Java agent v8.0.0

New features and improvements

• Added support for Slick 3.4.0 on Scala 2.13
• Added support for Embedded Tomcat JMX
• Updated the Java agent's snakeyaml dependency to 1.33
• Added tracer debug logging, which will appear when -Dnewrelic.config.log_level=finest and -Dnewrelic.debug=true are set
• Improved logging when using the recordCustomEvent API now includes event type, key and value
• Added Log4j1 instrumentation to support auto log forwarding
• Added JBoss Logging instrumentation to support auto log forwarding
• Real-time profiling for Java using JFR metrics can now be dynamically enabled/disabled via agent configuration

Fixes

• Removed leading slash in JCache metric names
• Fixed a bug that was preventing Log4j2 metrics from getting disabled properly
• Added a missing delimiter in POSTGRES_DIALECT_PATTERN
• Fixed a ClassCastException in GraphQL 16/17
• Refactored HttpURLConnection instrumentation to fix several bugs that were affecting external calls and distributed traces
• Refactored grpc-1.40.0 instrumentation to ensure that tokens were properly being linked across threads
• Fixed a bug that was causing transactions to fail to link when the Spring Webclient would timeout and emit a ReadTimeoutException

Removals

The following previously deprecated instrumentation modules were removed:

• cassandra-datastax-2.1.2
• httpclient-3.0
• jdbc-embedded-derby-10.2.1.6
• jdbc-embedded-derby-10.10.1.1
• jetty-7
• jetty-7.6
• jetty-9
• jetty-9.0.4
• jetty-9.1
• mongodb-2.12
• mongodb-2.14
• mongodb-3.0
• okhttp-3.0.0
• okhttp-3.4.0
• okhttp-3.5.0

The previously deprecated httpResponseCode, response.status, and response.statusMessage transaction/span attributes were removed. These have been replaced by http.statusCode and http.statusText. If you've any custom dashboards or alerts that query the httpResponseCode, response.status, and response.statusMessage attributes then they will need to be updated to instead use http.statusCode and http.statusText.

Update to latest version

To identify which version of the Java agent you're currently using, run java -jar newrelic.jar -v. Your Java agent version will be printed to your console.

Then, to update to the latest Java agent version:

1. Back up the entire Java agent root directory to another location. Rename that directory to NewRelic_Agent#.#.#, where #.#.# is the agent version number.
2. Download the agent.
3. Unzip the new agent download file, then copy newrelic-api.jar and newrelic.jar into the original Java agent root directory.
4. Compare your old newrelic.yml with the newly downloaded newrelic.yml from the zip, and update the file if needed.
5. Restart your Java dispatcher.

If you experience issues after the Java agent update, restore from the backed-up New Relic agent directory.

Update agent config differences

We add new settings to newrelic.yml as we release new versions of the agent. You can use diff or another diffing utility to see what's changed, and add the new config settings to your old file. Make sure not to overwrite any customizations you've made to the file, such as your license key, app name, or changes to default settings.

For example, if you diff the default newrelic.yml files for Java agent versions 7.10.0 and 7.11.0, the results printed to the console will be like:

➜ diff newrelic_7.10.0.yml newrelic_7.11.0.yml
...
107a108,119
>       # Whether the log events should include context from loggers with support for that.
>       include_context_data:
>
>         # When true, application logs will contain context data.
>         enabled: false
>
>         # A comma separated list of attribute keys whose values should be sent to New Relic.
>         #include:
>
>         # A comma separated list of attribute keys whose values should not be sent to New Relic.
>         #exclude:
>
125a138
>
128c141
<     enabled: false
---
>     enabled: true
...

In this example, these lines were added to the default newrelic.yml in Java agent version 7.11.0. If you're moving to 7.11.0 or higher, you should add these new lines to your original newrelic.yml.