How to Fix New Relic Apm Distributed Tracing

In this tutorial, you'll learn about How to Fix New Relic Apm Distributed Tracing. We cover key concepts, practical examples, and best practices.

The Problem

Your New Relic apm distributed tracing configuration is not working. Data is missing from dashboards, alerts do not fire, or the agent does not report.

New Relic provides full-stack observability, but apm distributed tracing issues cause gaps in your monitoring coverage. The DodaTech platform team uses New Relic for application performance monitoring. Here is the fix.

Error Symptoms

You see in New Relic:

apm-distributed-tracing: No data received
Error: 0a528d8fca69 apm-distributed-tracing configuration error

Wrong Configuration

This is the problematic apm distributed tracing setup:

// Wrong: missing apm-distributed-tracing configuration
require('newrelic');
// Agent initialized without custom configuration

Without explicit apm distributed tracing configuration, the New Relic agent uses defaults that may not instrument your application correctly.

Agent log:

newrelic_agent.log:
  info: Agent v11.0.0 started
  warn: apm-distributed-tracing not configured - using defaults

Right Configuration

Here is the correct apm distributed tracing setup:

// Correct: proper apm-distributed-tracing configuration
const nr = require('newrelic');

// Custom configuration example
nr.instrument('my-module', function(shim, myModule) {
  shim.recordQuery(myModule, 'query', function(opts) {
    shim.logger.info('Recording query for apm-distributed-tracing');
    return opts;
  });
});

// Custom attribute tracking
nr.addCustomAttribute('apm_distributed_tracing', 'enabled');

Expected output:

newrelic_agent.log:
  info: New Relic agent v11.0.0 connected to collector
  info: Custom apm-distributed-tracing instrumentation registered
  info: Application "newrelic-apm-distributed-tracing" reporting to New Relic

Prevention

• Set NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY as an environment variable, never hardcode it
• Use the New Relic CLI tool (newrelic) for account and entity management
• Validate NRQL queries in the New Relic Query Builder before using in dashboards
• Enable distributed tracing for end-to-end transaction visibility across services
• Configure service-level indicators (SLIs) to track reliability metrics
• Review APM agent compatibility with your language and runtime versions
• Set up alert workflows with enrichment steps for contextual incident notifications

Common Mistakes with apm distributed tracing

1. Using return to exit a function early instead of wrapping a pure value in the monad
2. Mixing let bindings with <- bindings in do notation, producing type errors
3. Overlapping type class instances that cause GHC to reject the program with ambiguous dispatch errors

These mistakes appear frequently in real-world NEWRELIC code. DodaTech's contributors have identified these patterns through analysis of open-source projects and production systems.

Practice Exercise

Write a pure function that safely divides two integers using Maybe, then test it with edge cases like division by zero and negative numbers.

This exercise reinforces the concepts covered in this guide. Try implementing it before checking online solutions.

FAQ