How to: Install the NewRelic Server Monitoring agent on Ubuntu

How to: Install the NewRelic Server Monitoring agent on Ubuntu

NewRelic is a company that offer monitoring services for all your web applications. It has support for a wide variety of technologies, primarily does centered around web applications/sites. In order to install the NewRelic Server Monitoring agent on an Ubuntu box simply follow these instructions:

sudo bash echo deb http://apt.newrelic.com/debian/ newrelic non-free >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/newrelic.list wget -O- https://download.newrelic.com/548C16BF.gpg | apt-key add – apt-get update apt-get install newrelic-sysmond nrsysmond-config –set license_key=YOUR.LICENSE.KEY.GOES.HERE nano /etc/newrelic/nrsysmond.cfg /etc/init.d/newrelic-sysmond start

I´ll walk you through the steps here:

1. Start a super admin terminal session to avoid any issues with permissions (using sudo on everything is just tiresome)
   • sudo bash
2. Add the NewRelic distribution list to your system
3. • echo deb http://apt.newrelic.com/debian/ newrelic non-free >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/newrelic.list
5. Get the key for the distribution packages
6. • wget -O- https://download.newrelic.com/548C16BF.gpg | apt-key add –
7. Update the list of available packages
   • apt-get update
8. Install the latest NewRelic system monitoring daemon
   • apt-get install newrelic-sysmond
9. Configure your server license so the information gets to your dashboards
   • nrsysmond–config –set license_key=YOUR.LICENSE.KEY.GOES.HERE
10. Configure your options. I particular like turning on SSL
    • nano /etc/newrelic/nrsysmond.cfg
    • ssl=true
11. Start the NewRelic Server Monitor Agent daemon
    • /etc/init.d/newrelic-sysmond start
12. Enjoy!

Here is a sample of the /etc/newrelic/nrsysmond.cfg file with the descriptions so you can see if there is one you wish to modify:

#

# New Relic Server Monitor configuration file.

#

# Lines that begin with a # are comment lines and are ignored by the server

# monitor. For those options that have command line equivalents, if the

# option is specified on the command line it will over-ride any value set

# in this file.

#

#

# Option : license_key

# Value : 40-character hexadecimal string provided by New Relic. This is

# required in order for the server monitor to start.

# Default: none

#

license_key=HERE_GOES_YOUR_LICENSE_KEY

#

# Option : loglevel

# Value : Level of detail you want in the log file (as defined by the logfile

# setting below. Valid values are (in increasing levels of verbosity):

# error – show errors only

# warning – show errors and warnings

# info – show minimal additional information messages

# verbose – show more detailed information messages

# debug – show debug messages

# verbosedebug – show very detailed debug messages

# Default: error

# Note : Can also be set with the -d command line option.

#

loglevel=info

#

# Option : logfile

# Value : Name of the file where the server monitor will store it’s log

# messages. The amount of detail stored in this file is controlled

# by the loglevel option (above).

# Default: none. However it is highly recommended you set a value for this.

# Note : Can also be set with the -l command line option.

#

logfile=/var/log/newrelic/nrsysmond.log

#

# Option : proxy

# Value : The name and optional login credentials of the proxy server to use

# for all communication with the New Relic collector. In its simplest

# form this setting is just a hostname[:port] setting. The default

# port if none is specified is 1080. If your proxy requires a user

# name, use the syntax user@host[:port]. If it also requires a

# password use the format user:password@host[:port]. For example:

# fred:secret@proxy.mydomain.com:8181

# Default: none (use a direct connection)

#

#proxy=

#

# Option : ssl

# Value : Whether or not to use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for all

# communication with the New Relic collector. Possible values are

# true/on or false/off. In certain rare cases you may need to modify

# the SSL certificates settings below.

# Default: false

#

ssl=true

#

# Option : ssl_ca_bundle

# Value : The name of a PEM-encoded Certificate Authority (CA) bundle to use

# for SSL connections. This very rarely needs to be set. The monitor

# will attempt to find the bundle in the most common locations. If

# you need to use SSL and the monitor is unable to locate a CA bundle

# then either set this value or the ssl_ca_path option below.

# Default: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt or

# /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt

# Note : Can also be set with the -b command line option.

#

#ssl_ca_bundle=/path/to/your/bundle.crt

#

# Option : ssl_ca_path

# Value : If your SSL installation does not use CA bundles, but rather has a

# directory with PEM-encoded Certificate Authority files, set this

# option to the name of the directory that contains all the CA files.

# Default: /etc/ssl/certs

# Note : Can also be set with the -S command line option.

#

#ssl_ca_path=/etc/ssl/certs

#

# Option : pidfile

# Value : Name of a file where the server monitoring daemon will store it’s

# process ID (PID). This is used by the startup and shutdown script

# to determine if the monitor is already running, and to start it up

# or shut it down.

# Default: /tmp/nrsysmond.pid

# Note : Can also be set with the -p command line option.

#

#pidfile=/var/run/newrelic/nrsysmond.pid

#

# Option : collector_host

# Value : The name of the New Relic collector to connect to. This should only

# ever be changed on advise from a New Relic support staff member.

# The format is host[:port]. Using a port number of 0 means the default

# port, which is 80 (if not using the ssl option – see below) or 443

# if SSL is enabled. If the port is omitted the default value is used.

# Default: collector.newrelic.com

#

#collector_host=collector.newrelic.com

#

# Option : timeout

# Value : How long the monitor should wait to contact the collector host. If

# the connection cannot be established in this period of time, the

# monitor will progressively back off in 15-second increments, up to

# a maximum of 300 seconds. Once the initial connection has been

# established, this value is reset back to the value specified here

# (or the default). This then sets the maximum time to wait for

# a connection to the collector to report data. There is no back-off

# once the original connection has been made. The value is in seconds.

# Default: 30

#

#timeout=30