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New Relic is a cloud-based observability platform that monitors servers, applications, logs, containers, Kubernetes, cloud services, and related infrastructure. Its Infrastructure Agent collects telemetry from a VPS, virtual machine, physical server, or container and sends it to New Relic, where you can view resource health, investigate problems, query data, and create alerts.
Unlike a basic uptime checker, New Relic can connect infrastructure symptoms with application errors, database activity, traces, and logs. That makes it useful when you need to understand why a website or service is slow or unavailable—not just whether it is responding.
What is New Relic?
New Relic is an observability platform. Infrastructure monitoring is one part of the platform, alongside Application Performance Monitoring (APM), log management, distributed tracing, Kubernetes monitoring, cloud integrations, browser and mobile monitoring, synthetic checks, database monitoring, serverless monitoring, network monitoring, alerts, and AIOps.
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New Relic describes its platform as a way to collect and connect telemetry from different parts of a technology environment.
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Monitoring versus observability
- Monitoring watches known signals—such as CPU usage, memory, uptime, or disk capacity—and alerts you when they cross a threshold.
- Observability combines metrics, events, logs, and traces so you can investigate unfamiliar failures and find their likely cause.
For example, a high CPU alert tells you that a server is busy. Application traces and logs may reveal whether the cause is a slow database query, a failing deployment, an unexpected traffic spike, or an external dependency.
You do not need to use every New Relic feature. A small VPS may need only host metrics and a few alerts, while a larger application can benefit from combining infrastructure monitoring with APM, logs, and tracing.
What is infrastructure monitoring?
Infrastructure monitoring observes the systems that run your applications. These can include:
- Physical servers, VPS instances, virtual machines, and cloud instances
- Linux, Windows, and macOS operating systems
- Storage devices, filesystems, and network interfaces
- Processes and system services
- Docker containers and container runtimes
- Kubernetes nodes, workloads, events, and cluster data
- Web servers, databases, caches, queues, and other supported services
Typical signals include CPU utilization and load, available memory, swap activity, disk capacity, disk I/O, network throughput and errors, process state, host availability, configuration details, package inventory, and service-specific metrics.
The Infrastructure Agent reports data through several event types. New Relic’s current documentation says the agent takes a default system snapshot at five-second intervals. That describes default collection behavior; it is not a promise that every metric has five-second resolution or the same retention period. See the default infrastructure data documentation for the current details.
How does New Relic work?
Server, VM, container, or Kubernetes cluster
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New Relic Infrastructure Agent
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Integrations and log forwarders
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New Relic data ingestion
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NRDB, dashboards, queries, and alerts
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Investigation and remediation1. The Infrastructure Agent collects host data
The Infrastructure Agent is software installed on a supported host. It collects operating-system telemetry, events, metadata, inventory, and process information. It can also enable service integrations and, where configured, forward logs.
New Relic offers guided and manual installation methods. The installation-method guide helps you choose the appropriate approach for a server, container, automation system, or Kubernetes environment.
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Installing the host agent does not automatically provide complete monitoring for every service running on the machine. Separate integrations may be needed for technologies such as NGINX, Apache, MySQL, Redis, RabbitMQ, Kafka, and other services.
New Relic’s current documentation advertises more than 400 on-host integrations, although the catalog can change. Integrations may require additional packages, credentials, permissions, cloud-provider access, or deployment-specific configuration.
3. New Relic stores and connects the telemetry
New Relic stores telemetry as events and attributes in its data platform. You can explore it through standard Infrastructure pages and dashboards, or query it with NRQL, New Relic’s query language. Beginners can use the standard interface without learning NRQL immediately.
4. Dashboards and alerts turn data into action
The Infrastructure interface shows host health, resource charts, processes, storage, network activity, integrations, inventory, and related entities. Alerts can notify your team when a host, container, integration, or application condition needs attention.
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New Relic can receive telemetry through OpenTelemetry. This can make application and infrastructure instrumentation more portable, but it does not remove the need to configure collectors, exporters, permissions, sampling, storage, alerting, retention, and data-volume controls.
