Solarwinds-apm NPM

SolarWinds APM

The solarwinds-apm module provides SolarWinds instrumentation for Node.js.

It supports most commonly used databases, frameworks, and packages automatically. An API allows anything to be instrumented.

An SolarWinds account is required to view metrics. Accounts are free for development and testing use. For production usage a free trial is a great way to start.

Dependencies

This is a Linux Only package with no Mac or Windows support. When installed on Mac or Windows (for development) it will degrade gracefully.

It is compatible with Node versions 14, 16 and 18. See node status for more.

It is dependent on solarwinds-apm-bindings binary add-on. The SolarWinds APM Agent will first attempt to install a prebuilt binary add-on using node-pre-gyp and only if that fails, will it attempt to build the add-on from source using node-gyp.

Building with node-gyp (via node-pre-gyp) requires:

Python (2 or 3 depending on version of npm)
make
A proper C/C++ compiler toolchain, like GCC

Installation

The solarwinds-apm module is available on npm and can be installed by navigating to your app root and running:

npm install --save solarwinds-apm

The agent requires a service key, obtained from the SolarWinds dashboard under "Organization Details", to connect to your account. This is set via the SW_APM_SERVICE_KEY environment variable, make sure it is available in the environment where your application is running:

export SW_APM_SERVICE_KEY="api-token-here:your-service-name"

Then, at the top of your main js file for your app, add this:

require('solarwinds-apm')

Now restart your app and you should see data in your SolarWinds dashboard in a minute or two.

Important!

solarwinds-apm should be the first file required. If, for example, you are using the esm package to enable ES module syntax (import rather than require) and you use the following command to invoke your program node -r esm index.js then esm.js is loaded first and solarwinds-apm is unable to instrument modules. You can use it, just make sure to require solarwinds-apm first, e.g., node -r solarwinds-apm -r esm index.js.

If you are using the custom instrumentation SDK then SolarWinds APM must be loaded in the code so that a reference to the SDK is obtained, like const ao = require('solarwinds-apm'). It is still be possible to use the command line node -r solarwinds-apm -r esm index.js; the require in the code will just get a reference to the results of the command line require.

Configuration

See the Configuration Guide

Upgrading

To upgrade an existing installation, navigate to your app root and run:

npm install --save solarwinds-apm@latest

Support

If you find a bug or would like to request an enhancement, feel free to file an issue. For all other support requests, please email technicalsupport@solarwinds.com.