Install and run InfluxDB using Docker

Install and run InfluxDB OSS v1.x using Docker containers. This guide covers Docker installation, configuration, and initialization options.

• Install and run InfluxDB
  • Pull the InfluxDB v1.x image
  • Start InfluxDB
• Configure InfluxDB
  • Using environment variables
  • Using a configuration file
• Initialize InfluxDB
  • Automatic initialization (for development)
  • Custom initialization scripts
• Access the InfluxDB CLI
• Next steps

Install and run InfluxDB

Pull the InfluxDB v1.x image

docker pull influxdb:1.12.2

Volume permissions

Set the correct ownership before starting the container:

Create the data directory

mkdir -p data

Set ownership to UID/GID 1500

sudo chown -R 1500:1500 data

Start InfluxDB

docker run -p 8086:8086 \
  -v $PWD/data:/var/lib/influxdb \
  influxdb:1.12.2

docker run -p 8086:8086 \
    -v $PWD/data-test2:/var/lib/influxdb:delegated \
    influxdb:1.12.2

docker run -d --name influxdb \
    -p 8086:8086 \
    -v influxdb-data:/var/lib/influxdb \
    influxdb:1.12.2

InfluxDB is now running and available at http://localhost:8086.

Configure InfluxDB

Using environment variables

Configure InfluxDB settings using environment variables:

docker run -p 8086:8086 \
  -v $PWD/data:/var/lib/influxdb \
  -e INFLUXDB_REPORTING_DISABLED=true \
  -e INFLUXDB_HTTP_AUTH_ENABLED=true \
  -e INFLUXDB_HTTP_LOG_ENABLED=true \
  influxdb:1.12.2

Using a configuration file

Generate a default configuration file:

docker run --rm influxdb:1.12.2 influxd config > influxdb.conf

Start InfluxDB with your custom configuration:

docker run -p 8086:8086 \
  -v $PWD/influxdb.conf:/etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf:ro \
  -v $PWD/data:/var/lib/influxdb \
  influxdb:1.12.2

Initialize InfluxDB

Automatic initialization (for development)

Automatically create a database and admin user on first startup:

docker run -p 8086:8086 \
  -v $PWD/data:/var/lib/influxdb \
  -e INFLUXDB_DB=mydb \
  -e INFLUXDB_HTTP_AUTH_ENABLED=true \
  -e INFLUXDB_ADMIN_USER=admin \
  -e INFLUXDB_ADMIN_PASSWORD=supersecretpassword \
  influxdb:1.12.2

Environment variables for user creation:

• INFLUXDB_USER: Create a user with no privileges
• INFLUXDB_USER_PASSWORD: Password for the user
• INFLUXDB_READ_USER: Create a user who can read from INFLUXDB_DB
• INFLUXDB_READ_USER_PASSWORD: Password for the read user
• INFLUXDB_WRITE_USER: Create a user who can write to INFLUXDB_DB
• INFLUXDB_WRITE_USER_PASSWORD: Password for the write user

Custom initialization scripts

InfluxDB v1.x Docker containers support custom initialization scripts for testing scenarios:

Create an initialization script (init-scripts/setup.iql):

CREATE DATABASE sensors;
CREATE DATABASE logs;

CREATE USER "telegraf" WITH PASSWORD 'secret123';
GRANT WRITE ON "sensors" TO "telegraf";

CREATE USER "grafana" WITH PASSWORD 'secret456';
GRANT READ ON "sensors" TO "grafana";
GRANT READ ON "logs" TO "grafana";

CREATE RETENTION POLICY "one_week" ON "sensors" DURATION 1w REPLICATION 1 DEFAULT;

Run with initialization scripts:

docker run -p 8086:8086 \
  -v $PWD/data:/var/lib/influxdb \
  -v $PWD/init-scripts:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d \
  influxdb:1.12.2

Supported script types:

• Shell scripts (.sh)
• InfluxDB query language files (.iql)

Access the InfluxDB CLI

To access the InfluxDB command line interface from within the Docker container:

docker exec -it <container-name> influx

Replace <container-name> with your InfluxDB container name or ID.

Next steps

Once you have InfluxDB running in Docker, see the Get started guide to:

• Create databases
• Write and query data
• Learn InfluxQL basics