Record and monitor deployments

Deploying an app can be a risky event—when your app breaks, a bad deployment is often the cause. New Relic allows you to track deployments so you can correlate deploy to your app's performance. Tracking deployments creates deployment markers that appear in APM charts.

See how deployment markers work in this short video (4:30 minutes):

Options for tracking deployments

You can use the New Relic REST API v2 to record new deployments, retrieve a list of past deployments, and delete past deployments on your APM application. In addition, some APM agents have agent-specific methods to record deployments automatically.

You can use your Slack integration with New Relic, or a simple webhook, to notify your team in real time of deployments for applications monitored by APM. Slack provides a webhook URL that allows you to post generic JSON that will appear formatted in a chosen Slack channel.

There are a few places where you can view deployments in the New Relic UI after they have been recorded. You can view deployments in the UI:

In the activity feed of the APM Summary, Service summary, and entity summary pages.
On APM performance charts as a chart marker.
On the Deployments page for summary performance.

Tip

Deployment markers are not available for browser applications, but see browser releases for a way to tag errors with release versions.

Record deployments with the REST API

You can use the New Relic REST API v2 to record deployments, get a list of past deployments, and delete deployments.

The examples in this document use curl as a command line tool. However, you can use any method to make your REST requests. You can also create, view, and delete deployments with the API Explorer.
JSON uses double quotes " for element names and content. Using single quotes ' will cause errors.

To record a new deployment, send a POST request that includes your API key to the deployments endpoint. Attach the payload in JSON format (see Character limits and JSON parameters). All payload parameters are optional except revision.

For example:

curl -X POST "https://api.newrelic.com/v2/applications/$APP_ID/deployments.json" \
     -H "Api-Key:$API_KEY" \
     -i \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d \
'{
  "deployment": {
    "revision": "REVISION",
    "changelog": "Added: /v2/deployments.rb, Removed: None",
    "description": "Added a deployments resource to the v2 API",
    "user": "datanerd@example.com",
    "timestamp": "2019-10-08T00:15:36Z"
  }
}'

To record a deployment with PowerShell, send a POST request that includes your API key to the deployments endpoint. Attach the payload in JSON format (see Character limits and JSON parameters). All payload parameters are optional except revision.

This example uses PowerShell version 3 or higher:

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://api.newrelic.com/v2/applications/YOUR_APP_ID/deployments.json -Method POST -Headers @{'Api-Key'='$API_KEY'} -ContentType 'application/json' -Body '{
    "deployment": {
    "revision": "REVISION",
    "changelog": "Added: /v2/deployments.rb, Removed: None",
    "description": "Added a deployments resource to the v2 API",
    "user": "datanerd@example.com",
    "timestamp": "2019-10-08T00:15:36Z"
}
}'

This example uses PowerShell version 2 (requires .NET framework 3.5 or higher):

$encoding = [System.Text.Encoding]::GetEncoding("ASCII")
$data ='{
"deployment": {
    "revision": "REVISION",
    "changelog": "Added: /v2/deployments.rb, Removed: None",
    "description": "Added a deployments resource to the v2 API",
    "user": "datanerd@example.com",
    "timestamp": "2019-10-08T00:15:36Z"
}
}'
$postData = $encoding.GetBytes($data)
$request = [System.Net.WebRequest]::Create('https://api.newrelic.com/v2/applications/$APP_ID/deployments.json')
$request.Method = 'POST'
$request.Headers.add('Api-Key','$API_KEY')
$request.ContentType='application/json'
$stream = $request.GetRequestStream()
$stream.Write($postData,0,$postData.Length)
$request.GetResponse()

To retrieve a list of all past deployments for your app, send a GET request that includes your API key to the deployments endpoint. GET requests do not use a JSON payload.

