Documentation

Install InfluxDB

The InfluxDB v2 time series platform is purpose-built to collect, store, process and visualize metrics and events. Download, install, and set up InfluxDB OSS.

Install InfluxDB v2

Do one of the following:

InfluxDB and the influx CLI are separate packages

The InfluxDB server (influxd) and the influx CLI are packaged and versioned separately. For information about installing the influx CLI, see Install and use the influx CLI.

Use Homebrew

We recommend using Homebrew to install InfluxDB v2 on macOS:

brew update
brew install influxdb

Homebrew also installs influxdb-cli as a dependency. For information about using the influx CLI, see the influx CLI reference documentation.

Manually download and install

To download the InfluxDB v2 binaries for macOS directly, do the following:

  1. Download the InfluxDB package.

    InfluxDB v2 (macOS)

  2. Unpackage the InfluxDB binary.

    Do one of the following:

    • Double-click the downloaded package file in Finder.
    • Run the following command in a macOS command prompt application such Terminal or iTerm2:
    # Unpackage contents to the current working directory
    tar zxvf ~/Downloads/influxdb2-2.7.1-darwin-amd64.tar.gz
    
  3. (Optional) Place the binary in your $PATH

    # (Optional) Copy the influxd binary to your $PATH
    sudo cp influxdb2-2.7.1-darwin-amd64/influxd /usr/local/bin/
    

    If you do not move the influxd binary into your $PATH, prefix the executable ./ to run it in place.

Recommended – Set appropriate directory permissions

Recommended – Verify the authenticity of downloaded binary

Both InfluxDB 1.x and 2.x have associated influxd and influx binaries. If InfluxDB 1.x binaries are already in your $PATH, run the v2 binaries in place or rename them before putting them in your $PATH. If you rename the binaries, all references to influxd and influx in this documentation refer to your renamed binaries.

Networking ports

By default, InfluxDB uses TCP port 8086 for client-server communication over the InfluxDB HTTP API.

Start and configure InfluxDB

To start InfluxDB, run the influxd daemon:

influxd

Run InfluxDB on macOS Catalina

macOS Catalina requires downloaded binaries to be signed by registered Apple developers. Currently, when you first attempt to run influxd, macOS will prevent it from running. To manually authorize the influxd binary:

  1. Attempt to run influxd.
  2. Open System Preferences and click Security & Privacy.
  3. Under the General tab, there is a message about influxd being blocked. Click Open Anyway.

We are in the process of updating our build process to ensure released binaries are signed by InfluxData.

“too many open files” errors

After running influxd, you might see an error in the log output like the following:

too many open files

To resolve this error, follow the recommended steps to increase file and process limits for your operating system version then restart influxd.

To configure InfluxDB, see InfluxDB configuration options, and the influxd documentation for information about available flags and options._

InfluxDB “phone home”

By default, InfluxDB sends telemetry data back to InfluxData. The InfluxData telemetry page provides information about what data is collected and how it is used.

To opt-out of sending telemetry data back to InfluxData, include the --reporting-disabled flag when starting influxd.

influxd --reporting-disabled

Download and install InfluxDB v2

Do one of the following:

InfluxDB and the influx CLI are separate packages

The InfluxDB server (influxd) and the influx CLI are packaged and versioned separately. For information about installing the influx CLI, see Install and use the influx CLI.

Install InfluxDB as a service with systemd

  1. Download and install the appropriate .deb or .rpm file using a URL from the InfluxData downloads page with the following commands:

    # Ubuntu/Debian AMD64
    wget https://dl.influxdata.com/influxdb/releases/influxdb2-2.7.1-amd64.deb
    sudo dpkg -i influxdb2-2.7.1-amd64.deb
    
    # Ubuntu/Debian ARM64
    wget https://dl.influxdata.com/influxdb/releases/influxdb2-2.7.1-arm64.deb
    sudo dpkg -i influxdb2-2.7.1-arm64.deb
    
    # Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora x86-64 (x64, AMD64)
    wget https://dl.influxdata.com/influxdb/releases/influxdb2-2.7.1.x86_64.rpm
    sudo yum localinstall influxdb2-2.7.1.x86_64.rpm
    
    # Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora AArch64 (ARMv8-A)
    wget https://dl.influxdata.com/influxdb/releases/influxdb2-2.7.1.aarch64.rpm
    sudo yum localinstall influxdb2-2.7.1.aarch64.rpm
    
  2. Start the InfluxDB service:

    sudo service influxdb start
    

    Installing the InfluxDB package creates a service file at /lib/systemd/system/influxdb.service to start InfluxDB as a background service on startup.

