Apache monitoring integration

Our Apache integration sends performance metrics and inventory data from your Apache web server to the New Relic platform. You can view pre-built dashboards of your Apache metric data, create alert policies, and create your own custom queries and charts.

The integration works by gathering data from Apache's status module, so that module must be enabled and configured for your Apache instance (more details in Requirements).

Read on to install the integration, and to see what data we collect.

Compatibility and requirements

Our integration is compatible with Apache versions 2.2 or 2.4.

Before installing the integration, make sure that you meet the following requirements:

A New Relic account. Don't have one? Sign up for free! No credit card required.
Apache status module enabled and configured for Apache instance.
Apache status module endpoint (default server-status) available from the host containing the Apache integration.
If Apache is not running on Kubernetes or Amazon ECS, you must have the infrastructure agent installed on a Linux OS host that's running Apache. Otherwise:
- If running on Kubernetes, see these requirements.
- If running on ECS, see these requirements.

Quick start

Instrument your Apache web server quickly and send your telemetry data with guided install. Our guided install creates a customized CLI command for your environment that downloads and installs the New Relic CLI and the infrastructure agent.

Ready to get started? Click one of these button to try it out.

Guided install

EU Guided install

Our guided install uses the infrastructure agent to set up the Apache integration. Not only that, it discovers other applications and log sources running in your environment and then recommends which ones you should instrument.

The guided install works with most setups. But if it doesn't suit your needs, you can find other methods below to get started monitoring your Apache web server.

Install and activate

To install the Apache integration, follow the instructions for your environment:

Follow the instructions for installing an integration, using the file name nri-apache.
Change directory to the integration's folder:
```
cd /etc/newrelic-infra/integrations.d
```

Copy of the sample configuration file:

sudo cp apache-config.yml.sample apache-config.yml

Edit the apache-config.yml file as described in the configuration settings.
Restart the infrastructure agent.
To enable automatic Apache and Apache error log parsing and forwarding, copy or rename the apache-log.yml.example file to apache-log.yml. You don't need to restart the agent but you may need to update the YML file with the location of your apache log files, if you aren't using the default locations.
For example:
bash
```
$sudo cp /etc/newrelic-infra/logging.d/apache-log.yml.example /etc/newrelic-infra/logging.d/apache-log.yml
```

Download the nri-apache .MSI installer image from:
http://download.newrelic.com/infrastructure_agent/windows/integrations/nri-apache/nri-apache-amd64.msi

To install from the Windows command prompt, run:

msiexec.exe /qn /i PATH\TO\nri-apache-amd64.msi

In the Integrations directory, C:\Program Files\New Relic\newrelic-infra\integrations.d\, create a copy of the sample configuration file by running:
```
cp apache-config.yml.sample apache-config.yml
```
Edit the apache-config.yml configuration file using the configuration settings.
Restart the infrastructure agent.

Additional notes:

Advanced: Integrations are also available in tarball format to allow for install outside of a package manager.
On-host integrations do not automatically update. For best results, regularly update the integration package and the infrastructure agent.

Configuration

Enabling your Apache server

To capture data from the Apache integration, you must first enable and configure the status module:

Ensure the Apache status module is enabled and configured for Apache instance.
Ensure the Apache status module endpoint (default server-status) is available from the host containing the Apache integration.

Configure the integration

There are several ways to configure the integration, depending on how it was installed:

If enabled via Kubernetes: see Monitor services running on Kubernetes.
If enabled via Amazon ECS: see Monitor services running on ECS.
If installed on-host: edit the config in the integration's YAML config file, apache-config.yml.

An integration's YAML-format configuration is where you can place required login credentials and configure how data is collected. Which options you change depend on your setup and preference.

The configuration file has common settings applicable to all integrations, such as interval, timeout, inventory_source. To read all about these common settings, refer to our Configuration Format document.

Important

If you are still using our legacy configuration/definition files, please refer to this document for help.

Specific settings related to Apache are defined using the env section of the configuration file. These settings control the connection to your Apache instance as well as other security settings and features. The list of valid settings is described in the next section of this document.