What can New Relic monitor?
| Layer | Examples |
|---|---|
| Hosts | Linux, Windows, macOS, physical servers, VPS instances, and cloud VMs |
| Operating system | CPU, memory, swap, disks, network, processes, inventory, and uptime |
| Containers | Container resource usage, metadata, grouping, and related entities |
| Kubernetes | Nodes, workloads, cluster state, events, Prometheus data, and logs |
| Cloud services | AWS and other supported cloud-provider services |
| Infrastructure services | NGINX, Apache, MySQL, Redis, Kafka, RabbitMQ, and other integrations |
| Applications | Transactions, response times, errors, dependencies, and distributed traces |
| Logs | Host, application, container, and Kubernetes logs |
| User experience | Browser, mobile, synthetic, and session-related telemetry |
Availability depends on the relevant agent, integration, credentials, permissions, and deployment method. Monitoring a VPS host is different from monitoring the application, database, container, or Kubernetes cluster running on it.
How to set up New Relic infrastructure monitoring
Check the prerequisites
Before installation, confirm that you have:
- A New Relic account and license key
- A supported operating system and CPU architecture
- Outbound network access to New Relic endpoints
- Required administrative permissions
- A unique hostname for the server
- Proxy settings, if the server must use an outbound proxy
Supported operating systems and versions change, so consult the current Infrastructure Agent requirements instead of relying on a permanent compatibility list. A hostname such as localhost is unsuitable for identifying a monitored server because it is not unique.
Use guided installation for a small deployment
- Sign in to New Relic.
- Open the Infrastructure installation or guided-install flow.
- Select the server’s operating system and New Relic region.
- Copy the generated command.
- Run it with the required privileges.
- Wait for the host to appear in the Infrastructure area.
- Confirm that CPU, memory, disk, network, and process data are arriving.
- Install integrations for important services such as NGINX, MySQL, or Redis.
- Create a small number of actionable alerts.
- Test alert delivery and document the response procedure.
New Relic recommends guided installation as a straightforward option for small organizations and testing. Manual procedures are better when you need controlled package management, configuration, automation, or security review. The documentation distinguishes US and EU installation flows and notes that the New Relic CLI does not support FedRAMP servers.
Linux package installation
New Relic’s current Linux instructions begin by creating the configuration file and adding the license key:
echo "license_key: YOUR_LICENSE_KEY" | sudo tee -a /etc/newrelic-infra.ymlUse the current Linux package-manager instructions for the correct repository and package commands for your distribution. Do not publish a license key in a public script or commit it to source control.
Containerized agent deployment
A containerized Infrastructure Agent can monitor the container environment and underlying host, but it needs access to host namespaces, filesystems, and runtime sockets. New Relic’s example uses host networking, host PID access, privileged execution, and mounted host paths.
Those permissions are powerful and security-sensitive. Run only one Infrastructure Agent instance per host, and avoid exposing the license key through an unprotected plaintext environment variable in production. The containerized agent supports Docker and, from Infrastructure Agent 1.42, containerd. It does not include the log forwarder.
Kubernetes deployment
Kubernetes requires the Kubernetes integration rather than simply treating the cluster as a standalone server. The integration can collect Kubernetes events, Prometheus data, entity information, and logs. Control-plane monitoring and some managed Kubernetes environments require additional configuration. Follow the current Kubernetes installation guide.
Verify the installation
- Open All capabilities → Infrastructure.
- Start on the Hosts page.
- Select the monitored host.
- Check health, CPU, memory, disk, and network charts.
- Inspect processes, storage, inventory, attributes, and related entities.
- Filter hosts by hostname, tags, environment, region, or service.
- Add integrations only for services you actually need to investigate.
The current Infrastructure UI opens on a Hosts page designed for both overview and deeper host exploration. Interface labels may change, so check New Relic’s Infrastructure UI overview if the navigation differs.
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How to create useful infrastructure alerts
A high CPU percentage or a brief memory spike is not automatically an outage. Start with normal behavior for your workload and alert on sustained conditions or user-impacting symptoms.
Useful conditions can include:
- Sustained CPU saturation
- Low available memory or continued swap activity
- A filesystem approaching capacity
- High disk latency or I/O wait
- Network errors or dropped packets
- A host that stops reporting
- A critical process that is unavailable
- Repeated container restarts
- Kubernetes node or workload degradation
Use sustained evaluation windows to avoid noise, separate warning and critical severities, scope conditions with environment or service tags, route notifications to the team that can act, include runbook links, and test delivery. New Relic recommends creating alert conditions from the metric chart being investigated and applying appropriate filters rather than using universal thresholds.
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Unified visibility
Infrastructure metrics, application performance, logs, traces, databases, containers, and cloud services can be examined in one platform. This avoids switching between disconnected dashboards during an incident.
Faster troubleshooting
New Relic does not automatically fix a slow server or prevent downtime. It provides context that can help you determine whether a problem is caused by resource saturation, an application error, a database query, a deployment, or an external service.
