Documentation Plugins New Relic Alerting

New Relic alerting

The New Relic data source supports Grafana Alerting, allowing you to create alert rules based on New Relic data. You can monitor your applications, infrastructure, and custom metrics and receive notifications when specific conditions are met.

Before you begin

• Ensure you have the appropriate permissions to create alert rules in Grafana.
• Verify your New Relic data source is configured and working correctly.
• Familiarize yourself with Grafana Alerting concepts.

Supported query types for alerting

The following query types work with Grafana Alerting:

Create an alert rule

To create an alert rule using New Relic data:

1. Go to Alerting > Alert rules.
2. Click New alert rule.
3. Enter a name for your alert rule.
4. In the Define query and alert condition section:
   • Select your New Relic data source.
   • Configure your query (for example, a NRQL query for average response time).
   • Set the alert condition: the When input defines the reducer function, and the last input defines the threshold.
5. Configure the Set evaluation behavior:
   • Select or create a folder and evaluation group.
   • Set the evaluation interval (how often the alert is checked).
   • Set the pending period (how long the condition must be true before firing).
6. Add labels and annotations to provide context for notifications.
7. Click Save rule.

For detailed instructions, refer to Create a Grafana-managed alert rule.

Alert examples

The following examples show common alert patterns using different query types.

Error rate alert (NRQL Editor)

Alert when the application error rate exceeds 5%:

1. Create a new alert rule.

2. Select the NRQL Editor query type, set Format to Table, and enter:

   SQL Copy

   SELECT percentage(count(*), WHERE error IS true) FROM Transaction WHERE appName = 'my-app' $__timeFilter

3. Set the alert condition: set When to Last and the threshold to Is above 5.

4. Set evaluation to run every 1 minute with a 5-minute pending period.

5. Save the rule.

Response time alert (NRQL Editor)

Alert when average response time exceeds 2 seconds:

SQL Copy

SELECT average(duration) FROM Transaction WHERE appName = 'my-app' $__timeFilter

Set Format to Table. Set the alert condition threshold to Is above 2.

Throughput drop alert (NRQL Editor)

Alert when request throughput drops below a minimum threshold:

SQL Copy

SELECT rate(count(*), 1 minute) FROM Transaction WHERE appName = 'my-app' $__timeFilter

Set Format to Table. Set the alert condition threshold to Is below 100.

Apdex score alert (NRQL Editor)

Alert when the Apdex score falls below an acceptable level:

SQL Copy

SELECT apdex(duration, 0.5) FROM Transaction WHERE appName = 'my-app' $__timeFilter

Set Format to Table. Set the alert condition threshold to Is below 0.85.

Best practices

Follow these recommendations to create reliable alerts with New Relic data.

Include the time filter macro

Always include $__timeFilter in NRQL alert queries so the query evaluates data within the alert evaluation window:

SQL Copy

SELECT average(duration) FROM Transaction WHERE appName = 'my-app' $__timeFilter

Reduce multiple series

When your query returns multiple time series (for example, queries with FACET), configure the When reducer in the alert condition to aggregate them into a single value:

• Last — Use the most recent value.
• Mean — Average across all series.
• Max/Min — Use the highest or lowest value.
• Sum — Total across all series.

For complex multi-query setups, switch to Advanced mode and add separate Reduce and Threshold expressions.

Test queries before creating alerts

Always verify your query returns expected data before creating an alert:

1. Go to Explore.
2. Select your New Relic data source.
3. Run the query you plan to use for alerting.
4. Confirm the data format and values are correct.

Handle no data and error conditions

Configure what happens when no data is returned or when a query error occurs:

1. In the alert rule, find Configure no data and error handling.
2. For Alert state if no data or all values are null, choose an appropriate action:
   • No Data — Set the alert state to No Data.
   • Alerting — Treat no data as an active alert.
   • OK — Treat no data as a healthy state.

Troubleshoot alerting issues

For common alerting issues with the New Relic data source, refer to Alerting issues in the troubleshooting guide.

Additional resources

• Grafana Alerting documentation
• Create alert rules
• Configure notifications