Update the Java agent

To take full advantage of New Relic's latest features, enhancements, and important security patches, we recommend you update your Java agent to the latest version. For additional information about specific agent updates, refer to the Java agent release notes.

These update procedures describe how to replace some of the current contents of your agent root directory, which contains the New Relic Java agent (newrelic.jar), with newly downloaded contents from the New Relic UI.

Update to latest version

To identify which version of the Java agent you're currently using, run java -jar newrelic.jar -v. Your Java agent version will be printed to your console.

Then, to update to the latest Java agent version:

1. Back up the entire Java agent root directory to another location. Rename that directory to NewRelic_Agent#.#.#, where #.#.# is the agent version number.
2. Download the agent.
3. Unzip the new agent download file, then copy newrelic-api.jar and newrelic.jar into the original Java agent root directory.
4. Compare your old newrelic.yml with the newly downloaded newrelic.yml from the zip, and update the file if needed.
5. Restart your Java dispatcher.

If you experience issues after the Java agent update, restore from the backed-up New Relic agent directory.

Update agent config differences

We add new settings to newrelic.yml as we release new versions of the agent. You can use diff or another diffing utility to see what's changed, and add the new config settings to your old file. Make sure not to overwrite any customizations you've made to the file, such as your license key, app name, or changes to default settings.

For example, if you diff the default newrelic.yml files for Java agent versions 7.7.0 and 7.8.0, the results printed to the console will be:

➜ diff newrelic_7.7.0.yml newrelic_7.8.0.yml
98c98
<     #forwarding:
---
>     forwarding:
100,101c100,101
<       # When true, application logs will be forwarded to New Relic. The default is false.
<       #enabled: false
---
>       # When true, application logs will be forwarded to New Relic. The default is true.
>       enabled: true

In this example, these lines were added to the default newrelic.yml in Java agent version 7.8.0. If you are moving to 7.8.0 or higher, you should add these new lines to your original newrelic.yml.