Documentation

Manage databases

An InfluxDB database is a named location where time series data is stored. Each InfluxDB database has a retention period.

If coming from InfluxDB v1, the concepts of databases and retention policies have been combined into a single concept–database. Retention policies are no longer part of the InfluxDB data model. However, InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated does support InfluxQL, which requires databases and retention policies. See InfluxQL DBRP naming convention.

If coming from InfluxDB v2 or InfluxDB Cloud, database and bucket are synonymous.

Retention periods

A database retention period is the maximum age of data stored in the database. The age of data is determined by the timestamp associated with each point. When a point’s timestamp is beyond the retention period (relative to now), the point is marked for deletion and is removed from the database the next time the retention enforcement service runs.

The minimum retention period for and InfluxDB database is 1 hour. The maximum retention period is infinite meaning data does not expire and will never be removed by the retention enforcement service.

Table and column limits

In InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated, table (measurement) and column limits can be customized when creating or updating a database.

Table limit

Default maximum number of tables: 500

Each measurement is represented by a table in a database. Your database’s table limit can be raised beyond the default limit of 500. InfluxData has production examples of clusters with 20,000+ active tables across multiple databases.

Increasing your table limit affects your InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated cluster in the following ways:

May improve query performance View more info

More PUTs into object storage View more info

More work for the compactor View more info

Column limit

Default maximum number of columns: 250

Time, fields, and tags are each represented by a column in a table. Increasing your column limit affects your InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated cluster in the following ways:

May adversely affect query performance


Was this page helpful?

Thank you for your feedback!


Introducing InfluxDB Clustered

A highly available InfluxDB 3.0 cluster on your own infrastructure.

InfluxDB Clustered is a highly available InfluxDB 3.0 cluster built for high write and query workloads on your own infrastructure.

InfluxDB Clustered is currently in limited availability and is only available to a limited group of InfluxData customers. If interested in being part of the limited access group, please contact the InfluxData Sales team.

Learn more
Contact InfluxData Sales

The future of Flux

Flux is going into maintenance mode. You can continue using it as you currently are without any changes to your code.

Flux is going into maintenance mode and will not be supported in InfluxDB 3.0. This was a decision based on the broad demand for SQL and the continued growth and adoption of InfluxQL. We are continuing to support Flux for users in 1.x and 2.x so you can continue using it with no changes to your code. If you are interested in transitioning to InfluxDB 3.0 and want to future-proof your code, we suggest using InfluxQL.

For information about the future of Flux, see the following:

State of the InfluxDB Cloud Serverless documentation

InfluxDB Cloud Serverless documentation is a work in progress.

The new documentation for InfluxDB Cloud Serverless is a work in progress. We are adding new information and content almost daily. Thank you for your patience!

If there is specific information you’re looking for, please submit a documentation issue.