Introduction to New Relic for Node.js

Pinpoint and solve issues down to the line of code with Node.js monitoring from New Relic. With features like service maps and error analytics, our Node.js agent helps you get the full picture of your app environment.

Tip

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Why it matters

Many Node application requests are based on raw URLs. Our solution is different. New Relic for Node.js assumes it can group requests to your application into transactions instead of HTTP requests. Transactions are defined by giving one or more request paths a name. These names are used to:

Visualize where your app is spending its time (in transaction breakdowns).
Identify slow requests.
Group metrics.
Show you which portions of your application are suffering from slow database performance.

Installation

To install our agent, you need to sign up for New Relic first. Once you're logged in, follow the instructions or use our launcher to get data flowing in.

Review the system requirements.
Read the install docs.
Go directly to the New Relic UI to add Node.js data.

Extend your instrumentation

After installing the Node.js agent, extend your instrumentation:

Extend your instrumentation	Comments
Customization	Implement Node.js custom instrumentation. Collect custom metrics via an API call. Use our Node.js agent API to control, customize, or extend the agent's functionality.
Open source telemetry	To create your own integrations, use our Node Telemetry SDK. To gain visibility into your GraphQL payloads, use our Apollo Server plugin.
Traces	Enable distributed tracing.
VM measurements	Collect key metric timeslice data from the Node.js virtual machine. View detailed VM statistics in the New Relic UI.
End-user activity	Integrate the Node.js agent with browser monitoring. Gain visibility into user activity with browser monitoring's page load timing process.

Troubleshoot your installation

If you encounter issues with your Node.js agent, see our troubleshooting information:

Large memory usage: If you've installed the Node.js agent and your memory usage has increased, check out these possible solutions.
Troubleshooting your Node.js installation: Try these steps if you don't see any data, cannot log files, or encounter other installation problems with the Node.js agent.
Troubleshooting Browser instrumentation: If you encounter problems with Browser data, see these additional tips for Node.js.

You can also view all troubleshooting docs. If you need additional assistance, get support at support.newrelic.com.

Check the source code

Our Node.js agent is open source software. You can browse the source code and send improvements, or create your own fork and build it. For more information, see the node-newrelic README on GitHub.

For more help

If you need more help, check out these support and learning resources:

Browse the Explorers Hub to get help from the community and join in discussions.
Find answers on our sites and learn how to use our support portal.
Run New Relic Diagnostics, our troubleshooting tool for Linux, Windows, and macOS.
Review New Relic's data security and licenses documentation.