Install InfluxDB using Docker Compose

Use Docker Compose to install and set up InfluxDB v2, the time series platform is purpose-built to collect, store, process and visualize metrics and events.

When you use Docker Compose to create an InfluxDB container, you can use Compose secrets to control access to sensitive credentials such as username, password, and token and prevent leaking them in your docker inspect output.

The influxdb Docker image provides the following environment variables to use with Compose secrets:

• DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_USERNAME_FILE: the container’s path to the file that contains the username for your initial user.
• DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_PASSWORD_FILE: the container’s path to the file that contains the password for your initial user.
• DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_ADMIN_TOKEN_FILE: the container’s path to the file that contains a token to use for your initial Operator token. If you don’t specify an initial token, InfluxDB generates one for you.

Set up using Docker Compose secrets

Follow steps to set up and run InfluxDB using Docker Compose and secrets:

1. If you haven’t already, install Docker Desktop for your system.

2. Copy the following compose.yaml into your project directory.

   # compose.yaml
   services:
     influxdb2:
       image: influxdb:2
       ports:
         - 8086:8086
       environment:
         DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_MODE: setup
         DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_USERNAME_FILE: /run/secrets/influxdb2-admin-username
         DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/influxdb2-admin-password 
         DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_ADMIN_TOKEN_FILE: /run/secrets/influxdb2-admin-token
         DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_ORG: docs 
         DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_BUCKET: home
       secrets:
         - influxdb2-admin-username
         - influxdb2-admin-password
         - influxdb2-admin-token
       volumes:
         - type: volume
           source: influxdb2-data
           target: /var/lib/influxdb2
         - type: volume
           source: influxdb2-config
           target: /etc/influxdb2
   secrets:
     influxdb2-admin-username:
       file: ~/.env.influxdb2-admin-username
     influxdb2-admin-password:
       file: ~/.env.influxdb2-admin-password
     influxdb2-admin-token:
       file: ~/.env.influxdb2-admin-token
   volumes:
     influxdb2-data:
     influxdb2-config:
   

3. For each secret in compose.yaml, create a file that contains the secret value–for example:

   • ~/.env.influxdb2-admin-username:

     admin
     

   • ~/.env.influxdb2-admin-password:

     MyInitialAdminPassword
     

   • ~/.env.influxdb2-admin-token:

     MyInitialAdminToken0==
     

4. To set up and run InfluxDB, enter the following command in your terminal:

   docker compose up influxdb2
   

At runtime, the influxdb image:

1. Mounts secrets files from your host filesystem to /run/secrets/<SECRET_NAME> in the container.
2. Assigns the environment variables to the specified files–for example:

environment:
  DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_USERNAME_FILE: /run/secrets/influxdb2-admin-username
  DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/influxdb2-admin-password
  DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_ADMIN_TOKEN_FILE: /run/secrets/influxdb2-admin-token

3. Retrieves the secrets from the mounted files and runs setup.
4. Starts InfluxDB.
5. Runs any custom initialization scripts mounted inside the container’s /docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/ path.

If successful, InfluxDB initializes the user, password, organization, bucket, and Operator token, and then logs to stdout.

Although Docker prevents inadvertently exposing secrets (for example, in docker inspect output), a user that has access to the running container’s filesystem can view the secrets.

Run InfluxDB CLI commands in a container

After you start a container using the influxdb Docker Hub image, you can use docker exec with the influx and influxd CLIs inside the container.

Manage files in mounted volumes

To copy files, such as the InfluxDB server config.yml file, between your local file system and a volume, use the docker container cp command.

For more InfluxDB and Docker configuration options, see the influxdb Docker Hub image documentation.