New Relic Logs & Metrics

Cribl Stream supports sending events to the New Relic Log API and the New Relic Metric API.

Type: Streaming | TLS Support: Yes | PQ Support: Yes

In Cribl Stream v.3.1.2 and later, this Destination now authenticates using New Relic’s Ingest License API key. (New Relic will retire the Insights Insert API keys, which this Destination previously used for authentication.)

Also in v.3.1.2 and later, Cribl Stream provides a separate New Relic Events Destination that you can use to send ad hoc (loosely structured) events to New Relic via the New Relic Event API.

Within New Relic’s platform, you can monitor Cribl Stream’s performance and data flow by installing New Relic’s Cribl dashboard.

Configuring Cribl Stream to Output to New Relic

From the top nav, click Manage, then select a Worker Group to configure. Next, you have two options:

To configure via the graphical QuickConnect UI, click Routing > QuickConnect (Stream) or Collect (Edge). Next, click Add Destination at right. From the resulting drawer’s tiles, select New Relic Ingest > Logs & Metrics. Next, click either Add Destination or (if displayed) Select Existing. The resulting drawer will provide the options below.

Or, to configure via the Routing UI, click Data > Destinations (Stream) or More > Destinations (Edge). From the resulting page’s tiles or the Destinations left nav, select New Relic Ingest > Logs & Metrics. Next, click Add Destination to open a New Destination modal that provides the options below.

General Settings

Output ID: Enter a unique name to identify this New Relic definition.

Region: Select which New Relic region endpoint to use.

Authentication Settings

If an incoming event contains an internal field named __newRelic_apiKey, the New Relic Logs & Metrics Destination uses that field’s value as the API key when sending the event to New Relic.

For events that do not contain an __newRelic_apiKey field, the Destination uses whatever API key you have configured in the Authentication method settings.

Authentication method: Select one of the following buttons.

  • Manual: This default option exposes an API key field. Directly enter your New Relic Ingest License API key, as you created or accessed it from New Relic’s account drop-down. (For details, see the New Relic API Keys documentation.)

  • Secret: This option exposes an API key (text secret) drop-down, in which you can select a stored secret that references a New Relic Ingest License API key. A Create link is available to store a new, reusable secret.

Optional Settings

Log type: Name of the logType to send with events. E.g., observability or access_log.

This sets a default. Where a sourcetype is specified in an event, it will override this value.

Log message field: Name of the field to send as the log message value. If not specified, the event will be serialized and sent as JSON.

Fields: Additional fields to (optionally) add, as Name-Value pairs. Click Add Field to add more.

  • Name: Enter the field name.

  • Value:JavaScript expression to compute field’s value, enclosed in single quotes, double quotes, or backticks. (Can evaluate to a constant.)

Backpressure behavior: Select whether to block, drop, or queue events when all receivers are exerting backpressure. (Causes might include a broken or denied connection, or a rate limiter.) Defaults to Block. For the Persistent Queue option, see the section just below.

Tags: Optionally, add tags that you can use to filter and group Destinations in Cribl Stream’s Manage Destinations page. These tags aren’t added to processed events. Use a tab or hard return between (arbitrary) tag names.

Persistent Queue Settings

This section is displayed when the Backpressure behavior is set to Persistent Queue.

Max file size: The maximum data volume to store in each queue file before closing it. Enter a numeral with units of KB, MB, etc. Defaults to 1 MB.

Max queue size: The maximum amount of disk space that the queue is allowed to consume on each Worker Process. Once this limit is reached, this Destination will stop queueing data and apply the Queue‑full behavior. Required, and defaults to 5 GB. Accepts positive numbers with units of KB, MB, GB, etc. Can be set as high as 1 TB, unless you’ve configured a different Max PQ size per Worker Process in Group Settings.

Queue file path: The location for the persistent queue files. Defaults to $CRIBL_HOME/state/queues. To this value, Cribl Stream will append /<worker‑id>/<output‑id>.

Compression: Codec to use to compress the persisted data, once a file is closed. Defaults to None; Gzip is also available.

Queue-full behavior: Whether to block or drop events when the queue is exerting backpressure (because disk is low or at full capacity). Block is the same behavior as non-PQ blocking, corresponding to the Block option on the Backpressure behavior drop-down. Drop new data throws away incoming data, while leaving the contents of the PQ unchanged.

Clear Persistent Queue: Click this “panic” button if you want to delete the files that are currently queued for delivery to this Destination. A confirmation modal will appear - because this will free up disk space by permanently deleting the queued data, without delivering it to downstream receivers. (Appears only after Output ID has been defined.)

Strict ordering: The default Yes position enables FIFO (first in, first out) event forwarding. When receivers recover, Cribl Stream will send earlier queued events before forwarding newly arrived events. To instead prioritize new events before draining the queue, toggle this off. Doing so will expose this additional control:

  • Drain rate limit (EPS): Optionally, set a throttling rate (in events per second) on writing from the queue to receivers. (The default 0 value disables throttling.) Throttling the queue’s drain rate can boost the throughput of new/active connections, by reserving more resources for them. You can further optimize Workers’ startup connections and CPU load at Group Settings > Worker Processes.

Processing Settings

Post‑Processing

Pipeline: Pipeline to process data before sending the data out using this output.

System fields: A list of fields to automatically add to events that use this output. By default, includes cribl_pipe (identifying the Cribl Stream Pipeline that processed the event). Supports wildcards. Other options include:

  • cribl_host – Cribl Stream Node that processed the event.
  • cribl_input – Cribl Stream Source that processed the event.
  • cribl_output – Cribl Stream Destination that processed the event.
  • cribl_route – Cribl Stream Route (or QuickConnect) that processed the event.
  • cribl_wp – Cribl Stream Worker Process that processed the event.

