Documentation

Create a database

Use the influxctl database create command to create a database in your InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated cluster.

  1. If you haven’t already, download and install the influxctl CLI.

  2. Run the influxctl database create command and provide the following:

influxctl database create --retention-period 30d <DATABASE_NAME>

Retention periods cannot be updated

Retention periods cannot be changed after a database is created. To move to a different retention period, create a new database with the retention period you want and migrate existing data to the new database.

Retention period syntax

Use the --retention-period flag to define a specific retention period for the database. The retention period value is a time duration value made up of a numeric value plus a duration unit. For example, 30d means 30 days. A zero duration retention period is infinite and data will not expire. The retention period value cannot be negative or contain whitespace.

Valid durations units include
  • m: minute
  • h: hour
  • d: day
  • w: week
  • mo: month
  • y: year
Example retention period values
  • 0d: infinite/none
  • 3d: 3 days
  • 6w: 6 weeks
  • 1mo: 1 month (30 days)
  • 1y: 1 year
  • 30d30d: 60 days
  • 2.5d: 60 hours

Database naming restrictions

Database names must adhere to the following naming restrictions:

  • Must contain two or more characters
  • Cannot start with an underscore (_)
  • Cannot contain whitespace characters, double quotes ("), or percent signs (%)

InfluxQL DBRP naming convention

In InfluxDB 1.x, data is stored in databases and retention policies. In InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated, databases and retention policies have been merged into databases, where databases have a retention period, but retention policies are no longer part of the data model. Because InfluxQL uses the 1.x data model, a database must be mapped to a v1 database and retention policy (DBRP) to be queryable with InfluxQL.

When naming a database that you want to query with InfluxQL, use the following naming convention to automatically map v1 DBRP combinations to a database:

database_name/retention_policy_name
Database naming examples
v1 Database namev1 Retention Policy nameNew database name
dbrpdb/rp
telegrafautogentelegraf/autogen
webmetrics1w-downsampledwebmetrics/1w-downsampled

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Introducing InfluxDB 3.0

The new core of InfluxDB built with Rust and Apache Arrow. Available today in InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated.

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