---
title: Instrument your container with the infrastructure agent
source: https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/infrastructure/infrastructure-agent/linux-installation/instrument-container
---

Our [infrastructure agent](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/welcome-new-relic-infrastructure) automatically monitors your containers. With container monitoring you can:

-   Group containers by [tags](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/new-relic-one/use-new-relic-one/core-concepts/tagging-use-tags-organize-group-what-you-monitor), [attributes](#container-data), and other metadata.
-   Search for containers relevant to your monitoring scenario.
-   Link to related entities that may be affected by issues with the container.
-   Set [container-related alert conditions](#alerts).

## Requirements

Requirement details for automatic container monitoring for New Relic's infrastructure agent:

-   A New Relic account. Don't have one? [Sign up for free!](https://newrelic.com/signup). No credit card required.
-   Infrastructure agent [1.8.32](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/release-notes/infrastructure-release-notes/infrastructure-agent-release-notes/new-relic-infrastructure-agent-1832) or higher running on Linux
-   If using CentOS, you must have CentOS version 6.0 or higher
-   Docker with engine from [v1.12](https://docs.docker.com/engine/release-notes/prior-releases/#1120-2016-07-28) or other [`containerd`-based container runtimes](https://kubernetes.io/docs/setup/production-environment/container-runtimes).

> #### ⚠️ IMPORTANT
>
> Support for Operating systems using Control Group v2 is included from infrastructure agent v.1.26.0 and nri-docker v1.7.0.

## Enable container monitoring [#enable]

If you meet the [requirements](#requirements) and have installed the correct infrastructure agent, there are no additional steps to enable container monitoring. If a container runtime is running, data will automatically be reported.

You can also use a container image containing the infrastructure agent. For more information, see [Container for infrastructure monitoring](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/infrastructure/install-infrastructure-agent/linux-installation/container-infrastructure-monitoring).

## View your container data [#find-data]

To view your container data in the New Relic UI, use either of these options:

-   Go to **[one.newrelic.com > All capabilities](https://one.newrelic.com/all-capabilities) > Infrastructure > Hosts > Containers**.

    OR
-   Go to **[one.newrelic.com > All capabilities](https://one.newrelic.com/all-capabilities) > Infrastructure > Third-party services**, and select Docker-related links.

For more information, see [Query your data](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/using-new-relic/data/understand-data/query-new-relic-data).

## container attributes [#container-data]

Container attributes (metrics and metadata) are attached to the [`ContainerSample`](/attribute-dictionary/?event=ContainerSample) event. Here's an example of a query to find out how many containers are associated with each container image:

```sql
SELECT uniqueCount(containerId) FROM ContainerSample FACET imageName SINCE 1 HOUR AGO TIMESERIES
```

To see all `ContainerSample` attributes, use our [data dictionary](/attribute-dictionary/?event=ContainerSample). Attributes include:

-   General metadata (like `containerId`, `name`, and `image`)
-   CPU metrics (like `cpuUsedCores`, `cpuPercent`, and `cpuThrottleTimeMs`)
-   Memory metrics (like `memoryUsageBytes`, `memoryCacheBytes`, and `memoryResidentSizeBytes`)
-   Network metrics (like `networkRxBytes`, `networkRxDropped`, and `networkTxBytes`)

Container metrics are also attached to the [`ProcessSample`](/attribute-dictionary/?event=ProcessSample) event.

The reported data does **not** include information related to the container orchestrator (for example, ECS or Kubernetes). To monitor those, you can add the orchestrator's cluster and task names as [labels](https://docs.docker.com/ee/ucp/admin/configure/add-labels-to-cluster-nodes/).

## Set alert conditions [#alerts]

To create container-related alert conditions, use either of these options:

1.  Go to **[one.newrelic.com > All capabilities](https://one.newrelic.com/all-capabilities) > Alerts **.

    OR

    Go to **[one.newrelic.com > All capabilities](https://one.newrelic.com/all-capabilities) > Infrastructure > Settings > Alerts**.
2.  Create a new [alert condition](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/alerts/new-relic-alerts/defining-conditions/create-alert-conditions).
3.  For the condition type, select **Container metrics**.

## Enable container metrics collection from Docker API

The nri-docker integration, by default, employs the Docker API in conjunction with the /proc filesystem to extract container metrics. As of version v1.51.0 of the infrastructure agent, you can reconfigure the integration to solely source metrics from the Docker API.

This Docker API-only collection strategy applies only when the Docker Engine Cgroup operates under version V2. To enforce the Docker API-only collection, adapt the docker-config.yml configuration file located in the integrations.d directory to resemble the following:

```yaml
integrations:
  - name: nri-docker
    env:
      USE_DOCKER_API: true
    when:
      feature: docker_enabled
      file_exists: /var/run/docker.sock
    interval: 15s
```

> #### 💡 TIP
>
> Metrics variations between metrics sources are detailed in the [`ContainerSample`](/attribute-dictionary/?event=ContainerSample) attributes.

## Disabling container monitoring

To disable this capability simply delete the `docker-config.yml` configuration file from the `integrations.d` folder.

## Test coverage

Support for end-to-end (E2E) test validation on operating systems utilizing Control Group v1 has been discontinued in Infrastructure Agent version 1.63.2 and nri-docker version 2.3.2. This change results from GitHub's discontinuation of support for lower image runners required for these validations.