Retries

Honor Retry-After header: Whether to honor a Retry-After header, provided that the header specifies a delay no longer than 180 seconds. Cribl Stream limits the delay to 180 seconds even if the Retry-After header specifies a longer delay. When enabled, any Retry-After header received takes precedence over all other options configured in the Retries section. When disabled, all Retry-After headers are ignored.

Settings for failed HTTP requests: When you want to automatically retry requests that receive particular HTTP response status codes, use these settings to list those response codes.

For any HTTP response status codes that are not explicitly configured for retries, Cribl Stream applies the following rules:

Status CodeAction
Greater than or equal to 400 and less than or equal to 500.Drop the request.
Greater than 500.Retry the request.

Upon receiving a response code that’s on the list, Cribl Stream first waits for a set time interval called the Pre-backoff interval and then begins retrying the request. Time between retries increases based on an exponential backoff algorithm whose base is the Backoff multiplier, until the backoff multiplier reaches the Backoff limit (ms). At that point, Cribl Stream continues retrying the request without increasing the time between retries any further.

By default, this Destination has no response codes configured for automatic retries. For each response code you want to add to the list, click Add Setting and configure the following settings:

  • HTTP status code: A response code that indicates a failed request, for example 429 (Too Many Requests) or 503 (Service Unavailable).
  • Pre-backoff interval (ms): The amount of time to wait before beginning retries, in milliseconds. Defaults to 1000 (one second).
  • Backoff multiplier: The base for the exponential backoff algorithm. A value of 2 (the default) means that Cribl Stream will retry after 2 seconds, then 4 seconds, then 8 seconds, and so on.
  • Backoff limit (ms): The maximum backoff interval Cribl Stream should apply for its final retry, in milliseconds. Default (and minimum) is 10,000 (10 seconds); maximum is 180,000 (180 seconds, or 3 minutes).

Retry timed-out HTTP requests: When you want to automatically retry requests that have timed out, toggle this control on to display the following settings for configuring retry behavior:

  • Pre-backoff interval (ms): The amount of time to wait before beginning retries, in milliseconds. Defaults to 1000 (one second).
  • Backoff multiplier: The base for the exponential backoff algorithm. A value of 2 (the default) means that Cribl Stream will retry after 2 seconds, then 4 seconds, then 8 seconds, and so on.
  • Backoff limit (ms): The maximum backoff interval Cribl Stream should apply for its final retry, in milliseconds. Default (and minimum) is 10,000 (10 seconds); maximum is 180,000 (180 seconds, or 3 minutes).

Advanced Settings

Validate server certs: Toggle to Yes to reject certificates that are not authorized by a CA in the CA certificate path, nor by another trusted CA (e.g., the system’s CA).

Round-robin DNS: Toggle to Yes to use round-robin DNS lookup across multiple IPv6 addresses. When a DNS server returns multiple addresses, this will cause Cribl Stream to cycle through them in the order returned.

Compress: Compresses the payload body before sending. Defaults to Yes (recommended).

Request timeout: Amount of time (in seconds) to wait for a request to complete before aborting it. Defaults to 30.

Request concurrency: Maximum number of concurrent requests per Worker Process. When Cribl Stream hits this limit, it begins throttling traffic to the downstream service. Defaults to 5. Minimum: 1. Maximum: 32.

Max body size (KB): Maximum size of the request body before compression. Defaults to 1024 KB. The actual request body size might exceed the specified value because the Destination adds bytes when it writes to the downstream receiver. Cribl recommends that you experiment with the Max body size value until downstream receivers reliably accept all events.

Max events per request: Maximum number of events to include in the request body. The 0 default allows unlimited events.

Flush period (sec): Maximum time between requests. Low values can cause the payload size to be smaller than the configured Max body size. Defaults to 1 second.

Extra HTTP headers: Click Add Header to insert extra headers as Name/Value pairs. Values will be sent encrypted.

Failed request logging mode: Use this drop-down to determine which data should be logged when a request fails. Select among None (the default), Payload, or Payload + Headers. With this last option, Cribl Stream will redact all headers, except non-sensitive headers that you declare below in Safe headers.

Safe headers: Add headers to declare them as safe to log in plaintext. (Sensitive headers such as authorization will always be redacted, even if listed here.) Use a tab or hard return to separate header names.

Environment: If you’re using GitOps, optionally use this field to specify a single Git branch on which to enable this configuration. If empty, the config will be enabled everywhere.

Verifying the New Relic Destination

Once you’ve configured log and/or metrics sources, create one or more Routes to send data to New Relic.

In New Relic, you can create visualizations incorporating the Cribl Stream-supplied data, then add them to new or existing dashboards as widgets.

Logs and metrics land in two different places in New Relic.

Log Queries

To access and query log data:

  • Navigate to the New Relic home screen’s Logs header option, and click the (+) button at right.

  • Then to build your queries, use the Find logs where input field, and add desired columns to the table view below the graph,.

Metrics Queries

To access and query metrics data:

  • From the New Relic home screen, *Click Browse Data > Metrics > Can Search for metricNames.

  • Then, customize time range and dimensions to build the desired logic for your queries.

  • Alternatively, you can use NRQL to build your own query searches.

Proxying Requests

If you need to proxy HTTP/S requests, see System Proxy Configuration.