Nyholm / newrelic-plugins

NewRelic plugins (cassandra, varnish, and more to come)

Plugins for New Relic

Prerequisites

All plugins for New Relic requires the following:

• A New Relic account. Signup for a free account at http://newrelic.com
• A cassandra cluster version 1.2.X+
• A configured Java Runtime (JRE) environment Version 1.6 or better
• Network access to New Relic (authenticated proxies are not currently supported, but see workaround below)

The Cassandra plugin for New Relic requires the following:

• A cassandra cluster version 1.2.X+

The Varnish plugin for New Relic requires the following:

• One or more varnish instances

Download

Download and unpack the New Relic plugin you want from Plugin Central: https://rpm.newrelic.com/plugins/ or the mirror in our homepage: http://3legs.com.ar/downloads/newrelic/

All plugin download files contain all plugins ready to use, just edit activation.conf to toggle them off and on

Linux example:

$ mkdir /path/to/newrelic-plugin
$ cd /path/to/newrelic-plugin
$ tar xfz newrelic_3legs_plugin*-[plugin_name].tar.gz

Configuring your agent environment

The New Relic plugin runs an agent process to collect and report metrics to New Relic. Configure your New Relic license and plugin information.

Configure your New Relic license

Specify your license key in the necessary properties file. Your license key can be found under Account Settings at https://rpm.newrelic.com see https://newrelic.com/docs/subscriptions/license-key for more help.

Linux example:

$ cp config/template_newrelic.properties config/newrelic.properties
# Edit config/newrelic.properties and paste in your license key

Configure your Plugin properties

Linux example:

$ cp config/template_application.conf config/application.conf
# Edit config/application.conf

Running the agent

To run the plugin in from the command line: $ java -jar newrelic_3legs_plugin*[plugin_name].jar

If your host needs a proxy server to access the Internet, you can specify a proxy server & port: $ java -Dhttps.proxyHost=proxyhost -Dhttps.proxyPort=8080 -jar newrelic_cassandra_plugin*.jar

To run the plugin in from the command line and detach the process so it will run in the background: $ nohup java -jar newrelic_3legs_plugin*[plugin_name].jar &

Note: we currently only support Cassandra version 1.2.X or above, we could add support for older versions if there is enough demand.

Another note: You may use a init.d script to start the New Relic plugin at system startup. Read more below.

Keep in mind that the plugin connects to your cassandra nodes using RMI, so check if you need to edit cassandra-env.sh and alter the rmi hostname configuration (may not be needed, it depends on your network)
Look for this section:
# jmx: metrics and administration interface # # add this if you're having trouble connecting: # JVM_OPTS="$JVM_OPTS -Djava.rmi.server.hostname=

Keep this process running

You can use services like these to manage this process.

• Upstart
• Systemd
• Runit
• Monit

Create a init.d file

The plugin comes with a init.d file to start and stop the plugin form the command line. The first thing you need to do to install the script is to copy it to /etc/init.d/ and make it executable.

cp /path/to/repo/resources/varnish-new-relic.init-file /etc/init.d/varnish-new-relic
chmod 744 /etc/init.d/varnish-new-relic

Look at the beginning of the /etc/init.d/varnish-new-relic file. There is three parameters that you may have to change. They are

• PLUGIN_PATH - This is the path to where you unzipped the plugin
• FILE_NAME - This is the name of the .jar
• USER - This is the user that will execute the .jar. Make sure he has permission to read and execute the PLUGIN_PATH and the FILE_NAME.

Now you need to tell the system that the file exists and that you want to use it.

insserv /etc/init.d/varnish-new-relic

You are all set. The plugin will automatically start with you system. You may also run these commands as root:

/etc/init.d/varnish-new-relic start
/etc/init.d/varnish-new-relic stop
/etc/init.d/varnish-new-relic status
/etc/init.d/varnish-new-relic restart

For support

Plugin support for troubleshooting assistance can be obtained by visiting the 3legs homepage or the plugin issues page