Ruby agent logs in context

With our Ruby APM agent, you can get logs in context, which lets you see your app logs in the context of your other New Relic data. For general information on this feature, see APM logs in context.

Automatic logs in context options

You have three options to configure APM logs in context to send your app's logs and linking metadata automatically to New Relic.

application_logging:
  forwarding:
    enabled: true

NEW_RELIC_APPLICATION_LOGGING_FORWARDING_ENABLED=true

application_logging:
  forwarding:
    max_samples_stored: 10000

NEW_RELIC_APPLICATION_LOGGING_FORWARDING_MAX_SAMPLES_STORED=10000

Secure your data

Your logs may include sensitive information protected by HIPAA or other compliance protocols. By default we obfuscate number patterns that appear to be for items such as credit cards or Social Security numbers, but you may need to hash or mask additional information.

For more information, see our documentation about obfuscation expressions and rules. You can hash or mask your log data by using the New Relic UI or by using NerdGraph, our GraphQL API.

Explore your data

To make the most of your logging data:

• On the APM Summary page, click your Web transaction time chart to view logs associated with a specific point in time.
• Check your app's Errors inbox to view the logs associated with your errors.
• Use distributed tracing to see the logs associated with individual traces.
• Explore more logging data across your platform with our logs UI.
• Set up alerts based on log output and severity.
• Query your data using our specialized UI for logs data, and create dashboards with the results.

Troubleshooting tips

Typically your logs will start to appear less than a minute after you enable APM logs in context. Check your app's Triage > Logs section. You will also start seeing log patterns related to the error there.

If you don't see any logs for errors or traces, there may not be any for your app. Try refreshing the UI page, or change the selected time period.

Disable automatic logging

APM logs in context automatically forwards APM agent log data and is enabled by default. This can have a negative impact on your security, compliance, billing, or system performance. For more information, or if you need to adjust the default setting, follow the procedures to disable automatic logging.

Manual logs in context option

If you need to use the manual process to set up logs in context for Ruby, follow these steps:

1. Make sure you have already set up logging in New Relic. This includes configuring a supported log forwarder that collects your application logs and extends the metadata that is forwarded to New Relic.

2. Install or update to the latest Ruby agent version, and enable distributed tracing. Use Ruby agent version 6.7.0 or higher for logs in context.

3. For Rails applications, use a supported Rails version.

4. Configure logs in context for Ruby.

   Standard Ruby on Rails configuration

   Rails logging is controlled by two components:

   • A logger you can customize by setting config.logger

   • A log formatter you can customize by setting config.log_formatter)

     In most cases, you should configure logs in context by setting config.log_formatter to the DecoratingFormatter in your Rails application. For more information about Rails configuration, see the rubyonrails.org documentation.

     In your application's config, require newrelic_rpm, then add the following line:

     module ________
       class Application < Rails::Application
     
       ...
     
       config.log_formatter = ::NewRelic::Agent::Logging::DecoratingFormatter.new
       end
     end

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     This configuration uses the New Relic formatter for log messages, but the remaining configuration is provided by the other Rails settings.

   Incompatible gems

   New Relic's decorating logger is known to be incompatible with the following gems:

   • logging
   • semantic logger
   • rails_stdout_logger
   • rails_12factor

   Rails advanced configuration

   If setting the log_formatter option doesn't meet your needs, replace the entire Rails logger with an instance of the New Relic logger. Provide the parameters to the logger's constructor, like this:

   module ________
     class Application < Rails::Application
   
       ...
   
       config.logger = ::NewRelic::Agent::Logging::DecoratingLogger.new(
       "log/application.log", #etc...
       )
     end
   end

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   Ruby configuration without Rails

   For non-Rails applications, use the DecoratingLogger in place of the Ruby standard ::Logger, like this:

   logger = ::NewRelic::Agent::Logging::DecoratingLogger.new(
     'log/application.log', #etc...
   )
   ...
   
   logger.info(...)

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   The DecoratingLogger is a drop-in replacement for the Ruby standard ::Logger. Their constructors accept the same parameters.

   Lograge configuration

   To configure this extension with the lograge gem, follow standard procedures in this doc for Ruby on Rails configuration. No additional configuration is required for the lograge gem.

   Other logging extensions

   To use our logging extension with a different logging implementation or with your own custom logger, use the DecoratingFormatter. For example:

   module ________
     class Application < Rails::Application
   
       ...
   
       config.logger = ::YourCustomLoggerImplementation.new(
         $stdout,
         formatter: ::NewRelic::Agent::Logging::DecoratingFormatter.new
       )
     end
   end

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5. To verify that you have configured the log appender correctly, run your application, then check your log data in the New Relic UI using the query operator has:span.id has:trace.id.

If everything is configured correctly and your data is being forwarded to New Relic with the enriched metadata, your logs should now be emitted as JSON and contain trace.id and span.id fields.

If you have configured your logging in /config/application.rb or in /config/environments/development.rb, run your application locally and check its logging output. You should see some output like this:

{"entity.name":"your_app_name","entity.type":"SERVICE","hostname":"79bcbf8d","trace.id":"79bcbf8d","span.id":"00fc7d46","timestamp":1567701375543,"message":"example log message one","log.level":"DEBUG"}
{"entity.name":"your_app_name","entity.type":"SERVICE","hostname":"79bcbf8d","trace.id":"79bcbf8d","span.id":"6754870b","timestamp":1567702843604,"message":"example log message two","log.level":"DEBUG"}