Apache Instance Settings

The Apache integration collects both metrics(M) and inventory(I) information. In the table, use the Applies To column for the settings available to each collection:

Setting	Description	Default	Applies to
STATUS_URL	The URL set up to provide the metrics using the status module.	http://127.0.0.1/server-status?auto	M/I
BINARY_PATH	Set location of the apache binary file.	N/A	I
CA_BUNDLE_FILE	Alternative Certificate Authority bundle file.	N/A	M
CA_BUNDLE_DIR	Alternative Certificate Authority bundle directory.	N/A	M
VALIDATE_CERTS	Set to `false` if the status URL is HTTPS with a self-signed certificate.	true	M
REMOTE_MONITORING	Enable multi-tenancy monitoring.	true	M/I
METRICS	Set to `true` to enable metrics-only collection.	false
INVENTORY	Set to `true` to enable inventory-only collection.	false

The values for these settings can be defined in several ways:

Adding the value directly in the config file. This is the most common way.
Replacing the values from environment variables using the {{}} notation. This requires infrastructure agent v1.14.0+. Read more here or see the example below.
Using secrets management. Use this to protect sensitive information, such as passwords that would be exposed in plain text on the configuration file. For more information, see Secrets management.

Labels/Custom attributes

You can further decorate your metrics using labels. Labels allow you to add key/value pair attributes to your metrics, which you can then use to query, filter, or group your metrics on.
Our default sample config file includes examples of labels; however, as they are not mandatory, you can remove, modify, or add new ones of your choice.

labels:
   env: production
   role: load_balancer

Example configurations

This is the very basic configuration to collect metrics and inventory from your localhost:

integrations:
  - name: nri-apache
    env:
      METRICS: "true"
      STATUS_URL: http://127.0.0.1/server-status?auto
      REMOTE_MONITORING: true
    interval: 15s
    labels:
      env: production
      role: load_balancer

  - name: nri-apache
    env:
      INVENTORY: "true"
      STATUS_URL: http://127.0.0.1/server-status?auto
      REMOTE_MONITORING: true
    interval: 60s
    labels:
      env: production
      role: load_balancer
    inventory_source: config/apache

This configuration collects metrics and inventory from your localhost protected with basic authentication. Replace the username and password on the STATUS_URL with your credentials:

integrations:
  - name: nri-apache
    env:
      METRICS: "true"
      STATUS_URL: http://username:password@127.0.0.1/server-status?auto
      REMOTE_MONITORING: true
    interval: 15s
    labels:
      env: production
      role: load_balancer

  - name: nri-apache
    env:
      INVENTORY: "true"
      STATUS_URL: http://username:password@127.0.0.1/server-status?auto
      REMOTE_MONITORING: true
    interval: 60s
    labels:
      env: production
      role: load_balancer
    inventory_source: config/apache

By default the integration tries to detect the Apache binary on these 2 different locations: /usr/sbin/httpd and /usr/sbin/apache2ctl.
If your Apache is installed on a custom location or you are using MS Windows, use the BINARY_PATH setting to specify the correct location and filename of your Apache binary:

integrations:
  - name: nri-apache
    env:
      METRICS: "true"
      STATUS_URL: http://127.0.0.1/server-status?auto
      REMOTE_MONITORING: true
    interval: 15s
    labels:
      env: production
      role: load_balancer

  - name: nri-apache
    env:
      INVENTORY: "true"
      STATUS_URL: http://127.0.0.1/server-status?auto
      BINARY_PATH: 'C:\Apache\bin\httpd.exe'
      REMOTE_MONITORING: true
    interval: 60s
    labels:
      env: production
      role: load_balancer
    inventory_source: config/apache

In this configuration we only have one integration block with METRICS: true to collect only metrics and added VALIDATE_CERTS: false to prevent validation of the server's SSL certificate when using a self-signed one:

integrations:
  - name: nri-apache
    env:
      METRICS: "true"
      STATUS_URL: https://my_apache_host/server-status?auto
      VALIDATE_CERTS: false
      REMOTE_MONITORING: true
    interval: 15s
    labels:
      env: production
      role: load_balancer

In this configuration we only have one integration block with METRICS: true to collect only metrics and added CA_BUNDLE_FILE pointing to an alternative certificate file:

integrations:
  - name: nri-apache
    env:
      METRICS: "true"
      STATUS_URL: https://my_apache_host/server-status?auto
      CA_BUNDLE_FILE='/etc/ssl/certs/custom-ca.crt'
      REMOTE_MONITORING: true
    interval: 15s
    labels:
      env: production
      role: load_balancer

In this configuration we are using the environment variable APACHE_STATUS to populate the STATUS_URL setting of the integration:

integrations:
  - name: nri-apache
    env:
      METRICS: "true"
      STATUS_URL: {{APACHE_STATUS}}
      REMOTE_MONITORING: true
    interval: 15s
    labels:
      env: production
      role: load_balancer

