agent-nr-config

OpenTelemetry Agent New Relic Config

Introduction

This project demonstrates a simple Java application running with the OpenTelemetry Java Agent configured to write data to New Relic. New Relic expects metric data in delta aggregation temporality, whereas the default for OpenTelemetry is cumulative. Delta temporality and several other configuration options are set via application/build.gradle.

The project consists of two modules:

1. application: Contains a simple Spring Boot application configured to run with OpenTelemetry.
2. config-extension: Contains SPI configuration code, which allows for optional additional configuration not available via environment variables. In this example, we use a sampler which is equivalent to the default parentbased_always_on, but which does not sample spring boot actuator endpoints with targets matching /actuator.*. samplerThe contents are packaged as a shadow jar, which the application module is configured to use as an extension jar.

Run

Set the following environment variables:

• OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS=api-key=your_license_key
  • Replace your_license_key with your Account License Key.
• OTEL_METRIC_EXPORT_INTERVAL=5000
  • Optionally export metrics every 5000 ms instead of the default 60s.
• OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_TEMPORALITY_PREFERENCE=DELTA
  • New Relic supports metrics in delta temporality, instead of the default cumulative.
• OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_DEFAULT_HISTOGRAM_AGGREGATION=BASE2_EXPONENTIAL_BUCKET_HISTOGRAM
  • Use exponential histogram instead of default explicit bucket histogram for better data compression.
• OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://otlp.nr-data.net
  • Export data to New Relic's OTLP endpoint.
• OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_COMPRESSION=gzip
  • Gzip compression has good performance and lowers data egress.
• OTEL_EXPERIMENTAL_EXPORTER_OTLP_RETRY_ENABLED=true
  • Enable experimental export retry to help cope with the unreliability of the internet.
• OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=agent-nr-config
  • Optionally replace agent-nr-config with the name you wish to call your application.
• OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=service.instance.id=1234
  • Give this application a unique instance id.
• OTEL_EXPERIMENTAL_RESOURCE_DISABLED_KEYS=process.command_line
  • Disable the process.command_line resource attribute which often exceeds New Relic's maximum attribute length limit.
• OTEL_ATTRIBUTE_VALUE_LENGTH_LIMIT=4095
  • New relic disallows attributes whose length exceeds 4095 characters.

Additional configuration using standard autoconfiguration environment variables defined in the autoconfigure module.

Run the application from a shell in the java root via:

export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS=api-key=your_license_key \
&& export OTEL_METRIC_EXPORT_INTERVAL=5000 \
&& export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_TEMPORALITY_PREFERENCE=DELTA \
&& export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_DEFAULT_HISTOGRAM_AGGREGATION=BASE2_EXPONENTIAL_BUCKET_HISTOGRAM \
&& export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://otlp.nr-data.net \
&& export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_COMPRESSION=gzip \
&& export OTEL_EXPERIMENTAL_EXPORTER_OTLP_RETRY_ENABLED=true \
&& export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=agent-nr-config \
&& export OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=service.instance.id=1234 \
&& export OTEL_EXPERIMENTAL_RESOURCE_DISABLED_KEYS=process.command_line,process.command_args \
&& export OTEL_ATTRIBUTE_VALUE_LENGTH_LIMIT=4095

./gradlew agent-nr-config:application:bootRun

The bootRun command will:

• Build the config-extension shadow jar.
• Build the application executable jar.
• Run the application executable jar with jvmArgs that attach the OpenTelemetry Java agent. See the bootRun task config in ./application/build.gradle to see the jvmArg configuration.

The application exposes a simple endpoint at http://localhost:8080/ping.

Invoke it via: curl http://localhost:8080/ping to generate trace and metric data.

Check your backend to confirm data is flowing.