  3. Restart your system and verify that the service is running correctly:

    $  sudo service influxdb status
    ● influxdb.service - InfluxDB is an open-source, distributed, time series database
      Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/influxdb.service; enabled; vendor preset: enable>
      Active: active (running)
    

For information about where InfluxDB stores data on disk when running as a service, see File system layout.

To customize your InfluxDB configuration, use either command line flags (arguments), environment variables, or an InfluxDB configuration file. See InfluxDB configuration options for more information.

Pass arguments to systemd

  1. Add one or more lines like the following containing arguments for influxd to /etc/default/influxdb2:

    ARG1="--http-bind-address :8087"
    ARG2="<another argument here>"
    
  2. Edit the /lib/systemd/system/influxdb.service file as follows:

    ExecStart=/usr/bin/influxd $ARG1 $ARG2
    

Manually download and install the influxd binary

  1. Download the InfluxDB binary.

    Download the InfluxDB binary from your browser or from the command line.

    Download from your browser

    InfluxDB v2 (amd64) InfluxDB v2 (arm)

    Download from the command line

    # amd64
    wget https://dl.influxdata.com/influxdb/releases/influxdb2-2.7.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz
    
    # arm
    wget https://dl.influxdata.com/influxdb/releases/influxdb2-2.7.1-linux-arm64.tar.gz
    
  2. Extract the downloaded binary.

    Note: The following commands are examples. Adjust the filenames, paths, and utilities if necessary.

    # amd64
    tar xvzf path/to/influxdb2-2.7.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz
    
    # arm
    tar xvzf path/to/influxdb2-2.7.1-linux-arm64.tar.gz
    
  3. (Optional) Place the extracted influxd executable binary in your system $PATH.

    # amd64
    sudo cp influxdb2-2.7.1-linux-amd64/influxd /usr/local/bin/
    
    # arm
    sudo cp influxdb2-2.7.1-linux-arm64/influxd /usr/local/bin/
    

    If you do not move the influxd binary into your $PATH, prefix the executable ./ to run it in place.

Recommended – Set appropriate directory permissions

Recommended – Verify the authenticity of downloaded binary

Start InfluxDB

If InfluxDB was installed as a systemd service, systemd manages the influxd daemon and no further action is required. If the binary was manually downloaded and added to the system $PATH, start the influxd daemon with the following command:

influxd

See the influxd documentation for information about available flags and options.

Networking ports

By default, InfluxDB uses TCP port 8086 for client-server communication over the InfluxDB HTTP API.

InfluxDB “phone home”

By default, InfluxDB sends telemetry data back to InfluxData. The InfluxData telemetry page provides information about what data is collected and how it is used.

To opt-out of sending telemetry data back to InfluxData, include the --reporting-disabled flag when starting influxd.

influxd --reporting-disabled

System requirements

Command line examples

Use Powershell or WSL to execute influx and influxd commands. The command line examples in this documentation use influx and influxd as if installed on the system PATH. If these binaries are not installed on your PATH, replace influx and influxd in the provided examples with ./influx and ./influxd respectively.

Download and install InfluxDB v2

InfluxDB and the influx CLI are separate packages

The InfluxDB server (influxd) and the influx CLI are packaged and versioned separately. For information about installing the influx CLI, see Install and use the influx CLI.

InfluxDB v2 (Windows)

Expand the downloaded archive into C:\Program Files\InfluxData\ and rename the files if desired.

> Expand-Archive .\influxdb2-2.7.1-windows-amd64.zip -DestinationPath 'C:\Program Files\InfluxData\'
> mv 'C:\Program Files\InfluxData\influxdb2-2.7.1-windows-amd64' 'C:\Program Files\InfluxData\influxdb'

Recommended – Set appropriate directory permissions

Networking ports

By default, InfluxDB uses TCP port 8086 for client-server communication over the InfluxDB HTTP API.

Start InfluxDB

In Powershell, navigate into C:\Program Files\InfluxData\influxdb and start InfluxDB by running the influxd daemon:

> cd -Path 'C:\Program Files\InfluxData\influxdb'
> ./influxd

See the influxd documentation for information about available flags and options.

