Terraform-provider-newrelic: newrelic_alert_condition.entities cannot be populated by data.newrelic_entity.guid

[apottere]

Terraform Version

Terraform v0.12.28
Provider version 2.1.2

Affected Resource(s)

• newrelic_alert_condition
• data.newrelic_entity

Terraform Configuration Files

data "newrelic_entity" "app" {
  name = var.newrelic-app-name
  domain = "APM"
  type = "APPLICATION"
}

output "newrelic-app-id" {
  value = data.newrelic_entity.app.guid
}

resource "newrelic_alert_condition" "apdex-low" {
  ...
  entities        = [module.alerts.newrelic-app-id]
  ...
}

Expected Behavior

Since the newrelic_application data source is deprecated, and the docs say that newrelic_entity is the replacement, I would expect to be able to create an alert condition based off the output of the newrelic_entity data source.

Actual Behavior

Where data.newrelic_application.id is a number, data.newrelic_entity.guid is a string. That causes the following error:

Error: Incorrect attribute value type

  on newrelic.tf line 7, in resource "newrelic_alert_condition" "apdex-low":
   7:   entities        = [module.alerts.newrelic-app-id]
    |----------------
    | module.alerts.newrelic-app-id is "MTU2[...]"

Inappropriate value for attribute "entities": a number is required.

[ctrombley]

Hi @apottere!

The guidance from the Alerts team here at New Relic is to make use of NRQL alert conditions instead of classic APM conditions moving forward. The (string-typed) ID space for entities is distinct from the legacy (int-typed) ID space used by applications, so you won't be able to target applications via entity GUIDs using the newrelic_application data source. The term entity has been overloaded here so I can appreciate how this has caused some confusion.

The entity_guid attribute in the Transaction event type can be used in your NRQL query to target a specific application that has been referenced by the newrelic_entity data source. Here's an example:

SELECT apdex(duration) from Transaction where entityGuid = 'MjUwODI1OXxBUE18QVBQTElDQVRJT058MjA0MjYxMzY4'

Please give it a try and let us know if you have any other questions.

[apottere]

We can certainly make those changes, but it would be good to deprecate newrelic_alert_condition as well if people should be moving away from it.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had any recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs.

[zlesnr]

Good point @apottere, I've put up https://github.com/newrelic/terraform-provider-newrelic/pull/910 to deprecate the newrelic_alert_condition resource. How is the migration to the newrelic_nrql_alert_condition going?

[apottere]

We haven't tried migrating over yet, right now we're pinning the provider version and using newrelic_alert_condition with the deprecated newrelic_entity. I don't suspect we'll have any issues switching over to NRQL alerts when we get the bandwidth though. Thanks for creating #910!