New Relic recently released the first version of an API. They are even holding a contest for people to create cool apps/widgets/whatnot with their API. What follows is not a cool app - just a simple munin plugin for generating static images of application health.
By charting New Relic data in munin we have fast access to application health information right next to other system metrics. The historical charting that munin is useful to show trends in how your system is behaving on the day, week, month, year scale.
I added munin charts to my site's dashboard by embedding a munin chart. Then I wrapped it with a link to the New Relic page with more information.
Installation
- Grab the code at gist.github.com (click on raw) - save it as relic.rb
- Add your New Relic license key
- Put it on your server in /usr/share/munin/plugins
- Make the script executable: chmod +x relic.rb
- Sym-link for each metric you want to chart: ln -s /usr/share/munin/plugins/relic.rb /etc/munin/plugins/relic_db (and/or relic_cpu relic_throughput relic_errors relic_response relic_memory)
- Test running them manually: /etc/munin/plugins/relic_db
- Restart munin node: /etc/init.d/munin-node restart
- Wait 5 minutes for munin to run - hoping you didn't make any typos
Issues/Ideas
I only have 1 application associated with my license key. Modifications are needed to properly support multiple applications.
Perhaps certain metrics should be grouped (CPU & DB, Errors & Throughput).
I've also been working on a New Relic status bar for firefox. It needs work, so if you try it out let me know what you changes you would like!