Grant network access

When starting InfluxDB for the first time, Windows Defender will appear with the following message:

Windows Defender Firewall has blocked some features of this app.

  1. Select Private networks, such as my home or work network.
  2. Click Allow access.

InfluxDB “phone home”

By default, InfluxDB sends telemetry data back to InfluxData. The InfluxData telemetry page provides information about what data is collected and how it is used.

To opt-out of sending telemetry data back to InfluxData, include the --reporting-disabled flag when starting influxd.

./influxd --reporting-disabled

Download and run InfluxDB v2

Use docker run to download and run the InfluxDB v2 Docker image. Expose port 8086, which InfluxDB uses for client-server communication over the InfluxDB HTTP API.

docker run --name influxdb -p 8086:8086 influxdb:2.7.1

To run InfluxDB in detached mode, include the -d flag in the docker run command.

Persist data outside the InfluxDB container

  1. Create a new directory to store your data in and navigate into the directory.

    mkdir path/to/influxdb-docker-data-volume && cd $_
    
  2. From within your new directory, run the InfluxDB Docker container with the --volume flag to persist data from /var/lib/influxdb2 inside the container to the current working directory in the host file system.

    docker run \
        --name influxdb \
        -p 8086:8086 \
        --volume $PWD:/var/lib/influxdb2 \
        influxdb:2.7.1
    

Configure InfluxDB with Docker

To mount an InfluxDB configuration file and use it from within Docker:

  1. Persist data outside the InfluxDB container.

  2. Use the command below to generate the default configuration file on the host file system:

    docker run \
      --rm influxdb:2.7.1 \
      influx server-config > config.yml
    
  3. Modify the default configuration, which will now be available under $PWD.

  4. Start the InfluxDB container:

    docker run -p 8086:8086 \
      -v $PWD/config.yml:/etc/influxdb2/config.yml \
      influxdb:2.7.1
    

(Find more about configuring InfluxDB here.)

Open a shell in the InfluxDB container

To use the influx command line interface, open a shell in the influxdb Docker container:

docker exec -it influxdb /bin/bash

InfluxDB “phone home”

By default, InfluxDB sends telemetry data back to InfluxData. The InfluxData telemetry page provides information about what data is collected and how it is used.

To opt-out of sending telemetry data back to InfluxData, include the --reporting-disabled flag when starting the InfluxDB container.

docker run -p 8086:8086 influxdb:2.7.1 --reporting-disabled

Install InfluxDB in a Kubernetes cluster

The instructions below use minikube or kind, but the steps should be similar in any Kubernetes cluster. InfluxData also makes Helm charts available.

  1. Install minikube or kind.

  2. Start a local cluster:

    # with minikube
    minikube start
    
    # with kind
    kind create cluster
    
  3. Apply the sample InfluxDB configuration by running:

    kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/influxdata/docs-v2/master/static/downloads/influxdb-k8-minikube.yaml
    

    This creates an influxdb Namespace, Service, and StatefulSet. A PersistentVolumeClaim is also created to store data written to InfluxDB.

    Important: Always inspect YAML manifests before running kubectl apply -f <url>!

  4. Ensure the Pod is running:

    kubectl get pods -n influxdb
    
  5. Ensure the Service is available:

    kubectl describe service -n influxdb influxdb
    

    You should see an IP address after Endpoints in the command’s output.

  6. Forward port 8086 from inside the cluster to localhost:

    kubectl port-forward -n influxdb service/influxdb 8086:8086
    

Install InfluxDB v2 on Raspberry Pi

Requirements

To run InfluxDB on Raspberry Pi, you need:

  • a Raspberry Pi 4+ or 400
  • a 64-bit operating system. We recommend installing a 64-bit version of Ubuntu of Ubuntu Desktop or Ubuntu Server compatible with 64-bit Raspberry Pi.

Install Linux binaries

Follow the Linux installation instructions to install InfluxDB on a Raspberry Pi.

Monitor your Raspberry Pi

Use the InfluxDB Raspberry Pi template to easily configure collecting and visualizing system metrics for the Raspberry Pi.

Monitor 32-bit Raspberry Pi systems

If you have a 32-bit Raspberry Pi, use Telegraf to collect and send data to:

  • InfluxDB OSS, running on a 64-bit system
  • InfluxDB Cloud with a Free Tier account
  • InfluxDB Cloud with a paid Usage-Based account with relaxed resource restrictions.

