DNS and New Relic Integration

Input and output integration overview

The DNS plugin enables users to monitor and gather statistics on DNS query times, facilitating performance analysis of DNS resolutions.

This plugin allows the sending of metrics to New Relic Insights using the Metrics API, enabling effective monitoring and analysis of application performance.

Integration details

DNS

This plugin gathers DNS query times in milliseconds, utilizing the capabilities of DNS queries similar to the Dig command. It provides a means to monitor and analyze DNS performance by measuring the response time from specified DNS servers, allowing network administrators and engineers to ensure optimal DNS resolution times. The plugin can be configured to target specific servers and customize the types of records queried, encompassing various DNS features such as resolving domain names to IP addresses, or retrieving details from specific records as needed, while also clearly reporting on the success or failure of each query, alongside relevant metadata.

New Relic

This plugin writes metrics to New Relic Insights utilizing the Metrics API, which provides a robust mechanism for sending time series data to the New Relic platform. Users must first obtain an Insights API Key to authenticate and authorize their data submissions. The plugin is designed to facilitate easy integration with New Relic’s monitoring and analytics capabilities, supporting a variety of metric types and allowing for efficient data handling. Core features include the ability to add prefixes to metrics for better identification, customizable timeouts for API requests, and support for proxy settings to enhance connectivity. It is essential for users to configure these options according to their requirements, enabling seamless data flow into New Relic for comprehensive real-time analytics and insights.

Configuration

DNS

[[inputs.dns_query]]
  servers = ["8.8.8.8"]

  # network = "udp"

  # domains = ["."]

  # record_type = "A"

  # port = 53

  # timeout = "2s"

  # include_fields = []
  

New Relic

[[outputs.newrelic]]
  ## The 'insights_key' parameter requires a NR license key.
  ## New Relic recommends you create one
  ## with a convenient name such as TELEGRAF_INSERT_KEY.
  ## reference: https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/apis/intro-apis/new-relic-api-keys/#ingest-license-key
  # insights_key = "New Relic License Key Here"

  ## Prefix to add to add to metric name for easy identification.
  ## This is very useful if your metric names are ambiguous.
  # metric_prefix = ""

  ## Timeout for writes to the New Relic API.
  # timeout = "15s"

  ## HTTP Proxy override. If unset use values from the standard
  ## proxy environment variables to determine proxy, if any.
  # http_proxy = "http://corporate.proxy:3128"

  ## Metric URL override to enable geographic location endpoints.
  # If not set use values from the standard
  # metric_url = "https://metric-api.newrelic.com/metric/v1"

Input and output integration examples

DNS

1. Monitor DNS Performance for Multiple Servers: By deploying the DNS plugin, a user can simultaneously monitor the performance of different DNS servers, such as Google DNS and Cloudflare DNS, by specifying them in the servers array. This scenario enables comparisons of response times and reliability across different DNS providers, assisting in selecting the best option based on empirical data.

2. Analyze Query Times for High-Traffic Domains: Integrate the plugin to measure response times specifically for high-traffic domains relevant to an organization’s operations, such as internal services or customer-facing sites. By focusing on performance metrics for these domains, organizations can proactively address latency issues, ensuring service reliability and improving user experiences.

3. Alerting on DNS Timeouts: Utilize the plugin in combination with alerting systems to notify administrators whenever a DNS query exceeds a defined timeout threshold. This setup can help in proactive troubleshooting of networking issues or server misconfigurations, fostering a rapid response to potential downtime scenarios.

4. Gather Historical Data for Performance Trends: Use the plugin to collect historical data on DNS query times over extended periods. This data can be used to analyze trends and patterns in DNS performance, enabling better capacity planning, identifying periodic issues, and justifying infrastructure upgrades or changes to DNS architectures.

New Relic

1. Application Performance Monitoring: Use the New Relic Telegraf plugin to send application performance metrics from a web service to New Relic Insights. By integrating this plugin, developers can collect data such as response times, error rates, and throughput, enabling teams to monitor application health in real-time and resolve issues quickly before they impact users. This setup promotes proactive management of application performance and user experience.

2. Infrastructure Metrics Aggregation: Leverage this plugin to aggregate and send system-level metrics (CPU usage, memory consumption, etc.) from various servers to New Relic. This helps system administrators maintain an comprehensive view of infrastructure performance, facilitating capacity planning and identifying potential bottlenecks. By centralizing metrics in New Relic, teams can visualize trends over time and make informed decisions regarding resource allocation.

3. Dynamic Metric Naming for Multi-tenant Applications: Implement dynamic prefixing with the metric_prefix option to differentiate between different tenants in a multi-tenant application. By configuring the plugin to include a unique identifier per tenant in the metric names, teams can analyze usage patterns and performance metrics per tenant. This provides valuable insights into tenant behavior, supporting tailored optimizations and enhancing service quality across different customer segments.

4. Real-time Anomaly Detection: Combine the New Relic plugin with alerting mechanisms to trigger notifications based on unusual metric patterns. By sending metrics such as request counts and response times, teams can set thresholds in New Relic that, when breached, will automatically alert responsible parties. This user-driven approach supports immediate responses to potential issues before they escalate into larger incidents.

Feedback

Thank you for being part of our community! If you have any general feedback or found any bugs on these pages, we welcome and encourage your input. Please submit your feedback in the InfluxDB community Slack.