Translate PromQL queries to NRQL

Count

Counter

The Prometheus counter is a cumulative sum while the New Relic count is a delta sum.

For example, if you see 2 requests in the first reporting period and 3 requests in the second reporting period. The Prometheus counter will report 2 and then 5, while the New Relic count will report 2 and then 3.

Gauge

Gauge

A Prometheus gauge is similar to a New Relic gauge.

Multiple counts

Histogram

Prometheus automatically maps a histogram to a set of counters. In New Relic, these counters should be changed to deltas and reported as counts.

Gauges and counts

Summary

Prometheus represents a Summary with a given basename as the following time series:

• a basename_sum

• a basename_count

• and 0 or more of basename{quantile=".xx"...} metrics

  New Relic maps the _sum as a Summary, the _count as a Counter, and each quantile metric as a Gauge.

Summary

(No equivalent in Prometheus)

New Relic has a distinct metric type called a summary that is different than the Prometheus summary. It is designed for reporting aggregated discrete events so that you can query the count, sum, min, max, and average values.

Search for attributes:

Explore the attributes on the container_memory_usage_bytes metric.

• PromQL:

  container_memory_usage_bytes

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• NRQL:

  FROM Metric SELECT keyset() WHERE metricName = 'container_memory_usage_bytes'

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Find attribute's value:

Explore the current value of the container_memory_usage_bytes metric for unique id attributes.

• PromQL:

  sum(container_memory_usage_bytes) by (id)

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• NRQL:

  FROM Metric SELECT sum(container_memory_usage_bytes) FACET id

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Visualize the attribute's value:

Chart the value of the container_memory_usage_bytes metric with the given id attribute value.

• PromQL:

  container_memory_usage_bytes{id="/"}

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• NRQL:

  FROM Metric SELECT latest(container_memory_usage_bytes) WHERE id = '/' TIMESERIES

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Select data with specific values.

• PromQL:

  go_memstats_heap_alloc_bytes{job="apiserver", instance="1234"})

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• NRQL:

  To only select data with specific values in NRQL, use the WHERE clause with =. In this example, all data must have the selected value for job and handler.

  FROM Metric SELECT latest(go_memstats_heap_alloc_bytes) WHERE job = 'apiserver' AND instance = '1234' TIMESERIES

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Select data with multiple values.

• PromQL:

  go_memstats_heap_alloc_bytes{environment=~"staging|testing|development",method!="GET"}

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• NRQL:

  In NRQL use the in clause to select multiple values for an attribute and the != sign to select all values but the one listed. In this example, the environment can be staging, testing, or development, and the method cannot be GET.

  FROM Metric SELECT latest(go_memstats_heap_alloc_bytes) 
  WHERE environment IN ('staging', 'testing', 'development') 
  AND method != 'GET' TIMESERIES

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Select data using partial string values.

• PromQL:

  go_memstats_heap_alloc_bytes{job=~"api.*"}

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• NRQL:

  In NRQL use the LIKE clause to match part of a string value. In this example, all data will be returned where the job attributes start with api.

  FROM Metric SELECT latest(go_memstats_heap_alloc_bytes) WHERE job LIKE 'api%' TIMESERIES

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Measure the per second rate over the last minute of the http_request_total metric.

• PromQL:

  sum(rate(http_requests_total[1m]))

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• NRQL:

  FROM Metric SELECT rate(sum(http_request_total), 1 second) TIMESERIES 1 minute

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Chart the difference of the two metrics, then divide by 1024.

• PromQL:

  (instance_memory_limit_bytes - instance_memory_usage_bytes) / 1024

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• NRQL:

  FROM Metric SELECT (latest(instance_memory_limit_bytes) - latest(instance_memory_usage_bytes)) / 1024 TIMESERIES

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Provide the summed rate per 30-second interval by each handler.

• PromQL:

  sum(rate(http_requests_total[30s])) by (handler)

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• NRQL:

  FROM Metric SELECT rate(sum(http_requests_total), 30 seconds) FACET handler TIMESERIES

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Chart the difference in the two metrics where the instance is named foo and the fstype is either ext4 or xfs.

• PromQL:

  (node_filesystem_free_bytes{instance='foo',fstype=~"ext4|xfs"} / node_filesystem_size_bytes{instance='foo',fstype=~"ext4|xfs"})

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• NRQL:

  FROM Metric SELECT latest(node_filesystem_free_bytes) / latest(node_filesystem_size_bytes) 
  WHERE instance = 'foo' AND fstype IN ('ext4', 'xfs')

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