Download and install the influx CLI

The influx CLI lets you manage InfluxDB from your command line.

Download and install the influx CLI

Set up InfluxDB

The initial setup process for an InfluxDB instance creates the following:

  • An organization with the name you provide.
  • A primary bucket with the name you provide.
  • An admin authorization with the following properties:
    • The username and password that you provide.
    • An API token (operator token).
    • Read-write permissions for all resources in the InfluxDB instance.

To run an interactive setup that prompts you for the required information, use the InfluxDB user interface (UI) or the influx command line interface (CLI).

To automate the setup–for example, with a script that you write– use the influx command line interface (CLI) or the InfluxDB /api/v2 API.

Set up InfluxDB through the UI

  1. With InfluxDB running, visit http://localhost:8086.
  2. Click Get Started

Set up your initial user

  1. Enter a Username for your initial user.
  2. Enter a Password and Confirm Password for your user.
  3. Enter your initial Organization Name.
  4. Enter your initial Bucket Name.
  5. Click Continue.
  6. Copy the provided operator API token and store it for safe keeping.

We recommend using a password manager or a secret store to securely store sensitive tokens.

Your InfluxDB instance is now initialized.

(Optional) Set up and use the influx CLI

To avoid having to pass your InfluxDB API token with each influx command, set up a configuration profile to store your credentials–for example, enter the following code in your terminal:

# Set up a configuration profile
influx config create \
  --config-name default \
  --host-url http://localhost:8086 \
  --org INFLUX_ORG \
  --token INFLUX_API_TOKEN \
  --active

Replace the following:

This configures a new profile named default and makes the profile active so your influx CLI commands run against the specified InfluxDB instance. For more detail about configuration profiles, see influx config.

Once you have the default configuration profile, you’re ready to create All-Access tokens or get started collecting and writing data.

Set up InfluxDB through the influx CLI

Use the influx setup CLI command in interactive or non-interactive (headless) mode to initialize your InfluxDB instance.

Do one of the following:

Run influx setup without user interaction

To run the InfluxDB setup process with your automation scripts, pass flags with the required information to the influx setup command. Pass the -f, --force flag to bypass screen prompts.

The following example command shows how to set up InfluxDB in non-interactive mode with an initial admin user, operator token, and bucket:

influx setup \
  --username USERNAME \
  --password PASSWORD \
  --token TOKEN \
  --org ORGANIZATION_NAME \
  --bucket BUCKET_NAME \
  --force

The command outputs the following:

User        Organization         Bucket
USERNAME    ORGANIZATION_NAME    BUCKET_NAME

If you run influx setup without the -t, --token flag, InfluxDB automatically generates an operator API token and stores it in an influx CLI connection configuration.

Once setup completes, InfluxDB is initialized with an operator token, user, organization, and bucket.

InfluxDB creates a default configuration profile for you that provides your InfluxDB URL, organization, and API token to influx CLI commands. For more detail about configuration profiles, see influx config.

Once you have the default configuration profile, you’re ready to create All-Access tokens or get started collecting and writing data.

Run influx setup with user prompts

To run setup with prompts for the required information, enter the following command in your terminal:

influx setup

Complete the following steps as prompted by the CLI:

  1. Enter a primary username.
  2. Enter a password for your user.
  3. Confirm your password by entering it again.
  4. Enter a name for your primary organization.
  5. Enter a name for your primary bucket.
  6. Enter a retention period for your primary bucket—valid units are nanoseconds (ns), microseconds (us or µs), milliseconds (ms), seconds (s), minutes (m), hours (h), days (d), and weeks (w). Enter nothing for an infinite retention period.
  7. Confirm the details for your primary user, organization, and bucket.

Once setup completes, InfluxDB is initialized with the user, organization, bucket, and operator token.

InfluxDB creates a default configuration profile for you that provides your InfluxDB URL, organization, and API token to influx CLI commands. For more detail about configuration profiles, see influx config.

Once you have the default configuration profile, you’re ready to create All-Access tokens or get started collecting and writing data.

Create All-Access tokens

Because Operator tokens have full read and write access to all organizations in the database, we recommend creating an All-Access token for each organization and using those tokens to manage InfluxDB.


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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.