For example:

curl -X GET "https://api.newrelic.com/v2/applications/$APP_ID/deployments.json" \
     -H "Api-Key:$API_KEY" \
     -i

This example requests a list of deployments for app ID 9999999:

curl -X GET "https://api.newrelic.com/v2/applications/9999999/deployments.json" \
     -H "Api-Key:ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwx" \
     -i

The API returns this list of deployments:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
ETag: "ABCDEFGHIJKabcdefghijk0123456789"
Cache-Control: max-age=0, private, must-revalidate
Content-Type: application/json
{
  "deployments": [
    {
      "id": 1234567,
      "revision": "1234123412341234123412341234123412341234",
      "changelog": "Fixed the bugs for real this time",
      "description": "Example description two",
      "user": "Data Nerd",
      "timestamp": "2016-02-24T10:09:27-08:00",
      "links": {
        "application": 9999999
      }
    },
    {
      "id": 2345678,
      "revision": "7890789078907890789078907890789078907890",
      "changelog": "Think I fixed all the bugs",
      "description": null,
      "user": "Dren Atad",
      "timestamp": "2014-10-22T12:23:47-07:00",
      "links": {
        "application": 9999999
      }
    }
  ],
  "links": {
    "deployment.agent": "/v2/applications/{application_id}"
  }
}

To delete a deployment, send a DELETE request that includes your API key to the deployments endpoint. DELETE requests do not use a JSON payload, but you must specify the ID for the deployment you want to delete. To retrieve the ID for a deployment, use the GET request.

For example:

curl -X DELETE "https://api.newrelic.com/v2/applications/$APP_ID/deployments/$DEPLOYMENT_ID.json" \
     -H "Api-Key:$API_KEY" \
     -i

The JSON payload can include the following parameters.

Important

UTF-8 4 byte characters, such as Emojis and some non-Latin language glyphs, cannot be used in the deployment text.

Parameter	Data type	Description
`revision`	String, 127 character maximum	Required. A unique ID for this deployment, visible in the Summary page and on the Deployments page. Can be any string, but is usually a version number or a Git checksum.
`changelog`	String, 65535 character maximum	Optional. A summary of what changed in this deployment, visible in the Deployments page when you select (selected deployment) > Change log.
`description`	String, 65535 character maximum	Optional. A high-level description of this deployment, visible in the Summary page and on the Deployments page when you select an individual deployment.
`user`	String, 31 character maximum	Optional. A username to associate with the deployment, visible in the Summary page and on the Deployments page.
`timestamp`	ISO 8601	Optional. When the deployment occurred, down to the second. If not specified, the deployment will be recorded at the time when the API call was received. Timestamp requirements: Must be in UTC time. Must be after the most recent deployment timestamp. Cannot be in the future. Must be in ISO8601 format; for example, `"2019-10-08T00:15:36Z"`.

Record deployments using the New Relic agent

Some agents have additional methods to record deployments:

All agents: Use the New Relic REST API v2.
C: No SDK-specific methods. Use the REST API.
Go: No agent-specific methods. Use the REST API.
Java: Call the Java agent jar.
.NET: Use PowerShell and the REST API.
Node.js: No agent-specific methods. Use the REST API.
PHP: Use a PHP script.
Python: Use the record-deploy subcommand of the newrelic-admin script.
Ruby: Use a Capistrano recipe.

Notify your team of deployments

After a deployment is recorded using the REST API, you can optionally notify a webhook endpoint of the deployment.

The destination of the webhook can be your Slack instance. To use webhooks to set up a deployment notification for a Slack channel:

Log in to your Slack account as an admin, then go to App directory > Manage > Apps.
Search for your New Relic app, then select Add configuration.
From Post to channel, select an existing Slack channel or add a new channel, then Add configuration.
From the list of options, copy the webhook URL.
Go to one.newrelic.com > (account dropdown) > Account settings > Integrations > Deploy notifications > Webhook.
Paste the Slack webhook URL, then save.
Optional: Send a test message.

Tip

You can also use webhooks, Slack channels, and other options for alert notifications.

Options for tracking deployments

Tip

Record deployments with the REST API

Record a deployment with POST

Record a deployment with PowerShell

View a list of deployments with GET

Sample output from GET

Delete a deployment with DELETE

Character limits and JSON parameters

Important

Record deployments using the New Relic agent

Notify your team of deployments

Tip