Note: This article was originally published in 2013. Some steps, commands, or software versions may have changed. Check the current New Relic documentation for the latest information.

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn install the newrelic server monitoring agent on ubuntu.

How to: Install the NewRelic Server Monitoring agent on Ubuntu

(http://www.NewRelic.com “New Relic Homepage”)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 - (http://wiki.debian.org/Apt “Advanced Packaging Tool”) 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
    1. Get the key for the distribution packages
  5.  * **wget** -O- https://download.newrelic.com/548C16BF.gpg | apt-key add -
  6. Update the list of available packages
    • apt-get update
  7. Install the latest NewRelic system monitoring daemon
    • apt-get install newrelic-sysmond
  8. Configure your server license so the information gets to your dashboards
    • nrsysmond -config —set license_key=YOUR.LICENSE.KEY.GOES.HERE
  9. Configure your options. I particular like turning on SSL * nano /etc/newrelic/nrsysmond.cfg * ssl =true
  10. Start the NewRelic Server Monitor Agent daemon * /etc/init.d/newrelic-sysmond start
  11. 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 setting. The default

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

name, use the syntax user@host. If it also requires a

password use the format user:password@host. 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. 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

 

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Summary

You’ve successfully learned install the newrelic server monitoring agent on ubuntu. If you run into any issues, double-check the prerequisites and ensure your New Relic environment is properly configured.