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New Relic

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New Relic is a software solution that monitors performance and availability. It sets and rates application performance across the environment using a standardized Apdex (application performance index) score. You can use any New Relic query to gather SLIs and apply them in Nobl9 to define your new SLOs.

New Relic parameters and supported features in Nobl9
General support:
Release channel: Stable, Beta
Connection method: Agent, Direct
Replay and SLI Analyzer: Historical data limit 30 days
Event logs: Supported
Query checker: Supported
Query parameters retrieval: Supported
Timestamp cache persistence: Supported
Query parameters:
Query interval: 1 min
Query delay: 1 min
Jitter: 15 sec
Timeout: 30 sec
Agent details and minimum required versions for supported features:
Plugin name: n9newrelic
Query delay environment variable: NR_QUERY_DELAY
Replay and SLI Analyzer: 0.65.0
Query parameters retrieval: 0.73.2
Timestamp cache persistence: 0.65.0
Additional notes:
Support for New Relic queries
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Creating SLOs with New Relic​

Nobl9 Web​

Follow the instructions below to create your SLOs with New Relic in the UI:

  1. Navigate to Service Level Objectives.

  2. Click .

  3. Select a data source for your SLO.

  4. In step 1 of the SLO wizard, select the service the SLO will be associated with.

  5. Specify the Metric. You can choose either a Threshold Metric, where a single time series is evaluated against a threshold or a Ratio Metric, which allows you to enter two time series to compare (for example, a count of good requests and total requests).

    1. Choose the Data Count Method for your ratio metric:
    • Non-incremental: counts incoming metric values one-by-one. So the resulting SLO graph is pike-shaped.
    • Incremental: counts the incoming metric values incrementally, adding every next value to previous values. It results in a constantly increasing SLO graph.

  6. Use the New Relic's query language (NRQL) to enter a Query or a Good query and Total Query for the metric you selected. For more details on NRQL and query samples, refer to the New Relic query examples section.

    • Nobl9 queries for time series data using the TIMESERIES clause.
      • You can add an empty TIMESERIES clause in your NRQL query or skip it altogether as Nobl9 adds missing TIMESERIES clause or overwrites the existing one.
      • As TIMESERIES clause is overwritten, do not append it with custom parameters.

    warning

    Do not append the time range by using the SINCE and UNTIL clauses in your queries as Nobl9 must have control over queried time range.

    For details on the position of the TIMESERIES clause, go to New Relic query examples below.

  7. In step 3, define a Time Window for the SLO.

  • Rolling time windows are better for tracking the recent user experience of a service.

  • Calendar-aligned windows are best suited for SLOs that are intended to map to business metrics measured on a calendar-aligned basis, such as every calendar month or every quarter.

  1. In step 4, specify the Error Budget Calculation Method and your Objective(s).

    • Occurrences method counts good attempts against the count of total attempts.
    • Time Slicesmethod measures how many good minutes were achieved (when a system operates within defined boundaries) during a time window.
    • You can define up to 12 objectives for an SLO.

    See the use case example and the SLO calculations guide for more information on the error budget calculation methods.

  2. In step 5, add the Display name, Name, and other settings for your SLO:

    • Create a composite SLO
    • Set notification on data, if this option is available for your data source.
      When activated, Nobl9 notifies you if your SLO hasn't received data or received incomplete data for more than 15 minutes.
    • Add alert policies, labels, and links, if required.
      You can add up to 20 links per SLO.

  3. Click Create SLO.

SLI values for good and total
When choosing the query for the ratio SLI (countMetrics), keep in mind that the values ​​resulting from that query for both good and total:
  • Must be positive.
  • While we recommend using integers, fractions are also acceptable.
    • If using fractions, we recommend them to be larger than 1e-4 = 0.0001.
  • Shouldn't be larger than 1e+20.

sloctl​

Sample New Relic threshold SLO
apiVersion: n9/v1alpha
kind: SLO
metadata:
  name: api-server-slo
  displayName: API Server SLO
  project: default
  labels:
    area:
      - latency
      - slow-check
    env:
      - prod
      - dev
    region:
      - us
      - eu
    team:
      - green
      - sales
  annotations:
    area: latency
    env: prod
    region: us
    team: sales
spec:
  description: Example New Relic SLO
  indicator:
    metricSource:
      name: new-relic
      project: default
      kind: Agent
  budgetingMethod: Occurrences
  objectives:
    - displayName: Good response (200)
      value: 200
      name: ok
      target: 0.95
      rawMetric:
        query:
          newRelic:
            nrql: select average(duration) from transaction timeseries
      op: lte
      primary: true
  service: api-server
  timeWindows:
    - unit: Month
      count: 1
      isRolling: false
      calendar:
        startTime: 2022-12-01T00:00:00.000Z
        timeZone: UTC
  alertPolicies:
    - fast-burn-5x-for-last-10m
  attachments:
    - url: https://docs.nobl9.com
      displayName: Nobl9 Documentation
  anomalyConfig:
    noData:
      alertMethods:
        - name: slack-notification
          project: default

Specification for metric from New Relic always has one mandatory field:

  • nrql – It can be used to retrieve detailed New Relic data and get insight into your applications, hosts, and business-important activity.

Query examples​

caution: position of the TIMESERIES clause

Nobl9 queries to New Relic are sensitive to the position of the TIMESERIES clause. For example, to make the following correct NewRelic query work in Nobl9:

SELECT
    count(*)
FROM
// highlight-next-line
    Transaction TIMESERIES
WHERE
    httpResponseCode IN ('301', '200', '302')

Move the TIMESERIES clause to the end of your Nobl9 query:

SELECT
    count(*)
FROM
    Transaction
WHERE
// highlight-next-line
    httpResponseCode IN ('301', '200', '302') TIMESERIES

The following are valid query examples:

  • TIMESERIES clause:
    SELECT count(*) FROM Transaction TIMESERIES 1 hour

    1 hour will be overwritten by the agent and set to a different value.

  • Threshold metric for New Relic:
    Query: SELECT average(duration) FROM Transaction TIMESERIES

  • Ratio metric for New Relic:
    Good Query: SELECT count(*) FROM Transaction WHERE httpResponseCode IN ('200','301','302') TIMESERIES

    Total Query: SELECT count(*) FROM Transaction TIMESERIES

For details on New Relic Query Language, refer to the Introduction to NRQL | New Relic documentation.

One point in results​

Queries must be written in such a way that they return only one time series. In other words, you must always query for a single attribute or use a single function (or expression).

Examples:

❌ Incorrect queries:

  • SELECT * FROM Transaction - selects ALL attributes

  • SELECT average(duration), min(duration) FROM Transaction - selects two functions

✔ Correct queries:

  • SELECT count(*) FROM Transaction TIMESERIES - selects a single function.

  • SELECT average(duration) FROM Transaction TIMESERIES - selects a single attribute.

Other clauses mutually exclusive with TIMESERIES

❌ Other clauses that are mutually exclusive with TIMESERIES clause must not be used. Example:

  • SELECT count(*) FROM PageView FACET city

Querying the New Relic server​

The Nobl9 agent leverages NewRelic Insights API parameters. It pulls data at a two-minute interval from the New Relic server.

New Relic API rate limits​

For the information on New Relic rate limits, refer to the following documentation:

For a more in-depth look, consult additional resources:
Introduction to NRQLNew Relic docsQuery insights event data via APINew Relic docsRate limits for NRQL queriesNew Relic docsAgent metricsAgentCreating SLOs via TerraformTerraformCreating agents via TerraformTerraform
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