Record and view deployments

Deploying an app can be a risky event—when your app breaks, and a bad deployment is often the cause. New Relic allows you to track deployments so you can correlate deployments with changes in your app's performance. Tracking deployments creates deployment markers that appear in APM charts and dashboards.

See how deployment markers work in this short video (4:30 minutes):

Options for tracking deployments

You can use the New Relic REST API v2 to record new deployments and retrieve a list of past deployments. In addition, some APM agents have agent-specific methods to record deployments automatically.

You can use your Slack integration with New Relic, or a simple webhook, to notify your team in real time of deployments for applications monitored by APM. Slack provides a webhook URL that allows you to post generic JSON that will appear formatted in a chosen Slack channel.

There are a few places where you can view deployments in the New Relic UI after they have been recorded:

• In the activity feed on the APM Summary, Service summary, and entity summary pages.
• On APM performance charts as chart markers (vertical lines with pinheads).
• On dashboard charts as chart markers.
• On the Deployments page for summary performance.

Record deployments with the REST API

You can use the New Relic REST API v2 to record deployments and get a list of past deployments.

• The examples in this document use curl as a command line tool. However, you can use any method to make your REST requests. You can also create and view deployments with the API Explorer.
• JSON uses double quotes " for element names and content. Using single quotes ' will cause errors.
• The examples use X-Api-Key which can be used for either a user key or a REST API key. User keys are now the preferred way of accessing our REST APIs, and you may use Api-Key headers when using them.

$
curl -X POST "https://api.newrelic.com/v2/applications/$APP_ID/deployments.json" \
>
     -H "X-Api-Key:$API_KEY" \
>
     -i \
>
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
>
     -d \
>
'{
$
    "deployment": {
$
        "revision": "REVISION",
$
        "changelog": "Added: /v2/deployments.rb, Removed: None",
$
        "description": "Added a deployments resource to the v2 API",
$
        "user": "datanerd@example.com",
$
        "timestamp": "2019-10-08T00:15:36Z"
$
    }
$
}'

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://api.newrelic.com/v2/applications/YOUR_APP_ID/deployments.json -Method POST -Headers @{'X-Api-Key'='$API_KEY'} -ContentType 'application/json' -Body '{
    "deployment": {
        "revision": "REVISION",
        "changelog": "Added: /v2/deployments.rb, Removed: None",
        "description": "Added a deployments resource to the v2 API",
        "user": "datanerd@example.com",
        "timestamp": "2019-10-08T00:15:36Z"
    }
}'

$encoding = [System.Text.Encoding]::GetEncoding("ASCII")
$data ='{
    "deployment": {
        "revision": "REVISION",
        "changelog": "Added: /v2/deployments.rb, Removed: None",
        "description": "Added a deployments resource to the v2 API",
        "user": "datanerd@example.com",
        "timestamp": "2019-10-08T00:15:36Z"
    }
}'
$postData = $encoding.GetBytes($data)
$request = [System.Net.WebRequest]::Create('https://api.newrelic.com/v2/applications/$APP_ID/deployments.json')
$request.Method = 'POST'
$request.Headers.add('X-Api-Key','$API_KEY')
$request.ContentType='application/json'
$stream = $request.GetRequestStream()
$stream.Write($postData,0,$postData.Length)
$request.GetResponse()

$
curl -X GET "https://api.newrelic.com/v2/applications/$APP_ID/deployments.json" \
>
     -H "X-Api-Key:$API_KEY" \
>
     -i

$
curl -X GET "https://api.newrelic.com/v2/applications/9999999/deployments.json" \
>
     -H "X-Api-Key:ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwx" \
>
     -i

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
ETag: "ABCDEFGHIJKabcdefghijk0123456789"
Cache-Control: max-age=0, private, must-revalidate
Content-Type: application/json
{
  "deployments": [
    {
      "id": 1234567,
      "revision": "1234123412341234123412341234123412341234",
      "changelog": "Fixed the bugs for real this time",
      "description": "Example description two",
      "user": "Data Nerd",
      "timestamp": "2016-02-24T10:09:27-08:00",
      "links": {
        "application": 9999999
      }
    },
    {
      "id": 2345678,
      "revision": "7890789078907890789078907890789078907890",
      "changelog": "Think I fixed all the bugs",
      "description": null,
      "user": "Dren Atad",
      "timestamp": "2014-10-22T12:23:47-07:00",
      "links": {
        "application": 9999999
      }
    }
  ],
  "links": {
    "deployment.agent": "/v2/applications/{application_id}"
  }
}

Record deployments using the New Relic agent

Some agents have additional methods to record deployments:

• All agents: Use the New Relic REST API v2.
• C: No SDK-specific methods. Use the REST API.
• Go: No agent-specific methods. Use the REST API.
• Java: Call the Java agent jar.
• .NET: Use PowerShell and the REST API.
• Node.js: No agent-specific methods. Use the REST API.
• PHP: Use a PHP script.
• Python: Use the record-deploy subcommand of the newrelic-admin script.
• Ruby: Use a Capistrano recipe or the newrelic deployments command. More details here.

View deployment details

After you configure the deployment information, you can view and drill down into details in the UI. For tips, see our change tracking document How to view and analyze your changes in New Relic.

Notify your team about deployments

Whether you're tracking deployments with the REST API or the newer GraphQL API, you can notify your team members using a webhook. For details, see the change tracking webhook instructions.