Configure Observability

Much of the configuration happens in your observability service of choice. We'd love to help, but keeping tabs on all those external services is like herding cats. But don't sweat it, we've got your back for the Rock side of things. And on the New Relic side of things, you’ll find it’s pretty easy. Just go to newrelic.com and click the “Get Started Free” button.

Back in Rock, head over to Admin Tools > Settings > System Configuration. Look for the Observability section, nestled beneath UI Settings. This is where your Rock setup will take place. Ready to dive in and get things rolling?

System Configuration

  1. Enabled Features - Select which observability features to enable: Traces, Metrics, and/or Logs.
  2. Endpoint - Here you’ll enter the Endpoint provided by the service you’re using. If you’re in North America and using New Relic, the endpoint will be https://otlp.nr-data.net:443.
  3. Endpoint Protocol - Select the protocol that your provider says to use. If you’re using New Relic, select “Grpc”.
  4. Endpoint Headers - Insert a row with Key labeled as "api-key." As for the Value, that's where the actual API Key comes into play, something you'll acquire from the service you're partnering with. If you're following the New Relic route, they refer to it as a "license key." You can find the link to access it here under Step 1.
  5. Trace Level - The amount of trace data to send to the observability endpoint. Choose Minimal or Full.
  6. Span Count Limit - Some data collectors limit how many spans can be attached to a single trace. When a trace reaches this number, additional spans are truncated before sending. If left blank, Rock uses 9,900.
  7. Maximum Attribute Length - Some collectors drop spans with attributes that exceed a maximum length. Rock caps attribute values to this length. If left blank, Rock uses 4,000.
  8. Include Query Statements - When enabled, Rock includes all SQL query statements in database activities. When disabled, statements are only included for targeted queries.
  9. Targeted Queries - You can list queries to gather more data, including their origin (displayed as a full stack trace). You’ll need to enter the query’s hash, which you’ll find associated with the query in New Relic or other services. Displaying a stack trace will slow down performance slightly, so we recommend having Targeted Queries only temporarily while actively investigating a specific query. Targeted queries will display the parameter values within the statement. Exercise caution when enabling this option for queries containing personally identifiable information in the parameters.

And that’s it! Filling out this one panel is all you need to do to get connected and start sending telemetry data.

We should mention that there’s also an optional setting called "Observability Service Name" under "Web.Config Settings" in System Configuration. It's set as "rock-rms," but you can adjust it to differentiate between production and sandbox environments if necessary.

Service Name

Finally, there’s one last setting you might need to know about. Head over to Admin Tools > Settings > HTTP Modules. Now, don't stress, you usually won't have to tinker here. Just know it's a thing. Your job? Make sure the Observability item is Active, as pictured below. If it’s not, just click on the Observability row and set it to Active.

HTTP Modules