Cloud and container coverage
Mixed environments are easier to represent than with a dashboard designed only for one physical server. This is particularly relevant to teams using cloud VMs, Docker, Kubernetes, or microservices.
Service integrations and inventory
Web-server, database, cache, queue, package, and configuration data can add useful change context to host metrics. Integrations also make it easier to investigate a service rather than guessing from CPU and memory charts alone.
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Managed SaaS operation
New Relic hosts the storage, querying, dashboards, and alerting platform. Teams do not have to build and maintain every part of a Prometheus, Grafana, log-storage, and alerting stack themselves. Agent deployment can also be automated with systems such as Ansible, Chef, Puppet, Docker, and Elastic Beanstalk.
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New Relic limitations and trade-offs
- Cost can be difficult to predict: pricing depends on users and data ingest, or compute and data ingest, depending on the model and edition. Logs, traces, high-cardinality attributes, verbose integrations, and Kubernetes telemetry can increase usage.
- It is a SaaS dependency: you rely on New Relic’s platform, retention policies, availability, and pricing.
- Agents need access: host agents collect sensitive system information, while container deployments may require privileged access. Review the infrastructure security documentation.
- Broad coverage adds complexity: each integration may require separate configuration, credentials, permissions, and data-volume decisions.
- It may be excessive for a small site: one low-traffic website that needs only uptime checks may be better served by a simpler monitoring tool or existing server controls.
- Data residency may matter: teams with strict residency, air-gapped, or self-hosting requirements should verify whether the service meets their policy.
New Relic pricing
As of August 16, 2026, New Relic’s pricing page describes pricing around users and data ingest, or compute and data ingest. It advertises full-platform users starting at $10 per user, depending on the edition.
That is a starting signal, not a universal total cost. Edition, user type, ingest volume, retention, compute, contract terms, region, and add-ons can affect the bill. Check the pricing page immediately before signing up and ask:
- Is infrastructure monitoring included in the selected edition?
- What ingest allowance and retention period apply?
- Are logs and traces included under the same allowance?
- How are overages controlled?
- How many users need full-platform access?
- Do cloud integrations create separate provider costs?
- Does the selected region meet data-residency requirements?
Do not assume that New Relic is entirely free or that a free allowance will cover a production environment. Estimate telemetry volume before enabling verbose logs, traces, or high-volume integrations.
New Relic alternatives
| Tool | Consider it when | Potential trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Datadog | You want another broad commercial observability platform. | Costs can rise across hosts, logs, traces, and users. |
| Grafana Cloud | You already prefer Grafana, Prometheus, Loki, Tempo, or OpenTelemetry. | It may involve more architectural choices than a guided single-vendor workflow. |
| Elastic Observability | Search and logs are central, or you already use Elastic. | Deployment, storage, tuning, and licensing can be more involved. |
| Prometheus and Grafana | You want a flexible self-managed metrics and dashboard stack. | You must operate collection, storage, alerting, upgrades, backups, and access control. |
| Zabbix | You want traditional self-hosted infrastructure monitoring. | It is not a direct equivalent of New Relic’s combined APM and tracing workflow. |
Who should use New Relic?
New Relic is a strong fit for teams running several servers or environments, cloud VMs, Docker, Kubernetes, or microservices; developers responsible for production reliability; and organizations that want hosted infrastructure monitoring alongside APM, logs, and traces.
It is probably more than you need if you operate one small website and only want uptime checks or a lightweight CPU-and-RAM display. It is also a poor fit when telemetry must remain entirely self-hosted, your security policy prohibits the required agent access, or you already operate a mature observability platform.
Common troubleshooting problems
The host does not appear
Check the agent service, license key, account and region, unique hostname, operating-system support, outbound firewall or proxy settings, agent logs, server clock, TLS validation, and whether another agent instance is already running.
Metrics are incomplete
The required integration may not be installed, credentials may be insufficient, the service may run in a container or namespace the agent cannot access, logs may need separate forwarding configuration, or filters may hide the expected entity.
Hosts are duplicated or merged
Investigate duplicate installations, reused machine images with copied identity information, non-unique hostnames, and simultaneous host-installed and containerized agents.
There are too many alerts
Use longer evaluation windows, alert on service impact, distinguish warning from critical conditions, exclude maintenance periods, group related conditions, and review alert history after incidents.
The bill is higher than expected
Review log verbosity, trace sampling, high-cardinality custom attributes, full-platform users, duplicate agents, high-volume integrations, retention, ingest settings, and Kubernetes or container telemetry.
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