Java agent v8.21.0

New features and improvements

• Enhances visibility into Reactor Mono.flatMap calls 2308
• Adds new instrumentation for Spring-Kafka and distributed tracing when using the core Kafka client library 2312
• Adds a new Kafka instrumentation module named kafka-clients-spans-consumer-0.11.0.0 that accepts distributed trace headers for consumers 2283
• Adds KafkaConsumerConfig event support for Kafka 3.7+ 2358

Fixes

• Fixes the distributed_tracing.sampler config 2330
• Fixes an Illegal Access Error that can occur when using Scala 2.12 and JDK 11. In cases where Scala 2.12 is not detectable by the agent (we check the system classloader for this - notably, sbt will load Scala classes into custom Scala loaders), there is also a feature flag to manually enable the fix via system property -Dnewrelic.config.class_transformer.illegal_access_fix=true 2334
• Fixes a logic error with the netty.http2.frame_read_listener.start_transaction configuration for the netty-4.1.16 instrumentation module. This error caused ‘unknown’ transactions to pop again in certain applications. 2355
• Adds a restriction on when to add distributed trace headers for SQS messages. This is based on how large the contents of a message is in bytes and the and the size of attributes. Messages with size greater than 251 KB and/or with 9 or more attributes are excluded from getting distributed trace headers added 2353
• Allows the org.crac JAR to be shadowed to prevent conflicts with customer environments. 2344
• Backports changes made in PR #1927 to prevent NullPointerExceptions to older versions of the vertx-core instrumentation 2327
• Prevents excessive transaction segments from being created by HttpUrlConnection method calls (e.g. getInputStream) when they are not associated with an external call. This behavior can be controlled by the following config options: NEW_RELIC_CLASS_TRANSFORMER_COM_NEWRELIC_INSTRUMENTATION_HTTPURLCONNECTION_VERBOSE=false, sys prop -Dnewrelic.config.class_transformer.com.newrelic.instrumentation.httpurlconnection.verbose=false, or equivalent stanza in newrelic.yml. Default setting is true (i.e. non-external getInputStream and other response handler methods will be reported as before). 2365

Security

• Upgrades the com.newrelic.agent.java:infinite-tracing-protobuf for better security with infinite tracing 2339
• Replaces snakeyaml with com.konloch:safeyaml to address a security vulnerability 2333

Deprecations

The following instrumentation modules are deprecated and will be removed in the next major release:

• aws-wrap-0.7.0
• java.completable-future-jdk8
• play-2.3
• netty-3.4
• Struts v1

IAST

CSEC Version Update to 1.7.0 2348
Changelog: https://github.com/newrelic/csec-java-agent/releases/tag/1.7.0

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.

Support statement:

• New Relic recommends that you upgrade the agent regularly to ensure that you're getting the latest features and performance benefits. Additionally, older releases will no longer be supported when they reach end-of-life.