Insights custom data requirements and limits

When inserting custom events or attributes into Insights, follow these general requirements in order to successfully insert and use your custom data. Additional requirements may apply based on the method used to insert into Insights.

General requirements

Access to your custom data depends on your Insights subscription's data retention.

When inserting custom events and attributes to Insights follow these general requirements for supported data types, naming syntax, and size:

Requirement Description
Attribute data types

Attribute values can be either a string or a numeric (an integer or float). Insights does not support "coercion." A number stored as a string is treated as a string and cannot be operated on by functions expecting float values.

If your attribute values contain date information, define it as an unformatted Unix timestamp (in seconds or milliseconds) via the Insights' Data formatter.

Native boolean values are not supported. If you want true/false values, enclose them in quotes. You can also use 0 and 1.
Naming syntax

Event and attribute names can be a combination of alphanumeric characters, underscores _, and colons :.

Do not use words reserved for use by NRQL and Insights.
Maximum size or length
  • Max event size: 1 MB
  • Max events per call: 1,000

  • Max attribute value size: 4 KB

    Insights charts only show the first 255 characters of attribute values. Use the JSON chart type or Query API to read full attribute key/values.

  • Max total attributes per event: 254. If using the APM agent API, the max is 64.
Null values The database does not store any data with a null value.

Reserved words

Avoid using the following reserved words as names for events and attributes. Otherwise, unexpected results may occur.

This is not a complete list. In general, avoid using any MySQL reserved words as New Relic continues to add new features.

Keyword Description
accountId

Insights overrides this by inserting the New Relic account ID.
appId

The ID of the application monitored by New Relic.
timestamp

The UTC timestamp to associate with the event. It must be +/-1 day (24 hours) of the current time on the server.
type or eventType

The event type as stored by New Relic Insights. New Relic agents and scripts normally report this as eventType.
NRQL syntax terms

If you need to use NRQL syntax terms as attribute names, they must be enclosed in backticks; for example, `LIMIT`. Otherwise, avoid using these reserved words for NRQL:

ago, and, as, auto,

begin, begintime,

compare,

day, days,

end, endtime, explain,

facet, from,

hour, hours,

in, is,

like, limit,

minute, minutes, month, months,

not, null,

offset, or,

second, seconds, select, since,

timeseries,

until,

week, weeks, where, with

Additional Browser PageAction requirements

For additional requirements for using New Relic Browser's custom PageAction event, see Insert custom data via New Relic Browser agent.

Additional Insights API requirements

If you are inserting a custom event via the Insights Insert API, the following requirements also apply in addition to the general event/attribute requirements:

  • API call timeout: API calls exceeding 10 seconds will timeout
  • API payload: Payloads exceeding 100 KB may see increased response times
  • See Insert data via Insights API for JSON formatting and call parameter requirements

Event type limits

The current limit for total number of event types is 250 per sub-account, in a given 24-hour time period. If a user exceeds this limit, New Relic may filter or drop data. Event types include:

  • Default events from New Relic agents
  • Custom events from New Relic agents
  • Custom events from Insights custom event inserter

If you have a use case that requires to need to store more than 250 unique event types in a given 24-hour period, file a New Relic Support ticket at support.newrelic.com.

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