In this configuration we are monitoring multiple Apache servers from the same integration. For the first instance (STATUS_URL: https://1st_apache_host/server-status?auto) we are collecting metrics and inventory while for the second instance (STATUS_URL: https://2nd_apache_host/server-status?auto) we will only collect metrics.

integrations:
  - name: nri-apache
    env:
      METRICS: "true"
      STATUS_URL: https://1st_apache_host/server-status?auto
      REMOTE_MONITORING: true
    interval: 15s
    labels:
      env: production
      role: load_balancer
  - name: nri-apache
    env:
      INVENTORY: "true"
      STATUS_URL: https://1st_apache_host/server-status?auto
      REMOTE_MONITORING: true
    interval: 60s
    labels:
      env: production
      role: load_balancer
    inventory_source: config/apache

  - name: nri-apache
    env:
      METRICS: "true"
      STATUS_URL: http://2nd_apache_host/server-status?auto
      REMOTE_MONITORING: true
    interval: 15s
    labels:
      env: production
      role: load_balancer

Find and use data

Data from this service is reported to an integration dashboard.

Apache data is attached to the ApacheSample event type. You can query this data for troubleshooting purposes or to create charts and dashboards.

For more on how to find and use your data, see Understand integration data.

Metric data

The Apache integration collects the following metric data attributes. Each metric name is prefixed with a category indicator and a period, such as net. or server..

Name	Description
`net.bytesPerSecond`	Rate of the number of bytes served, in bytes per second.
`net.requestsPerSecond`	Rate of the number of client requests, in requests per second.
`server.busyWorkers`	Current number of busy workers.
`server.idleWorkers`	Current number of idle workers.
`server.scoreboard.closingWorkers`	Current number of workers closing TCP connection after serving the response.
`server.scoreboard.dnsLookupWorkers`	Current number of workers performing a DNS lookup.
`server.scoreboard.finishingWorkers`	Current number of workers gracefully finishing.
`server.scoreboard.idleCleanupWorkers`	Current number of idle workers ready for cleanup.
`server.scoreboard.keepAliveWorkers`	Current number of workers maintaining a keep-alive connection.
`server.scoreboard.loggingWorkers`	Current number of workers that are logging.
`server.scoreboard.readingWorkers`	Current number of workers reading requests (headers or body).
`server.scoreboard.startingWorkers`	Current number of workers that are starting up.
`server.scoreboard.totalWorkers`	Total number of workers available. Workers that are not needed to process requests may not be started.
`server.scoreboard.writingWorkers`	Current number of workers that are writing.

Inventory data

Inventory data captures the version numbers from running Apache and from all loaded Apache modules, and adds those version numbers under the config/apache namespace. For more about inventory data, see Understand data.

System metadata

Besides the standard attributes collected by the infrastructure agent, the integration collects inventory data associated with the ApacheSample event type:

Name	Description
`software.version`	The version of the Apache server. Example: `Apache/2.4.7 (Ubuntu)`.

Troubleshooting

If you are having issues accessing the HTTPS endpoint for Apache, here are two possible solutions:

Although you cannot ignore the SSL certification, you can set the config file parameters ca_bundle_file and ca_bundle_dir to point to an unsigned certificate in the Apache config file. Example:

instances:
    - name: apache-server-metrics
command: metrics
arguments:
    status_url: http://127.0.0.1/server-status?auto
    ca_bundle_file: /etc/newrelic-infra/integrations.d/ssl/b2b.ca-bundle

An example using ca_bundle_dir:

ca_bundle_dir: /etc/newrelic-infra/integrations.d/ssl

Alternatively, you can use HTTP instead of HTTPS.

Check the source code

This integration is open source software. That means you can browse its source code and send improvements, or create your own fork and build it.

Compatibility and requirements

Quick start

Install and activate

ECS

Kubernetes

Linux

Windows

Configuration

Enabling your Apache server

Configure the integration

Important

Apache Instance Settings

Labels/Custom attributes

Example configurations

BASIC CONFIGURATION

HTTP BASIC AUTHENTICATION

CUSTOM APACHE BINARY LOCATION

METRICS ONLY WITH SELF-SIGNED CERTIFICATE

METRICS ONLY WITH ALTERNATIVE CERTIFICATE

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES REPLACEMENT