The infrastructure agent for Linux supports container environments by default. If you're running a container OS or have restrictions that require deploying the agent as a container, you can run a containerized version of our infrastructure agent. This can monitor metrics for the container itself, as well as the underlying host.
Using the custom (recommended) or basic setup allows the infrastructure agent to run inside a container environment. A host can only run one instance of the agent at a time, whether that's the containerized agent or the non-containerized version.
What you need
The containerized version of the infrastructure agent requires Docker 1.12 or higher.
From version 1.42, the infrastructure agent supports containerd
, so it can be used in Kubernetes v1.24+, which removed support for Dockershim, or any other containerd
-based solution. If both the containerd
and the dockerd
runtime sockets are available, the infrastructure agent will operate with the containerd
runtime socket. The container must run on a Linux distribution and version supported by the infrastructure agent. The container image is available and supported on AMD64 and ARM64 architectures.
The log forwarder is not included with the containerized agent. We recommend installing the agent on the underlying host which provides all capabilities.
Custom setup (recommended)
The following are basic instructions for creating a custom Docker image on Linux. This allows you to deploy the infrastructure agent as a container that can monitor its underlying host.
Recommendation: Extend the newrelic/infrastructure
image and use your own newrelic-infra.yml
agent config file. Once your image is built, you can easily spin up a container without having to provide more launch time configurations. Do not provide secrets using environment variables with Docker.
Docker CLI
Create the
newrelic-infra.yml
agent config file with your New Relic . For config option explanations, see configuration settings.license_key: YOUR_LICENSE_KEYCreate the
Dockerfile
extending thenewrelic/infrastructure
image, and add your config to/etc/newrelic-infra.yml
:FROM newrelic/infrastructure:latestADD newrelic-infra.yml /etc/newrelic-infra.ymlBuild and tag your image:
bash$docker build -t YOUR_IMAGE_NAME .Run the container from the image you built with the required required run flags:
bash$docker run \>-d \>--name newrelic-infra \>--network=host \>--cap-add=SYS_PTRACE \>--privileged \>--pid=host \>--cgroupns=host # required on cgroup v2 \>-v "/:/host:ro" \>-v "/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock" \>YOUR_IMAGE_NAMEFor potential next steps, like how to see data in the UI, see What's next?
Docker Compose
Create a folder to store the configuration files:
bash$mkdir ~/newrelic-infra-setupChange directory to the one you've just created:
bash$cd ~/newrelic-infra-setupCreate the
newrelic-infra.yml
agent config file with your New Relic . For config option explanations, see configuration settings.bash$echo "license_key: YOUR_LICENSE_KEY" > newrelic-infra.ymlCreate the
newrelic-infra.dockerfile
extending thenewrelic/infrastructure
image, and add your config to/etc/newrelic-infra.yml
:bash$touch newrelic-infra.dockerfilebash$vim newrelic-infra.dockerfile # you can use any text editorPut the following content in the file:
FROM newrelic/infrastructure:latestADD newrelic-infra.yml /etc/newrelic-infra.ymlCreate
docker-compose.yaml
:bash$touch docker-compose.yamlbash$vim docker-compose.yaml # you can use any text editorPut following content in the file:
version: '3'services:agent:container_name: newrelic-infrabuild:context: .dockerfile: newrelic-infra.dockerfilecap_add:- SYS_PTRACEnetwork_mode: hostpid: hostprivileged: truevolumes:- "/:/host:ro"- "/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock"restart: unless-stoppedBuild and start
docker-compose
:bash$docker-compose -f docker-compose.yaml up -dFor potential next steps, like how to see data in the UI, see What's next?
Basic setup
To use the basic setup with a base New Relic infrastructure image:
Docker CLI
Run the container with the required run flags:
bash$docker run \>-d \>--name newrelic-infra \>--network=host \>--cap-add=SYS_PTRACE \>--privileged \>--pid=host \>--cgroupns=host # required on cgroup v2 \>-v "/:/host:ro" \>-v "/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock" \>-e NRIA_LICENSE_KEY=YOUR_LICENSE_KEY \>newrelic/infrastructure:latestFor potential next steps, like how to see data in the UI, see What's next?
Docker Compose
Create
docker-compose.yaml
:bash$touch docker-compose.yamlbash$vim docker-compose.yaml # you can use any text editorPut following content in the file:
version: '3'services:agent:container_name: newrelic-infraimage: newrelic/infrastructure:latestcap_add:- SYS_PTRACEnetwork_mode: hostpid: hostprivileged: truevolumes:- "/:/host:ro"- "/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock"environment:NRIA_LICENSE_KEY: "YOUR_LICENSE_KEY"restart: unless-stoppedBuild and start
docker-compose
:bash$docker-compose -f docker-compose.yaml up -dFor potential next steps, like how to see data in the UI, see What's next?
Required container privileges
Due to resource isolation from the host and other containers via Linux namespaces, a container has a very restricted view and control of its underlying host's resources by default. Without these extra privileges, the infrastructure agent cannot monitor the host and its containers.
The infrastructure agent collects data about its host using system files and system calls. For more information about how the infrastructure agent collects data, see our documentation about infrastructure monitoring and security. Required privileges include:
Privilege | Description |
---|---|
| Sets the container's network namespace to the host's network namespace. This allows the agent to collect the network metrics about the host. |
| Bind mounts the host's root volume to the container. This read-only access to the host's root allows the agent to collect process and storage metrics as well as Inventory data from the host. |
| Adds the Linux capability to trace system processes. This allows the agent to gather data about processes running on the host. Read more here. |
| |
| |
| |
| Bind mounts the host's Docker daemon socket to the container. This allows the agent to connect to the Engine API via the Docker daemon socket to collect the host's container data. If you interact with the |
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Next steps after install
For next steps after install is completed, see What's next?
Inventory collected
Inventory is collected from the infrastructure agent's built-in data collectors. The infrastructure agent collects this data for Linux systems running with containers.
Category | Source | Data collected using |
---|---|---|
|
| Agent's complete config file |
|
|
Container data
Once the infrastructure agent is running in a Docker container, it can collect the same host compute data and event data that the infrastructure agent is capable of collecting when running natively on a host. For more information, see our documentation about how to view your Docker container data.
Containerized agent image
The containerized agent image is built from an Alpine base image.
Check the source code
This integration is open source software. You can browse its source code and send improvements, or create your own fork and build it.