Update the Java agent

To take full advantage of New Relic's latest features, enhancements, and important security patches, we recommend you update your Java agent to the latest version. For additional information about specific agent updates, refer to the Java agent release notes.

These update procedures describe how to replace some of the current contents of your agent root directory, which contains the New Relic Java agent (newrelic.jar), with newly downloaded contents from the New Relic UI.

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. Diff your current newrelic.yml with the newly downloaded newrelic.yml from the zip, and update customized differences as 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

If differences between the two versions are unrelated to your app's customizations, align the newrelic.yml you use moving forward with the latest updates to the default newrelic.yml from New Relic.

For example, if you diff the default newrelic.yml files for Java agent versions 3.29.0 and 3.30.0, the results printed to the console will be:

➜ diff newrelic_3.29.0.yml newrelic_3.30.0.yml
254a255,265
> # Classes loaded by classloaders in this list will not be instrumented.
> # This is a useful optimization for runtimes which use classloaders to
> # load dynamic classes which the agent would not instrument.
> classloader_excludes:
> groovy.lang.GroovyClassLoader$InnerLoader,
> org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.CallSiteClassLoader,
> com.collaxa.cube.engine.deployment.BPELClassLoader,
> org.springframework.data.convert.ClassGeneratingEntityInstantiator$ObjectInstantiatorClassGenerator,
> org.mvel2.optimizers.impl.asm.ASMAccessorOptimizer$ContextClassLoader,
> gw.internal.gosu.compiler.SingleServingGosuClassLoader,
>

These lines were added to the default newrelic.yml in Java agent version 3.30.0. If you want to run Java agent version 3.30.0 or higher, ensure you include these lines in your newrelic.yml.

Java agent versions not supported

End of life notification: As of January 26, 2015, New Relic will no longer accept data from Java agent versions earlier than 3.6.0, except version 2.21.7.

These agent versions use an out-of-date protocol when communicating with New Relic's data collection services. In addition, many of these versions contain a potential security issue where they may incorrectly send sensitive data to the New Relic collector.

Update unsupported agent versions