Monitoring Apache Solr

Instana Solr Monitoring includes metrics such as performance, caching and configuration. The Instana agent automatically finds Apache Solr, installs the Solr Monitoring sensor, and sets up sensors for the Java Management Extensions (JVM) and the running process.

Supported Versions

Currently, the supported versions are Apache Solr 4.0 or later.

Configuration

To collect data, the JMX module must be enabled in Solr. To enable the JMX module:

  • Add <jmx /> to <SOLR_HOME>/server/solr/configsets/basic_configs/conf/solrconfig.xml.
  • Set ENABLE_REMOTE_JMX_OPTS="true" in <SOLR_HOME>/bin/solr.in.sh.

Metrics collection

The Apache Solr sensor monitors the Apache Solr instance and collects the following metrics from it:

To view the metrics, complete the following steps:

  1. Select Infrastructure in the sidebar of the Instana UI.
  2. Click a specific monitoring host.

You can see the host dashboard with all the collected metrics and monitored processes.

Configuration data

The Apache Solr sensor collects the following configuration data from the Apache Solr instance:

  • Port
  • Version
  • Cores
    • Name
    • Version
    • Start Time

Performance Metrics (per core)

Instana tracks the metrics and health signatures of Solr with 1-second granularity, raising an Event within 3 seconds for any performance anomalies.

The Apache Solr sensor collects the following performance metrics from the Apache Solr instance:

Metric Description
Average request time Average time for request processing
Requests Number of requests
Cache Lookups Number of cache lookups
Cache Hit Rate Cache hit percentage
Inserts Number of inserts
Evictions Number of evictions
Errors Number of server errors
Timeouts Number of timeouts
Documents Added Number of added documents
Documents Pending Number of pending documents (to be processed)

To see these metrics, you must define your cores.

Health Signatures

Each Apache Solr has a curated knowledgebase of health signatures that are evaluated continuously against the incoming metrics. These health signatures are used to raise issues or incidents that depend on the user impact.

Built-in events trigger issues or incidents based on failing health signatures on entities, and custom events trigger issues or incidents based on the thresholds of an individual metric of any entity.

For information about built-events for Solr Node, see Built-in events reference.

Cloud

Tracked Configuration

Instana detects configuration changes, tacking them onto the real-time timeline. This feature enables users to see how changes to the configuration affect application performance.

The Apache Solr sensor tracks the following configurations:

  • Cluster name
  • Nodes or Number of nodes
  • Shards or Number of shards

Metrics

Metric Description
Average request time Average time for request processing
Requests Number of requests
Cache Lookups Number of cache lookups
Cache Hit Rate Cache hit percentage
Inserts Number of inserts
Evictions Number of evictions
Errors Number of server errors
Timeouts Number of timeouts
Documents Added Number of added documents
Documents Pending Number of pending documents (to be processed)

Health Signatures

For information about built-events for Solr Cloud, see the Built-in events reference.