Check newrelic.addCustomAttributes is used for context where needed.

4. Triage NRQL Alert Misfires

Audit alert conditions using recent queries. Simulate conditions with test NRQL queries to adjust thresholds or statistical baselines.

5. Control Log Ingestion and Cost

Apply filters in your log forwarding agent. Use NR_LOGGING_LEVEL=warning to suppress noisy logs or tag sources with logtype to manage aggregation.

Best Practices for Reliable New Relic Monitoring

Deploy agent upgrades as part of CI/CD to stay current with supported SDKs.
Use tagging (e.g., environment, region) to slice metrics effectively.
Apply limits and filters to log forwarding pipelines to avoid ingestion spikes.
Structure alert policies using golden signals: latency, errors, traffic, and saturation.
Use NRQL subqueries and filter() functions to optimize dashboards.

Conclusion

New Relic offers powerful observability tooling, but stability and accuracy depend on careful configuration of agents, alert logic, data ingestion, and network access. By leveraging diagnostic tools, NRQL testing, and agent logs, DevOps teams can quickly pinpoint issues and ensure continuous visibility into their systems. Establishing baselines, tuning thresholds, and managing ingestion scope are key to sustainable and actionable monitoring practices.

FAQs

1. Why is New Relic not showing any APM data?

Ensure the agent is installed and initialized correctly. Check for network connectivity, correct license key, and that the app is under traffic.

2. How do I debug NRQL alerts?

Run the NRQL condition manually in Explorer. Use recent data and verify the alert condition logic, thresholds, and time window.

3. What causes distributed traces to be incomplete?

Missing header propagation, disabled tracing config, or uninstrumented background jobs. Enable tracing and verify agent versions match.

4. How can I limit logging volume in New Relic?

Apply filters at the log forwarder level (e.g., Fluent Bit), tag logs for selective ingestion, and use log level thresholds.

5. What's the best way to test agent configuration?

Use the newrelic-diagnostics CLI or agent-specific debug modes. Check the logs immediately after application startup for errors.

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