Query system limits

New Relic has resource limits in place to protect your experience, our systems, and our other customers. These limits range from the maximum number of characters you can have in a query, to API request rates, to how many events your queries inspect, and more.

This page describes the limit metrics and NrIntegrationError events that enable you to view your limits, your current data usage and overall resource consumption as compared to those limits, and the impact of experiencing a limit event. We also provide a handful of queries that, when compiled into a dashboard, can give you consistent insight into your limits status.

What happens when you reach a limit

Our response to reaching a limit depends on a handful of factors: the type of limit that’s reached, as well as the duration, frequency, and amount at which you exceed the limit. Exceeding a limit doesn’t always mean you experience a limit event, such as dropped data, rejected traffic, or having your data turned off for the rest of the day. We sometimes allow a small buffer before enforcing a limit. That said, any resource consumed above 100% is at risk for limit impact at any time.

Many of our rate limits apply proportionally. That means if you’re barely exceeding the limit, we will take less action than if you're exceeding by 200%.

Limit metrics are only visible if you're sending data in to a corresponding dataType or limitName API. For example, if you send in data via the Metric API, you’ll see the Metric API resource metrics, but if you don't send any APM data in, you won't see APM resource metrics.

An NrIntegrationError event is generated when you experience impact and is a good way to quickly see if you’re experiencing any limit events. See View System Limits for more information.

Create a dashboard to view your limit status

Using three limit metrics together on a dashboard, you can quickly see detailed visuals of your Ingest Resource Request Per Minute limits, and with NrIntegrationError get a view into more limits.

We used the following queries to create this dashboard. To make a dashboard like this in New Relic One, select Dashboards, and then Create a dashboard. Then, add a new chart for each query you want to regularly monitor. The three limits metrics included in these queries are described in a separate section, below.

From left to right, top to bottom:

FROM Metric select rate(sum(newrelic.resourceConsumption.currentValue), 1 minute) /latest(newrelic.resourceConsumption.limitValue) * 100 facet limitName where limitTimeInterval = '1 minute' timeseries limit max

SELECT max(`usage`) FROM (FROM Metric select rate(sum(newrelic.resourceConsumption.currentValue), 1 minute) / latest(newrelic.resourceConsumption.limitValue) * 100 as 'usage' facet limitName timeseries ) facet limitName limit max

FROM Metric select rate(sum(newrelic.resourceConsumption.currentValue), 1 minute) where limitName = 'APM Agent API transaction events requests per minute' TIMESERIES

FROM Metric select rate(sum(newrelic.resourceConsumption.currentValue), 1 minute) as 'usage', latest(newrelic.resourceConsumption.limitValue) as 'limit' where limitName = 'Trace API requests per minute' TIMESERIES

From Metric select rate(sum(newrelic.resourceConsumption.impact), 1 minute) facet dataType, impact, resource TIMESERIES 1 minute limit max

FROM NrIntegrationError select count(*) facet limitName TIMESERIES MAX  since 1 day ago limit max

FROM Metric, NrIntegrationError select rate(sum(newrelic.resourceConsumption.currentValue), 1 minute) as 'Per Minute Count',latest(newrelic.resourceConsumption.limitValue) as ' limit Value',(rate(sum(newrelic.resourceConsumption.currentValue), 1 minute)/latest(newrelic.resourceConsumption.limitValue)*100)as 'Percent Used', filter (count(*), where NrIntegrationError.limitValue is not null) as 'limit reached count' facet limitName limit 1000

Limit metrics

These metrics, used in the dashboard queries above, can hone in on a single limit or resource. Or, with the help of FACET limitName or resource provide a view across all your limits.

FROM Metric select latest(newrelic.resourceConsumption.limitValue) where limitName = 'Metric API requests per minute'

FROM Metric select latest(newrelic.resourceConsumption.limitValue) WHERE limitTimeInterval = '1 minute' FACET limitName limit max

FROM Metric select rate(sum(newrelic.resourceConsumption.currentValue),1 minute) where limitName = 'Metric API requests per minute'

FROM Metric select rate(sum(newrelic.resourceConsumption.currentValue),1 minute) where limitTimeInterval = '1 minute' FACET limitName limit max

From Metric select rate(sum(newrelic.resourceConsumption.impact), 1 minute) facet dataType, resource, impact, limitName TIMESERIES limit max

Metric attributes

Attributes on newrelic.resourceConsumption.limitValue and newrelic.resourceConsumption.currentValue:

• limitName: The Name of the limit for the metric data, for example RPM Metric API.
• dataType: What kind of data the metric is tracking, for example Metric, Log, or APM.
• Resource: What resource is being consumed, for example Requests or DPM.
• limitTimeInterval: What time window this resource is evaluated for limiting.
• consumingAccountId: The New Relic account where the resource is being consumed.

Attributes on newrelic.resourceConsumption.impact

• dataType: The kind of data that is being impacted, for example Metric, Log, or APM.
• Resource: What resource is being impacted, for example Request Rate.
• Impact: A count of what is happening when resource has exceeded set limit, for example dropped requests.
• consumingAccountId: The New Relic account where the resource is being consumed.

Set alerts on resource metrics

While building a dashboard to see all your limits is handy, being able to automate it is even better. You can set alerts on your limit metrics to provide updates on limits changes.

You can use the following NRQL queries to create alerts. Learn about creating alerts with NRQL queries here.

From Metric select (rate(sum(newrelic.resourceConsumption.currentValue), 1 minute)/latest(newrelic.resourceConsumption.limitValue))*100 facet limitName

From Metric select (rate(sum(newrelic.resourceConsumption.currentValue), 1 minute)/latest(newrelic.resourceConsumption.limitValue))*100 where limitName = 'my limit'

From Metric select rate(sum(newrelic.resourceConsumption.impact), 1 minute) facet dataType, impact, resource, reason

From Metric select rate(sum(newrelic.resourceConsumption.impact), 1 minute) facet dataType, impact, resource, reason  WHERE dataType = 'important things'